How the Cam Whitmore trade fits into the Washington Wizards' long-term plan

New York Times

10 hours ago

WASHINGTON — Low risk. Potentially high reward.
That's an accurate way to describe a trade that the Washington Wizards agreed to on Saturday afternoon.
The Wizards will receive offensive-minded wing Cam Whitmore from the Houston Rockets for a pair of future second-round picks.
The move meshes with one of the goals that Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger and Wizards general manager Will Dawkins set when they were hired in 2023. They continue to prioritize adding talented young players and future draft picks, hoping that one or a few will develop into high-level pros.
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In 2023, many draft analysts projected Whitmore as a likely lottery pick until he fell to the Rockets at No. 20.
In his two NBA seasons with Houston, he struggled to earn consistent playing time as the Rockets made significant on-court strides under defensive-minded coach Ime Udoka, rising to a .500 record during Whitmore's rookie season and finishing second in the Western Conference's standings last season. Udoka built the Rockets into one of the league's best defenses, and Whitmore, who was mistake-prone and perhaps even uninterested at times on defense, was nowhere near as effective defensively as fellow wings Amen Thompson and Tari Eason. Meanwhile, Whitmore was not as efficient a scorer as Jalen Green, another teammate on the wing.
The Rockets attempted to harness Whitmore's talent on multiple occasions — sending him to the G League to aid his development and meeting with him periodically over his role — but his frustration with a lack of playing time never waned. Udoka, who had challenged Whitmore publicly and privately to adopt a more team-first approach on both ends, simply couldn't justify his place in the rotation ahead of other players.
From the Wizards' perspective, Whitmore remains an intriguing prospect. He's a skilled, physical player. Whitmore is still young (he'll turn 21 on Tuesday), and he and third-year wing Bilal Coulibaly arguably are the best pure athletes on Washington's roster.
The 2023 draft was the same draft in which Washington traded up one spot to select Coulibaly seventh. A team source said that Winger, Dawkins and Wizards senior vice president for player personnel Travis Schlenk thought highly enough of Whitmore that they attempted to make a draft-night trade to acquire another first-round pick that they would have used to select Whitmore before Houston snapped him up at No. 20.
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Now, nearly two years later, the Wizards finally have Whitmore — and have brought him aboard at a low cost. Washington will send Houston the Chicago Bulls' 2026 second-round pick and the Sacramento Kings' 2029 second-round pick, per team sources. In a move of salary-cap mechanics, Saturday afternoon's trade will be folded into the previously agreed-upon deal in which the Wizards sent Jordan Poole, Saddiq Bey and the 40th pick in this year's draft for wing CJ McCollum, big man Kelly Olynyk and a 2027 second-round pick from Chicago. A trade call with the league about the entire transaction could occur as early as Sunday.
Whitmore, who is 6-foot-7 and 230 pounds, can play shooting guard, small forward and, against many small-ball lineups, power forward.
The potential risk of this trade has less to do with the pair of outgoing second-round picks that the Wizards will send to the Rockets and more to do with playing time. Even before the trade to add Whitmore, Washington already had a roster disproportionately loaded with wings and combo forwards — most notably, Coulibaly, McCollum, Kyshawn George, Khris Middleton, Justin Champagnie, AJ Johnson and this year's first-round picks, Tre Johnson and Will Riley.
So, how will coach Brian Keefe allocate playing time?
The younger guys almost certainly will get their minutes, but even if Keefe deploys three-wing lineups that don't have a traditional power forward, it will be a difficult task to distribute the minutes equitably.
The trade is a homecoming for Whitmore. He graduated from Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Md., which is about 32 miles from the Wizards' Capital One Arena.
In the years ahead, Whitmore will receive every opportunity to make the Wizards his long-term NBA home.
(Top photo of Cam Whitmore and Max Christie: Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)