Cam Whitmore tumbled roughly a dozen picks below his projected range on draft night, and now we have a better idea of why.
The ex-Villanova star Whitmore was the talk of Thursday’s NBA Draft for his unexpected slide down the board. Whitmore, a former five-star recruit who was the Big East Freshman of the Year last season, fell out of the lottery completely and wound up going No. 20 overall to the Houston Rockets.
A report this week by Sarah Todd of The Deseret News shed some light on Whitemore’s slide. Todd says she personally heard from executives on five NBA different teams who were concerned about what they called “character issues” on Whitemore’s part.
The report adds that there were specifically questions about Whitmore’s “motivation,” “level of care,” and “attitude.”
Previous reports had suggested that an undisclosed medical issue with Whitmore may have contributed to his skid. But Rockets general manager Rafael Stone shot that down when speaking with reporters this week, saying that teams had full access to Whitmore’s medicals in the pre-draft process.
Whitmore, a 6-foot-7 wing who averaged 12.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.4 steals a game at Villanova, is still only 18 years old. It is unusual to see that drastic of a slide from a prospect purely over work ethic concerns, especially since similar issues did not seem to affect another top prospect in the draft.
If Whitmore ends up panning out for them, the Rockets will have effectively landed two lottery picks in this year’s draft (along with their No. 4 overall selection Amen Thompson). If not though, you can’t really blame them for taking that swing all the way down at pick No. 20.
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