The more I watch him the more I like him. You can’t go wrong with size, athleticism and shooting. No Amen please.
Cam would be a solid pick up. I can see 25 ppg in his future. If you're not going to take a swing at Thompson then I think Whitmore has to be the pick if you're still hunting for future star potential. Considering his age, I think he has as much if not more upside than Miller.
Alright so I tried to build up a list similar to what Spinella did, but I threw out some of the weird qualifiers: https://www.barttorvik.com/playerst...-11101&end=all0501&astSelect=-1&pickSelect=-1 For reference, this is basically guys with high usage, but not-so-great AST% numbers. There are some decent players there (better than I expected), though not sure many (if any) really became that great at passing/playmaking. Also some *huge* busts in that list too. You can probably throw in MPJ in that list. He gets excluded because he didn't play enough college games, but I'm guessing he might have ended up there if so. If we get to the finals, maybe we have to worry about this: But eh, that's probably something I'll worry about later.
I don't want 2 Jalens on the court at the same time. Both very athletic, not good passers and not so good decision makers. I'd rather get Miller or even Amen.
Nice work... One thing that's a bit troubling is when you factor in Cam's height, given that he's 6'7" in shoes if you're being generous. The only guys under 6'9" (NBA list height) who are/were starting-caliber on that list are TJ Warren, Harrison Barnes, and Kelly Oubre. I'll note that there are also no comparable guys who were ever star players on this list. The closest thing would maybe be Andre Drummond? But that doesn't work as a comp for obvious reasons.
Yeah, it kinda seems like...by definition almost...you can't really be a star player if you can't get your AST% up (excluding some big men, though even some/most of them are alright). I think guys like MPJ and Lauri might be the best that I could find, but not sure they're the type of foundation guy you want to build around. More worrying is I can't really find a ton of guys that managed to significantly improve their AST% in the NBA (assuming similar usage...maybe AST% per usage). There are guys like Jaylen Brown, but he had a pretty good AST% in college, and I think his initially low AST% might have been tied to his role (which did correlate to his lower usage...when his usage increased greatly, so did his AST%). But most of these low AST% guys...just stay low AST% guys throughout their career. Even guys that are pretty talented just seem to be stuck with these low rates...and sadly those seem to be the guys that feel kinda like busts (or at least guys who haven't maximized their talents). I mean like...almost all the names I can think of are on that list (or maybe *just* barely excluded with the AST% filter I used). As I've said a few times, I think Cam is talented enough to break through all of that, plus his injury and other scenarios going on at Villanova didn't help at all. It *does* kinda concern me that he shares a list with some of those names though. Of course, he shares other lists with guys that are amazing players, so maybe I'm just overreacting to this one metric. Fake Edit: Now that I'm looking at it, Mikal Bridges maybe sorta applies? He was better than Cam (~2x the AST% and above 10% with less usage also at Villanova), but he was at 12.8 AST% with 30 usage with BKN (and typically low numbers for his career, but also low usage). Maybe he'll be able to increase that with a training camp dedicated around him as the high usage guy too. His playoff numbers were quite a bit better (20% AST% on ~30 usage). Of course...I actually don't see him as good building block either (not as a primary guy anyway), so maybe that just confirms my theory on that stat.
I was watching certain someone’s highlights … Maybe early in the league Jim Jackson vibes I’m getting from this guy .
When I watch Cam film he reminds me of a bigger version of Ant-man Edwards. Of course not with as good a handle or outside shot yet and not having an oversize wingspan either but I see similarities in their body types and movements. My main wonder now though is if Harden is really just using us for leverage to get as large a contract as he can with the sixers would that then eliminate Cam from consideration at #4? I mean SOMEONE'S going to have to pass him the ball! He already doesn't always get separation via the dribble from his man in college and in the NBA will need to be spoon fed the ball on the move or off of screen/pick actions until he improves his handle and moves. People already make excuses for Jabari's low shooting percentages stemming from not getting set up correctly/enough by his teammates. And Cam is not only not a great separator yet but subpar at passing as well! I think that "no Harden" might greatly increase the chance of "no Whitmore" and also greatly increase the chance of of us taking an Amen or A.B. at #4 or after a slight trade down. We're gonna HAVE TO get passing from somewhere!
Playing against Lilliard and Kyrie is a lot more difficult than playing against 16 year olds who weren’t good enough to be a 12th man in college. Imagine Amen as a Jalen Green who shoots 20% high school threes and 55% free throws. Take 18 year old Cam with absolutely no regrets!
To be clear I just don’t want Thompson and Cam appears to be best, but would be open to others like Grady Dick (trade down).
