LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – JULY 14: Cam Whitmore #7 of the Houston Rockets poses for a portrait during the … [+]
The Rockets announced last week that promising forward Cam Whitmore would be out of the lineup for three weeks with a sprained right knee. The Rockets will play their last game of the season on April 14 against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Rockets head coach Ime Udoka said Whitmore suffered a lateral collateral ligament sprain. Udoka said the timeline could be shorter depending on Whitmore’s response to treatment.
The news comes at an inopportune time as the Rockets, 32-35, are pushing for the play-in. After Saturday’s win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Rockets have won five straight games and seven of their last eight. The team’s only loss since March 2 was a 122-116 loss to the Clippers. Houston lost star center Alperen Sengun for the season to an ankle injury on March 10 in a win over the Sacramento Kings.
Whitmore, the 20th pick in the 2023 draft, has had a breakout rookie season so far. On the year, the athletic wing averaged 12.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game on 46.4% shooting from the floor and 36.1% shooting from deep. Whitmore’s production came in just 17.8 minutes per game. Before the season, many believed the rookie would spend the majority of the year in the G-League given Houston’s stalemate at the position.
Before the draft, and even up until draft night, Whitmore was projected to be a top-five lottery pick, and was even predicted in some simulations to go fourth overall to Houston (where the Rockets ultimately took leader Amen Thompson). But he mysteriously slipped to 20th for unknown reasons, to the benefit of Houston.
Whitmore is making $3.22 million this season, the first of his four-year rookie contract. The team has options on Whitmore’s contract in 2025-26 and 2026-27 that they will almost surely exercise as a mere formality. With third-year guard Jalen Green struggling for most of the first half of the season, many observers believed Whitmore could be inserted into the team’s starting lineup at the shooting guard position to provide better shooting and better spacing next to Sengun. Udoka himself said before the All-Star break that he was considering changes. This decision never came.
Green has since taken off, averaging 24.4 points and 4.9 rebounds on 49.6 percent shooting from the floor and 36.2 percent from 3 over his last seven games. If Green is truly a game-changer, as the Rockets hope, the path for Whitmore to break into the starting lineup and earn significant minutes doesn’t seem clear. Veteran Dillon Brooks signed a four-year, $86 million contract last summer and holds the starting small forward spot. And waiting in the wings to fill that spot is currently injured sophomore forward Tari Eason, who led the team in overall net rating. Thompson, the point guard of the future, also takes up minutes on the wings. Too many talented young players, all thriving at the same time, is a good problem for general manager Rafael Stone.
For now, the Rockets are just hoping Whitmore can return to action this season and close out what has been an excellent rookie campaign.
