New context is emerging about Cam Whitmore’s underwhelming debut season for the Washington Wizards.
The 21-year-old forward Whitmore was a healthy scratch for Washington’s game over the weekend against the Atlanta Hawks. Though the 3-19 Wizards have all the reason in the world to focus on player development right now, it appears that Whitmore has quickly fallen out of favor with the team.
On Monday, veteran basketball writer Grant Afseth shared an unflattering report about Whitmore’s work ethic. Afseth writes that Whitmore has not consistently met the Wizards’ expectations when it comes to his day-to-day work and even cited a source who indicated that Whitmore has not been showing up to practice.
“If you’re trying to establish yourself in the NBA, you need to show up to practice,” the source was quoted as saying about Whitmore.
Whitmore, despite just turning 21 over the summer, is now in his third NBA season. He spent his first two seasons with the Houston Rockets and especially showed off his upside as a rookie, averaging 12.3 points and 3.8 rebounds in just 18.7 minutes per game for Houston.
But after Whitmore’s numbers dipped a bit as a sophomore, the Rockets gave up on him, trading Whitmore to the Wizards as part of a three-team transaction also involving the New Orleans Pelicans. This season in Washington, Whitmore has averaged 9.2 points and 2.8 rebounds in 16.9 minutes per game as part of a rebuilding team.
You might recall that Whitmore, a former standout for Villanova, slid all the way down to No. 20 in the 2023 NBA Draft. We heard at the time that some alleged character issues were behind Whitmore’s draft-day slide, and now this latest report about Whitmore’s work ethic would seem to back up those claims.
