NBA Draft Analysis: Cam Whitmore

Assessing how and where the Villanova product's athleticism and variable defense would slot into the play context of the Pacers and whether more can be more alongside Bennedict Mathurin 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

After profiling Jarace Walker and Taylor Hendricks as players who can toggle between frontcourt positions, as either fours who can play the five or fives who can play the four (depending upon who you ask), the possibility of adding a 6-foot-5 power wing to a roster loaded mainly with centers, 6-foot-5 guards, and nothing much in-between has entered the chat. That means the time has come for a fresh edition of Stock Up, Stock Down, wherein I cram study a player and then breakdown my findings, identifying reasons to be both bearish and bullish with frame of reference from a few specific games as well as for the Pacers.

This week, Villanova's Cam Whitmore stars as the subject, with the following games being viewed as a representation of both ends of the spectrum as far as production, along with insight into repeat match-ups against the same opponent:

• Creighton: 4 PTS, 2-7 FG, 0-3 3P, 6 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL, 3 TOV
• UConn: 14 PTS, 6-11 FG, 1-5 3P, 5 REB, 1 AST, 3 STL, 1 TOV
• Creighton: 17 PTS, 5-8 FG, 1-2 3P, 5 REB, 1 STL
• Creighton: 9 PTS, 2-5 FG, 1-4 3P, 8 REB, 2 STL, 3 TOV, 1 BLK
• Butler: 12 PTS, 3-5 FG, 2-3 3P, 8 REB, 1 AST, 3 STL, 1 TOV
• Xavier: 26 PTS, 11-18 FG, 3-7 3P, 2 REB, 1 AST, 1 STL, 2 TOV
• UConn: 6 PTS, 3-7 FG, 0-1 3P, 3 REB, 1 TOV
• Penn: 21 PTS, 7-13 FG, 2-7 3P, 6 REB, 2 AST, 1 STL

Ready to deep dive? Off we go. 

Stock Up: Power and burst

Despite living in Indiana for my entire life, I've never been to the Indy 500. From what I've been told, however, the speed is breathtaking and there's nothing quite like the spectacle and anticipation of the start. As it applies to basketball, the same can often be said of Cam Whitmore, who when poised to attack as a power wing, almost appears as though he is revving an engine, about to go full throttle with his focus trained intently on the finish line of the rim.

While not always displaying the most craft, which can be to his detriment, Whitmore is a nasty downhill driver, combining both strength and touch to go along with his wheels. Just look at the totality of this possession against Creighton, wherein he grabs the rebound and hits the nitrous button going into the screen before cupping the ball like a football and beating the drop coverage with an off-foot finish. Whew!

Completing 29 dunks in 700 minutes played, he's an explosive leaper off two feet (oh hi, 40-inch vertical), but he can also float, gliding to the rim even when launching off the wrong foot.

Meanwhile, the fact that he converted 66 percent of his shots at the rim becomes even more impressive when considering that he didn't have many opportunities to punch gaps. If he wasn't scoring in transition or finding narrow seams with his off-ball intuition, the spacing around him was (uh) cramped. No one on Villanova's roster attempted more than 2.2 threes per game last season and post-ups accounted for roughly 11 percent of the team's usage. With driving lanes like this, where he gets poked at and prodded from the ball-side corner at the same time as the screener is rolling into his path, it wasn't enough for him just to speed past the first layer of the defense like a racecar, he also had to transform into a Mack Truck.

At the next level, he'll likely have more runway to spin his tires without losing tread, especially from the weak-side. For example, this play, which the Pacers call "corner," is a staple of the offense and automatically triggers a 45-cut anytime the ball-handler rounds the bend into the paint.

Rather than sucking the defense in around a static post-up, he would be diving into space on penetration from any number of guards. In that regard, where Mathurin is still able to finish with spare breathing room after retrieving a bobbled pass, Whitmore has to try to catch the ball through basically the equivalent of a pinhole. 

Likewise, under the right set of circumstances, his strength along with his ability to explode from 0 to 60 in short, contained spurts also shines on the defensive end. In the blink of an eye, he goes from contesting a shot in the corner to digging the post on the offensive rebound and then sprinting out to block a three at the top of the key with his off-hand. 

Just for emphasis, take note of where Whitmore was standing and how much time was left on the shot-clock at the point in which the shooter started to load his shot. 

Now, look at where Whitmore was not even a second later.

That's the definition of closing speed and it also came in handy at the top of Villanova's 1-2-2 press, where he was tasked with hounding the ball and covering tons of ground -- at times, while leaving a stream of exhaust in his wake. 

When dropping back out of that coverage, he would then be responsible for defending at the point of attack, which poses an interesting question for the Pacers. With a massive chest and strong legs, he's capable of absorbing contact and isn't as likely to get overpowered by the ball as can be the case for Tyrese Haliburton, but he's similar to Mathurin in that his screen navigation isn't so much navigation as merely getting screened. As such, he tracks more as a switch defender, who can reasonably hold off the ball with his body against twos, threes, and fours while also occasionally veering into bigs and (gasp) actually boxing out. 

