Evaluating Cam Whitmore's Questionable Future with Rockets

As the Rockets look to take the leap from good to great, changes in thr roster and rotation are imminent. Young talent like Jalen Green and Jabari Smith Jr. have been thrown around in trade talks for Kevin Durant – which could become official any day. If Houston lands Durant, or any other superstar, that moves the championship window to now – meaning it's all hands on deck to contribute to winning.

A promising young wing who's struggled to do that in his first two seasons is Cam Whitmore, a 6-foot-7 scoring machine. Whitmore's loaded on potential, with an ability to score from anywhere on the court and athleticism matched by few of his peers.

At the same time, he's struggled to earn a consistent complimentary role next to other Rockets stars. That starts with his defensive woes, which shows in the numbers that the Rockets are far worse defensively with him on the court.

Whitmore is one of two rotational Rockets with a negative point differential, sitting at -3.5 for the season. On top of that, Rockets lineups allow 5.4 more points per 100 possessions with him on the court, along with allowing teams to raise their effective field goal percentage by 2.4 percent.

He struggled on the offensive side of the ball as well, as his catch and shoot 3-point percentage plummeted to 32.7 percent on 98 attempts – the second-worst of every rotational guard and forward on the roster.

Despite the highlight plays and occasional high scoring game, Whitemore's not the effcient offensive product many might think. Both his points per shot attempt and assist-to-usage ratio are in the bottom 20 percentile league-wide.

Players surrounding Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson and potentially Kevin Durant should be effective off-all players and positive defenders, neither of which Whitmore currently is. There's still a path for him to become a positive-impact player, but the Rockets don't have time to wait for his development in hunt for a championship.

If an opportunity presents itself to package Whitmore for a win-now player, Houston should pull the trigger.