The Washington Wizards Are Playing Chess…

The Washington Wizards Are Playing Chess…

Nice job, Victor. What is up, guys? Welcome back to the channel and welcome back to another episode of Whiz Kids Forever. Before I get too deep into this episode, you already know what I’mma say. Be sure to comment. Be sure to like, be sure to subscribe on the road to 3,000 subscribers, and I can’t do it without your help. So, go ahead, hit that subscribe button, turn on your notification button, so you’re not missing any of this Wizards content. And without further ado, man, let’s get into today’s video. So, your boy your boy was on a holiday. Your boy was on a vacation. Um, so I didn’t get a chance to actually talk about some of the moves that the Washington Wizards have made over the last week. So, we’re gonna we’re gonna recap that and then talk about how our Washington Wizards front office um is something that I’m not familiar with um with the front offices that I’ve grown up with being with Ernie Gruntfield, Tommy Shepard um and those likes at the helm. But the Wizards are playing chess. The Wizards in 2025 are playing chess while it seems like the majority of the league is playing checkers. I’m not gonna say everybody because Sam Prey, he he’s playing sedukco or whatever, whatever because he’s a mastermind. Uh Sam Prey might be able to solve a Rubik’s cube in about 30 seconds. Um but the widgets um with some of you know the proteges um coming from that Sam Prey tree, they’re playing chess. And one of the reasons that I say that is over the last couple of days or on July 5th, the Wizards traded two future second round picks for uh Houston Rockets forward, now Washington Wizards forward. Cam Whitmore. Um and it brings Cam Whitmore to DC. Um a DMV native, a guy coming from Odin, Maryland, playing with Archbishop Spalding. U and I love the move. I love the move. um 67, 235 pound um wing forward type um that didn’t necessarily get his shot uh to necessarily stick in the rotation in Houston. Now, while some of that he’s not of no fault, uh but you got to give a little bit of context in the Cam Whitmore situation. And uh if you’re looking on the screen, if you’re checking us out on YouTube, you see um on the screen, it even says that the follow-up tweet from Shams um dropping his Shams bomb. Um on the initial reporting of the Cam Whitmore trade, he said that the Rockers worked with uh Cam for the the number 20 pick in the 2023 draft and his reps at WME basketball over the last few weeks on a new hump. Whitmore has averaged over 11 points over two years. last season scoring 46 points per touch, fourth best among players to record a,000 touches. So that tells you that the Rockets while you know Cam wasn’t necessarily the fit for them in their future and in their plans with them jumping into title title contenders uh with their rebuild being accelerated. It tells you that the Rockets don’t think that Cam is a bad guy by any means and they wanted to do what was best for Cam Whitmore. Hey, bringing him back home to the DMV. I don’t think of any situation that could be better. And let me tell you why in this episode. While he couldn’t stick in Houston, we like I just said, Houston, their their rebuild had got accelerated to the point where they were just a part and the headliner in the 17 blockbuster deal that bought Kevin Durant uh to the Houston Rockets, his what third team in four years. So that tells you that the Rockets are in win now mode, right? And for a guy like Cam Whitmore who turns 21 today. We’re doing this episode on July 8th, 2025. So happy uh birthday Cam. Go buy Cam a drink. This his first legal drink that he get. So if you checking this out over here, Whiz Kids, I might go I might go ahead and cash out Cam. Um first drink on the house knowing me or knowing Cam and knowing how the NBA culture is. Cam probably passed out drunk somewhere, but I ain’t going to put no spell on any of our man uh any of our players names. But happy birthday to Cam. But let’s get back to the basketball. Um, Be Cam is a guy that just turned 21 and he didn’t necessarily fit the timeline of the win now approach that the Houston Rockets are taking going into the 202526 season. And that’s not necessarily all of Cam’s fault, right? Um, because this is a guy, if we can remember a couple of years back, he was drafted in the draft that we selected Balo Kouli in in 2023. Some draft pundits had Cam Whitmore being selected before Balo Kulabi. Some draft pundits had Cam Whitmore being selected at the latest at the latest top seven. I don’t even want to say top 10 because I didn’t see him fall into the 10th pick in a lot of those mocks in 2023. So, it was such a surprise to see him fall to the 20th pick um come draft night, but then you heard a lot of the rumors and a lot of the reports um as to some of the reasons why. And they have seemed to follow him over the course of his, you know, first two seasons in the uh NBA. Some of those reports were like his uh head coach at Villan Nova didn’t necessarily think that he was a leader or a team player and he was you know telling NBA um you know front offices that when they were checking in on Cam more there were reports about him having a degenerative knee uh I know there were uh that he broke his tibia um as a freshman at spotting or as a freshman in high school but he didn’t really you know have you know too many lower body injuries coming