That type of strength-based defense and physicality isn't exactly in abundant supply on the Pacers, but neither is lateral size or secondary rim protection. At the combine, Whitmore measured 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-8 wingspan. As currently constructed, the Pacers have five players under standard contract for next season who are taller than 6-foot-5 and four of them are centers. If Whitmore is assigned to defend the corners as the low-man, he can't be even a beat late with his help. Otherwise, he'll be forced to rely on his vertical pop to compensate for what he lacks in height, and his hops don't always come to the rescue. 

For the Pacers, Whitmore would certainly further the recent trend of upgrading the roster's athleticism, and with his explosiveness and adequate spot-up shooting, there's reason to think that he could really take advantage of nail help next to Haliburton in a more functional offense, but his addition also has the potential to tack onto what they already have in certain ways without necessarily addressing other areas of more overt need. 

Stock Down: Redundancy

In ways both good and bad, Cam Whitmore has a lot in common with Bennedict Mathurin. Granted, the latter relies more so on the deceptiveness of his first step whereas the former pushes forward with verve, but watch Whitmore easily get past his defender along the baseline after a quick jab and the similarities are striking. 

And yet, there's also a key difference. When Mathurin draws help, look at how he decelerates with single-leg strength, manipulating the coverage with more nuance. By comparison, Whitmore generally tries to beat the defense, hurling himself at the rim without slowing down. As a result, when up against an athletic defender, who can time their contest with length and anticipation, he doesn't always win the race. 

In part, that's why his free throw rate (.251), as a measure of free throw attempts per field goal attempt, doesn't stack up to that of Mathurin during his collegiate career at Arizona (.382), let alone as a rookie (.477). In addition to playing fast and mainly fast, Whitmore doesn't quite have the flexibility to contort his body into contact. At the same time, he shares Mathurin's tendency to miss teammates while purposing himself to score no matter what. Here, for example, he burrows himself into a crowd and doesn't even think about passing.

As can be observed from the players on the floor who are signaling for a travel, he also doesn't always give himself pivoting options to create clean passing windows with his landings. If he isn't going to feather the brakes and shift gears along the way of his path, then finishing with a stride stop and rondo-style ball fake more often might be to his benefit, at least from the perspective of staying under control and maintaining more options against aggressive contests. 

Either way, although he can paper over some of his decision making with awe-inspiring, athletic feats, this process of driving into two defenders like a car attempting to speed over a spike strip encapsulates part of the reason why he finished the season with a 6.2 percent assist rate on 25.6 percent usage while committing 42 turnovers in 26 games played. 

Of course, his play context with regard to the aforementioned cramped spacing also matters, but the accompanying clip of Mathurin, which was his last possession before finishing the fourth quarter on the bench against the Heat, goes to show that defenders might still stray into his path from the ball-side corner in certain lineups with the Pacers, too. For frame of reference, among the 142 players who averaged at least five drives per game last season, Mathurin ranked 139th in pass percentage.

To Mathurin's credit, he started making more of those short, simple reads once the team pivoted to prioritizing development, and Whitmore flashed some occasional passing chops that his teammates didn't always convert into assists; however, in order for the Pacers to drive, kick, and move the ball with lyricism in the half-court, one or both of them would still need to show quite a bit of growth in that area. 

The same also applies on defense. As was briefly referenced in the prior section, Whitmore is like Mathurin in that he can be indecisive as whether to chase over or duck under when navigating around screens, including away from the ball. Both of them, in that sense, can be seen hugging the screener and switching, even when the scheme isn't intended for them to switch. 

For that reason, both track better as switch defenders as opposed to playing in rearview pursuit, but they can momentarily transform into buffer icons when attempting to find their spot after being scrammed out of mismatches. Also, it sort of says a lot, in and of itself, that Whitmore is being scrammed out of a mismatch.  

Oh, and that thing where Mathurin can be a frequent backdoor candidate? Whitmore has similar lapses. 

In that way, it seems like his best role on that end of the floor would be defending twos and threes as a free safety in a switch scheme that would allow him to level off the ball in isolation with his strength while also buzzing here, there, and everywhere with his closing speed. But, for different reasons, Haliburton also generally defends against wings, and the Pacers aren't likely to switch out to the ball with Turner, which means there would still need to be a four who can cross-match onto fives for the purpose of switching ball screens while also providing more resistance at the rim when defending the corners. 

Overall, Whitmore and Mathurin aren't identical players, and there certainly doesn't have to be a limit on secondary driving or cutting around those secondary drives, but there would have to be progress, not only as it pertains to kick-outs and actually knocking down in flow shots, but also with regard to processing. As in, why attack this closeout laterally, side-stepping back and to the left, when the only chance the big has to recover, with their back turned to the ball, is to reach out with their off-hand? That's where he needs to rev the engine, forcing the help to step up.

From shot selection and determining what reads to make and when to being similar in their shortcomings on defense, there's overlap between Whitmore and Mathurin that would have to be resolved with development in order for the more of their respective forms of athleticism and rim pressure to be more.