{"id":105746,"date":"2024-11-08T03:14:13","date_gmt":"2024-11-08T08:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=105746"},"modified":"2024-11-08T03:14:13","modified_gmt":"2024-11-08T08:14:13","slug":"whats-next-rockets-cam-whitmore-falling-out-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/08\/whats-next-rockets-cam-whitmore-falling-out-rotation\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Next For Rockets Draft Steal After Falling Out Of Rotation?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Though a younger team, the Houston Rockets have a relatively deep rotation. As a result, there were bound to be a couple of talented players getting fewer minutes than they wanted. With that being said, not many could have anticipated 2023 draft steal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitmca01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cam Whitmore<\/a> being sent to down to the G League less than 10 games into the season.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Rockets assign Cam Whitmore to RGV Vipers in the G League. Whitmore has been out of the rotation the past two games, playing last night when the benches were cleared.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Jonathan_Feigen\/status\/1854654649418289413?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 7, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>With Whitmore averaging 6.1 points (on 38.6 percent shooting from the field and 5.6 percent shooting from three) and 1.6 rebounds in 10.6 minutes per game in 2024-25, more people probably should\u2019ve seen it coming though. For reference, he averaged 12.3 points (on 45.4 percent shooting from the field and 35.9 percent shooting from three) and 3.8 rebounds in 18.7 minutes per game last season.<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s Next For Rockets Draft Steal Cam Whitmore After Falling Out Of Rotation?<\/h2>\n<p>The seeming regression from Whitmore\u2019s rookie to sophomore year could be overstated given that he\u2019s only played seven games.<\/p>\n<p>However, there does appear to be a correlation between his playing time and that of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/greenja05.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jalen Green<\/a>\u2019s. In a vacuum, this suggests that Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has been relying on Green more as the season goes on. Considering the way that Udoka used Whitmore in 2023-24, that connection makes even more sense. When Green was struggling last season, Udoka had no issues with quickly pivoting away from him.<\/p>\n<p>Whitmore was one of the players who was able to step up in those moments.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Cam Whitmore 2023-24 FULL Season Highlights | Houston Rockets\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7onsrruR2kM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>To be clear, Green hasn\u2019t been particularly efficient this season. He\u2019s shooting a career-low 39.7 percent from the field. Yet, he\u2019s knocked down a career-high 38.2 percent of his threes. He\u2019s playing with a better pace and making better decisions. His effort has improved across the board and so much so that he\u2019s consistently been a strong defender.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Udoka has less of a reason to pull Green out of the game than he did last year. At the same time, Whitmore\u2019s slip in his performance gives Udoka less of a reason to put him in the game. It\u2019s still surprising to see him fall completely out of the rotation.<\/p>\n<p>Udoka has been using a nine-man rotation, which means someone would\u2019ve felt like the odd man out regardless. Unfortunately for Whitmore, Green isn\u2019t his only competition for playing time.<\/p>\n<p>In the Rockets\u2019 last two contests, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sheppre01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reed Sheppard<\/a> has played 17.0 minutes per game while Whitmore was warming the bench. Prior to that, the 2024 No. 3 pick was averaging 8.4 minutes per game. Compared to the first five games, 2023 No. 3 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/thompam01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amen Thompson<\/a> and 2022 No. 17 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/e\/easonta01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tari Eason<\/a> have seen their playing time rise by +10.0 and +9.8 minutes per game, respectively, over the last three games.<\/p>\n<p>The advantages that all three of those players have over Whitmore are defense, which the Rockets pride themselves in under Udoka, and discipline.<\/p>\n<h3>Time To Look In The Mirror<\/h3>\n<p>Where does this leave Whitmore?<\/p>\n<p>The 20-year-old is clearly the odd man out right now, but that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s permanent. A stint with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers could help him <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/11\/07\/should-rockets-send-promising-player-to-the-g-league\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">regain his footing offensively<\/a>, taking a step towards stable minutes with the Rockets. Sheppard could hit the rookie wall. Green, Thompson, or Eason could go into a slump.<\/p>\n<p>However, his G League assignment highlights his need to make more of an impact in other areas of the game. Whitmore is a walking highlight, ready to put anyone on a poster when he gets a head of steam. That\u2019s not enough though. Like Green, he has to learn how to consistently <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/10\/31\/rockets-ime-udoka-commends-jalen-green-for-major-change\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">play a mature brand of basketball<\/a> and at both ends.<\/p>\n<p>The Maryland native has shown enough flashes to make a case that he can be that type of player. Nonetheless, if there was any time that he needed to look in the mirror, it\u2019s now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Though a younger team, the Houston Rockets have a relatively deep rotation. As a result, there were bound to be a couple of talented players getting fewer minutes than they wanted. With that being said, not many could have anticipated 2023 draft steal Cam Whitmore being sent to down to the G League less than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":105747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1608,62,556,3],"tags":[4703,4794,3821,3256,98,49134,4475],"class_list":["post-105746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rockets","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","tag-amen-thompson","tag-cam-whitmore","tag-ime-udoka","tag-jalen-green","tag-nba-draft","tag-reed-sheppard","tag-tari-eason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105746\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}