Wizards Forward Out Indefinitely with Blood Clot

Blood clots don't have standard return timelines, but return times usually take several months at a time for athletes participating in contact sports. Most recently, fellow 2023 Draft classmate Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs was ruled out of the entirety of his sophomore season from the All-Star break.

This is just the most recent update in the long-running saga of Whitmore's attempt at harnessing his intriguing potential, with the former top prospect touching down with his hometown team after failing to put it all together on the Houston Rockets through his first two NBA seasons.

Conflicting reports pertaining to his spot in Washington's rotation attempted to keep up with Whitmore's constantly changing status, with the question of whether he was meeting the Wizards' standards once being attributed to his previous benching.

Uneven shooting splits led into his missing the Wizards' most recent six games, but he was reportedly evaluated for that soreness before getting ruled out of back-to-back contests. Now, Washington's flashy reclamation project will have to wait awhile before returning to his road to NBA stardom.

How Will the Wizards' Adapt?

The Wizards don't have any sturdy slashers on their rosters quite like Whitmore, a brick house scorer who's perfectly comfortable embarrassing a defender on a transition dunk as he is beating a closeout.

Head coach Brian Keefe isn't exactly losing a major blow to the rotation he's cultivated, though. After several weeks of holding Whitmore back from his usual sixth or seventh-man role, he's replaced those minutes along the wing with some more youth in Will Riley and Jamir Watkins.

They aren't nearly as flashy as Whitmore is as his best, but Riley is among the Wizards' most promising playmakers at an intriguing 6'10", while Watkins gives more on the defensive end than anyone else on the roster. They hustle and continually flash glimpses at high-level upsides, and Keefe's group has looked more energetic since tapping into their defense, pace and ball-movement. And with Corey Kispert set to return from his own thumb injury, Keefe was running short on wing minutes to spare.

Whitmore, for his part, will disappear for awhile in tending to long-term blood clot treatment, and updates are sure to follow the temporary end of the will he- won't he-play storyline.