NEW YORK – The Detroit Pistons will likely have the opportunity to take Villanova Wildcats small forward Cam Whitmore with the No. 5 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
The 18-year-old won Big East Freshman of the Year, and since being projected as a top-five pick, he became the first player since the 1990s to be a one-and-done player out of Villanova.
For the Wildcats during the 2022 season, the 6′7″ 232-pound forward averaged 12.5 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game while shooting 47.8% field goals and 34.3% from deep.
His size, speed and athletic ability make him so unique, as he can leap with the best athletes in the nation.
Put him alongside 2022 No. 5 pick Jaden Ivey and No. 12 Jalen Duren, and the Pistons are already looking like a highlight factory.
“The Pistons got some athletic guys,” said Whitmore during the NBA Draft Combine. “They got my boy Jalen Duren, Cade (Cunningham), Jaden Ivey, just athletic guys that can get the job done. You got (Isaiah) Stewart over there. He’s a big dude, a big body who again can get the job done athletically, offensively, and defensively, so it’s a great core group of guys who are young so we can jump out of the gym.”
Most players with tremendous leaping abilities aren’t known as knockdown shooters, but his ability for sweet string music makes him so special.
Whitmore’s shooting and aggressiveness to attack the basket while also having the ability to be a catch-and-shoot guy will do wonders alongside 2021 No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham.
The NBA is all about wing players who can space the floor, knock down threes and make timely baskets while also playing substantial defense which is why he while coming out of high school in Severn, Maryland, drew a comparison to Toronto Raptors forward OG Anunoby.
After one year of college, Whitmore has now drawn comparisons to former Michigan State Spartans highflyer Miles Bridges, Caron Butler, Jaylen Brown, and Pistons great Jerry Stackhouse.
With his athleticism and agility, he’d be a mismatch on both ends of the floor but especially defensively, as he’d take on the challenges of locking down smaller guards, which could translate to mismatches offensively during transition.
His size gives him a versatile asset where he could defend small guards to power forwards, which could also help transition from defense to offense expeditiously, especially with the addition of new head coach Monty Williams giving him instructions would do wonders.
Williams is a defensive-minded coach. Just look at what he did with his 2022-23 Phoenix Suns as they finished the regular season with a 112.3 defensive rating, ranking seventh in the league and sixth in defensive field goal percentage.
“I want to have success here to the point that people think I’m from Detroit,” said Williams during his introductory press conference. “The same way people think that Dave Bing is from Detroit even though he’s from (Washington) D.C. I want to have that kind of impact here. I married myself to the job, and I told the players I’m going to give everything I have because this franchise has a rich history, and that’s something that’s important to me.”
Whitmore is a brilliant player with a good feel for the game at the NBA level. He should undoubtedly have a smooth transition especially playing alongside Cunningham and Ivey.
Troy Weaver has been doing his due diligence on the draft process, and before all of the swerve reports indicated that Whitmore had fallen out of the top five, he was linked to the Pistons as the betting favorite leading up to Thursday’s (June 22) draft.
If the reports are accurate, Detroit could trade down, retrieve more assets and still select Whitmore, as he wants to represent the horsepower across his chest.
The former consensus five-star recruit’s 40% catch-and-shoot rating from three looks perfect for the Pistons puzzling rebuild.
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