Will the Lakers Regret Passing on Cam Whitmore? Why Didn’t They Draft Him?

Coming into the 2023 NBA Draft, only one thing was for certain, and that was the position of French Phenom Victor Wembanyama. Teams knew with absolute assurance that if they won the “Wemby Sweepstakes” they would draft him #1. But Wemby was not the only showstopper in his draft class.

What happened to the rest of them? More specifically, what happened to Cam Whitmore? Why did he drop so low in the Draft?

Who is Cam Whitmore?

Cameron Whitmore, more popularly known as Cam Whitmore, is a forward for the Houston Rockets. He was drafted #20 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft and joined a young Rockets core along with fellow first-round pick Amen Thompson. But that’s not all there is to his story.

While plying his trade for the Villanova Wildcats in college, Whitmore was rated a five-star recruit, and widely considered one of the best payers in his draft class. Simulated drafts and mock drafts drawn up by major sporting channels all had the 6’7 forward as a projected top 5 pick, with a few going on to suggest he may even break the top 3. Described as arguably the most NBA-ready big of his Draft Class with tremendous physicality and a great engine to match, Whitmore was one of the names apart from Wembanyama that was expected to be a top 3 pick.

SportingNews.com’s Kyle Irving, a Draft expert for the site, evaluated the Villanova forward’s game?and came to the conclusion that “Whitmore’s bullying physicality is his greatest strength and he will not be intimated or overpowered at the next level. Although his freshman season was delayed by thumb surgery and he didn’t consistently produce at the level that was expected upon his return, the flashes were bright enough to see his high ceiling of potential. He’s a force around the basket and dunks everything. The Big East Rookie of the Year projects at a minimum to be a high-level, tough-nosed versatile defender.”

With so much in his favor, how did the 19-year-old drop to 20th?

Whitmore’s unfortunate Draft slide

As mentioned earlier, a major part of Whitmore’s medical history included a thumb operation that kept him out for a large part of his Freshman Year. Coming back from a thumb surgery requires certain adjustments to one’s game, the primary of which involves the ability to handle, pass, and shoot the ball. In Whitmore’s case, these were valid concerns as the Wildcat averaged 19 assists and 42 turnovers in his lone season for his college team.

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With possession of the ball being paramount to the NBA’s style of play, that could have been one possible reason why Whitmore fell out of his projected top 5 bracket. Additionally, some teams believed that there were issues with Whitmore’s knees. While the issues may not have been glaring ones that needed handling right away, they were worried about how it would affect his ability to perform over a rookie scale contract.

While a player’s medical history plays a huge part in his draft selection, it’s his workouts and interviews with teams that tend to make or break a team’s decision. Teams not only use the workouts as a potential vision board to see how a prospect would fit in with their existing rosters, but they also serve as a better understanding of a player’s strengths and weaknesses. Interviews with the teams help them get a better grasp on a player’s mentality, character, and overall impact on the team’s chemistry and dynamics.

Everyone’s favorite NBA insider, Adrian Wojnarowski, seemed to think it was more the interviews and workouts that affected Whitmore’s overall pick as opposed to his injury history.

While the draft picks are, in no way, concrete ways to judge a player’s caliber, it is a point of pride for a player when he gets picked. Whitmore was pictured looking more and more dejected as teams passed him over for other options in the draft, and he will certainly remember both the teams that ignored him and the players that were chosen over him. As Draymond Green once said on the Podcast P show, these are little things that players do to keep themselves motivated for games.

What now for Cam Whitmore?

As is evident from the Rockets’ preseason games, Cam Whitmore may go down as the steal of the draft. Athletic, strong on the ball, and with a flair for show-stopping plays, Whitmore seems to have given the teams that passed on him something to regret. And armed with a bold proclamation during his post-draft interviews, Whitmore has already claimed that he wants his first official NBA poster dunk on either LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo.

With the Rockets already having traded for Dillon Brooks, a man who antagonized LeBron publicly last postseason, will the Lakers see their decision to pass on Whitmore come back to haunt them?

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And with a strong young core of Jalen Green, Amen Thompson, and Cam Whitmore, will the Rockets see a change in their playoff fortune that they haven’t had since James Harden’s departure?