Did the Houston Rockets Win or Lose the Cam Whitmore Trade?

At the end of June, Michael Sotto of HoopsHype mentioned that the Rockets were receiving several calls about Whitmore, even attempting to add the 20-year-old to the Kevin Durant deal, but the Suns opted for more draft capital.

Houston Chronicle reporter Danielle Lerner recently reported that the Rockets would likely receive draft picks in return for Whitmore as their roster was already beginning to fill out ahead of next season.

"Whitmore’s situation is challenging because the former first-round pick still doesn’t have a clear path to significant playing time this season after averaging 17.4 minutes per game over the last two. Ideally, the Rockets would like to trade Whitmore to a team where he could play more and one that offers the best value return; because of the Rockets’ roster crunch, that would take the form of draft picks," said Lerner.

Houston fans did not seem to have a big issue with departing from Whitmore despite not seeing his full potential; the bigger issue seemed to come from the return, which was only two second-round picks.

If the Wizards happen to be a bottom-of-the-barrel team once again, then this potentially puts the draft picks inside the No. 30-39 range. However, nothing is guaranteed, and if the Wizards wind up having a decent season, then those picks can end up middle to late second-round picks, which usually do not wind up impacting an NBA team.

Several media outlets did report that Houston ultimately decided to trade Whitmore to a team where he could thrive immediately, despite the return being lower than expected.

While the trade now does not seem to be as big of a loss as it seems, if those second-round picks do not end up being in the high second-round range or Whitmore pans out to an NBA superstar that Houston did not capitalize on, then the Rockets could kick themselves in the leg; however, only time will tell.