Wizards Forward Explains How He’ll Impact Team

Cam Whitmore has spent the last two seasons viewing the Washington Wizards from afar, still occupying the same spot at the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings that they were at when he first joined the NBA.

The DMV native could have very well ended up with his hometown team, but the Wizards passed on his services in the 2023 NBA Draft in favor of Bilal Coulibaly. The Houston Rockets picked him up at No. 20, and the former top-tier recruit remained there until it grew increasingly apparent that he no longer occupied a prioritized role in the team's future after two years of trying to crack the team's regular rotation.

Now that he's gotten his way, traded to a team in an area with which he's familiar and on a developmental timeline that matches his own, he has some strong ideas as to how he hopes to change the team's destiny in the near future.

"I’m really trying to win some games," he said when asked by Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson about his views entering the upcoming season. "I want to turn this whole organization around into a positive organization where fans will want to come to the games and fans will want to watch the Wizards play basketball, but first we gotta win."

"Really, my goal is to win 35 least 40 games at the max," he continued, "...the Eastern Conference is up for grabs and anybody can kind of get in, but a Play-In [appearance] wouldn’t be too bad, either."

The Odenton, MD local grew up watching John Wall and Bradley Beal duke it out in the playoffs against their conference rivals, and he's ready to reach the same heights alongside his new teammates.

He picked up some winning lessons at his previous stop in Houston under head coach Ime Udoka, and he's ready to deploy those habits as he prepares to resume the battle of trying to earn his minutes.

"You can’t get on the floor without defense," he said. "When I first arrived in the NBA I really didn’t focus on that side of the floor, but as time went on defense could make a big impact and you don’t even have to score the ball. You can rebound and hustle back on defense and get deflections, you know? Just the little stuff that helps the team win."

He was tested on that front, having to quickly transition from a lifelong starter into a deep-cut reserve. But as Whitmore maintained, "whatever coach wants me to do, I gotta put some effort into it."

The former-first round pick will now be among nearly a dozen players just like him, headlined by similarly young wings in Coulibaly, Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George who've received the kind of leash that Whitmore's been pining for. He has a lot to offer as a scorer and athlete, but his understanding of what it takes to see the floor gives him a fighting chance to finally get that big break in Washington.