The Washington Wizards' move to acquire Cam Whitmore was an all-around heist when they first pulled it off back in July, and it's only become more evident how great a move it was with time. The 2025-26 season still hasn't begun yet, and still Wizards fans are as excited as ever. Getting Whitmore was the cherry on top for their offseason moves.
Getting a young, exciting player like Whitmore would have been excellent regardless, but it was specifically the low price Washington ended up paying that made this one of the best-value deals any team in the association made this summer. The Wizards only parted ways with two second-round picks in order to bring on the young talent.
I'm sure plenty of teams around the league were looking at their phone screens when the news dropped and wondering how on earth Washington managed to pull this off. There's no doubt plenty of contending teams in both conferences that would have been more than happy to make Whitmore a part of their young core.
The Wizards' move for Whitmore accelerated their timeline
And that's a great reminder that Cam is still really young. Having just turned 21 years old, there's still plenty of time for Whitmore's game to grow and for him to become an even greater impact player in this league. He's already a spectacular athlete and has the makings of a special downhill scorer. The opportunity's going to be there for him to get a lot more reps in over the next year.
Cam will join a Wizards core that all of a sudden looks very promising when you think about the short and long-term future. When it comes to veterans and guys that you can rely on to score, CJ McCollum and Khris Middleton have that department locked down. And then with the younger, up-and-coming players, Bilal Coulibaly, Bub Carrington, Alex Sarr and AJ Johnson all join Whitmore as under-23 talents.
Essentially, getting Cam on board was the move that I would say officially moved Washington from the category of upstart exciting team to a squad that could really make some progress in the upcoming season. The Wizards now have a plethora of versatile guys that will have a high ceiling as a unit if they mesh well.
Sometimes, it's the one really sneaky move you pull off no one was expecting that can end up putting you over the top. The Eastern Conference is about to be wide open in 2025-26, and any success the Washington Wizards achieve in the next year can ultimately be traced back to this one turning point of acquiring Cam Whitmore.