The Portland Trail Blazers have spent this offseason hunting for value wherever they can find it, and that approach makes Cam Whitmore look like a natural fit.
Portland didn’t have a draft pick, so the front office has leaned into low-cost swings with upside. That has shown up in the trade for Ja Morant from the Memphis Grizzlies, the signing of Jeremy Sochan, and the claim of Micah Potter off waivers after his exit from the Indiana Pacers. The pattern is clear: the Blazers are willing to bet on players whose stock has dropped, hoping the right situation can bring them back.
Whitmore fits that mold almost perfectly. He entered the NBA as the 20th overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft, but many projected him as a lottery talent out of Villanova before concerns in the pre-draft process pushed him down the board. The Houston Rockets ended up stopping his slide, though they had nine first-round picks in a three-year span and couldn’t give him the development runway he needed.
Then Houston shifted toward contention after trading for Kevin Durant from the Phoenix Suns, and Whitmore found himself squeezed out. That led to a move to the Washington Wizards, where he was supposed to have a clearer path to minutes.
Instead, a shoulder injury limited him to 21 games and kept him sidelined for most of the season. Last month, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers and then waived.
Now he’s searching for another landing spot, and Portland has a wing opening that lines up with his availability. The Blazers wouldn’t need to promise him minutes, but they could get a talented 22-year-old at a bargain price, whether on a minimum deal or even a two-way contract.
There’s still real upside here, but there are also obvious reasons Houston and Washington moved on. Whitmore’s shoulder injury, tied to deep vein thrombosis, has kept him out for nearly a year, and that makes him more of a project than a plug-and-play answer.
That matters because Portland is trying to make a playoff push this season, so the team is going to lean on players who can help right now. The backcourt is already crowded, and Whitmore’s possible roles as a two-guard or small forward don’t guarantee a clean path to playing time.
His shooting last season also leaves something to be desired. Whitmore hit just 28.6 percent from three, which is not exactly the kind of number that helps a team trying to sharpen its perimeter game.
There’s even a case that he’s better than Vit Krejci, but Sidy Cissoko is a stronger defender, and Toumani Camara is too, which means both are ahead of him for minutes. For Portland, that’s the whole calculation: Whitmore might be worth the gamble, but the Blazers already have several reasons not to hand him a major role.
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Former Blazers Big Just Landed A Chance Portland Fans Should Watch
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For Portland, Reath's name still carries a little extra interest because his time with the Blazers came during a stretch when the team was sorting through its center rotation. He later moved on to Atlanta, but the path that got him here has been the familiar one for a player trying to carve out a role on the margins, and now Phoenix is asking him to do it again while it waits for its injured big man to get back. [Read more 🡒]