Cam Whitmore's arrival in Washington seemed like the perfect opportunity for the former first-round pick to finally prove that he can make an impact in this league.
The Villanova product entered the league with all the potential any team could ask for.
Between his unreal athleticism, ability to get to the basket at will and improving jumper, Whitmore seemed like the perfectr candidate to be one of the next rising stars at the wing position.
Unfortunately, a pre-draft injury caused the lottery projected talent to slide in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft, where he ultimately fell outside of the lottery to the Houston Rockets at No. 20 overall.
At the time, his addition to the Rockets seemed like the perfect opportunity for a young prospect entering the league.
Houston was in the midst of a rebuild, just hired one of the best young coaches in the league in Ime Udoka and had the room for Whitmore to grow his game.
However, when the Rockets turned their rebuild around faster than expected, minutes became scarce as the team became more of a playoff-ready team.
As a result, Whitmore's costly mistakes led to the him falling out of Udoka's rotation, which eventually led to him hoping for a change of scenery.
As a Maryland native, landing in Washington seemed like the perfect fit for Whitmore to break out.
And while that still may happen, early signs suggests that Whitmore hasn't learned from his previous mistakes.
Whitmore struggles from HOU remain
The biggest knock on Whitmore during his time in Houston was the fact that the forward tended to put his mind towards scoring whenever he was on the court,
Whitmore's tunnel vision to the rim was often his biggest downfall and at times would stall the offense due to the fact he was more concerned about scoring than he was doing the small things like making the extra pass or swinging the ball to keep the offense flowing.
Originally, many thought those issues were tied to the fact that Whitmore believed he needed to make the most of his minutes because they came in spurts.
With an increased role in Washington, perhaps those issues would subside and Whitmore would learn to be a team player.
Unfortunately, those problems continue to come back to light, which alone has already caued head coach Brian Keefe to pull him out of the lineup on separate occassions.
All that to say, Whitmore still has a long ways to go in his development, especially if he wants to make this fresh start work.