The Denver Nuggets went into last season knowing they had to get more athletic. They spent the summer trying to patch that hole, but the addition that may matter most is the last one they made: Cam Whitmore.
Whitmore arrives as a former first-round pick with real bounce, real scoring ability and, just as importantly, a chance to learn in a room packed with veterans who know exactly how to steer a young player in the right direction. At media day, the 22-year-old pointed to that veteran core as one of the biggest reasons Denver feels like the right place for him.
"I've never had these type of vets in the locker room ever before," Whitmore said. "Jokic, AG, and Jamal. If they tell me I need to do something differently than what I was doing before, then I'm gonna go ahead and do it."
That kind of openness matters, especially for a player on a two-way contract trying to carve out a future. Whitmore is joining a Nuggets group built around Nikola Jokic, Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray, and the idea is simple: let those guys show him how to refine the parts of his game that already jump off the page.
At 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, Whitmore is hardly short on physical tools. Nuggets coach David Adelman even said Whitmore could "play for the Broncos." But Adelman also made clear that the next step is about trimming things down, saying Whitmore "needs to simplify himself."
That’s where Denver’s setup could help. Whitmore can already score.
In his rookie season with the Houston Rockets, he averaged 12.3 points in 18.7 minutes per game, which works out to 23.7 points per 36 minutes. He’s also dangerous when he’s cutting or slashing, and a pass-heavy offense like Denver’s should create chances for easy finishes around the rim.
The work ahead is obvious, too. Whitmore still has to sharpen his three-point shot, improve his decision-making with the ball and turn his athletic gifts into more consistent defense. Those are exactly the kinds of details that veteran teammates can help clean up, and the Nuggets have a rare collection of them.
If Whitmore takes to that instruction the way he sounded at media day, Denver may have found more than just another athletic upgrade. It may have found a player who can grow into something much bigger. And if the first half of the season goes the right way, he could put himself in position to push the Nuggets into using their 15th roster spot on him around the trade deadline, the same path Spencer Jones followed last year.
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