The Houston Rockets are trading Cam Whitmore to the Washington Wizards in exchange for two 2nd round picks the club announced on Saturday.
Whitmore, who is a Maryland native himself, returns home for a team that can give him all the minutes he can handle next season. Amongst players with at least 1,000 touches in 2024-25, the 6’7″ wing averaged 0.46 points per tough which ranked 4th best in the league.
Unfortunately for him, finding minutes last year was a challenge for Houston, as the 2nd year player averaged just 16.2 minutes per game. That was already down over two minutes per contest from his rookie season. And with the additions of Kevin Durant, Clint Capela, and Dorian Finney-Smith this offseason, it was growing increasingly unlikely that Whitmore would have a prominent role in the team’s rotation.
Still, the 20 year old managed to average 10.8pts/3.4reb/0.8ast per game, while shooting 35.7% from beyond the arc across 98 appearances for the Rockets.
On the other end of the spectrum, Washington has been busy retooling their roster this offseason as well, but figure to have an opening for Whitmore to see an increase in his usage this year. The Wizards have traded Jordan Poole and Sadiq Bey, while bringing in CJ McCollum, and Kelly Olynyk. They also added Texas guard Tre Johnson with the 5th overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft as well.
All in all the deal gives Houston some additional draft picks to play with as they look to continue adding to their roster, while it simultaneously gives Whitmore his first real shot at carving out a meaningful NBA role in his hometown.
According to reports, the Rockets had been working with Whitmore and his agents over the past few weeks in an effort to facilitate a deal.
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