out of college. Uh but who knows what those medical reports um were checking out coming out of the combine and things of that nature. There were also reports of you know or teams just didn’t like the fact that he isn’t a passer. Cam Whitmore is not a passer. Cam Whitmore is being brought in right now at the age of 21 to put the brown thing in the round thing like Drew Goodness is. Um, now that’s not to say that he can develop into more, but the Houston Rockets didn’t have time for him to do the all um of that development or to take time for all of that development. Uh, and the Wizards do the Wizards do cuz what were we saying going into the draft um when you know we failed to the sixth pick, we were saying that we can’t turn our nose up at anybody, right? Because we have to be taking the best player uh available approach. And I think that’s what we did in selecting um Trey Johnson. Well, that’s what we have to do with, you know, not only these free agent signers, but these trade acquisitions as well. We have we’re at the state of the roster right now and the state of the organization is that we need to take as many swings on high upside talent as we can. And this is one of those moves. This is why I refer to the Wizards playing chess um and the rest of the league playing chess uh checkers because to get Cam Whitmore for two second round picks is a steal in my book and it should be a steal in yours as well because like I said he isn’t of a fault. You know, he does get a little ton of vision as a basketball player, but Charms lays it out in the tweet. This guy can score the basketball and I know a lot of people have questioned his shot creation. I don’t have I don’t have any, you know, qualms about his shot creation. uh creation. I don’t know where a lot of that came from. Um I don’t know if it’s because he doesn’t you know shoot a lot of has he pull up Jimos uh like you know the the fans want to see but Cam Whitmore gets to the rim with reckless abandoned. Cam Whitmore gets to the rim with reckless abandoned and I don’t know if the shot that you create wants to be a pullup jumper but he’s one of the most ferocious dunkers in the league. And I think that he can do that on his own. You see, he scores four point four six points per touch, right? And he’s not necessarily passing the ball. So, when he is on the floor, he’s on the floor to score. And that’s something that the Wizards direly need. I told you I I I still haven’t found out how we were one of the fastest teams in pace last year, but in some of those games during our 16g game losing streak, we had a hard time cracking 90 points. I still have a hard time figuring that out. Um, but bringing in a guy like Cam Whitmore, making it nine first round draft picks that we bought in um, since the 2023 draft, whether that be us drafting him or them being brought in through trades or things of that nature. It’s a youth influx in Washington. And it’s it’s beautiful to see. It’s beautiful to see. Now, I’m not going to say that we gonna be contenders. We’re going to be ass once again this year. We are going to be ass once again this year. I don’t want y’all to think that bringing in Cam Whitmore and CJ McCollum are going to jump us into playing contention like I see some of the national pundits uh saying. And that’s that’s that’s okay because we know that they don’t watch Wizards basketball. We know the national media does not watch Wizards basketball. But if you guys don’t know, our first round pick next year in the 2026 draft is still top eight protected, right? And what that means is that if we fall outside of the top eight picks uh come lottery night, that pick turns over to the New York Knicks next year. And that would be too detrimental to our rebuild for us to try to compete for a [ __ ] playing spot this year. That’ll be too detrimental to the rebuild. And I know I’m saying that that pick is top eight protected, but the only way that you can secure you having that pick is by you having one of the bottom four rosters in the league next season. Because as we saw this year with with the wizards lottery luck, the so wizards lottery luck, the worst that you can fall is, you know, four slots under what your projected or what your final record was. So the Wizards had the second worst record in the league last year after the coin flip with the Utah Jazz. Um, and they fell to the worst pick that they could have possibly got with the sixth overall pick in the 2025 draft. That’s the way that the lottery odds work. So, for us to secure a top eight pick, that means we have to have a bottom four record next season. So, that means that the tank is still on. The tank is still on. And while I’m talking about how high upside of a player that Cam Whitmore is, I fully think that with the green light, he’s capable of scoring 20 points per game next season, depending on how many minutes he gets. Don’t fool yourselves into thinking that we going to be uh a competitive basketball team next season. I just want to compete more than we did this past season. I just want us to take a couple of steps in the rebuild. Uh because I am realistic over here. Even though I’m getting a little grades and I ain’t got too much time to wait. Your boy turned 30 this year. I ain’t got too much time to wait. Will Dawkins. So this is about the last season. I’mma get y’all the darkest pass. I’mma give y’all the Ernie Grufffield and Tommy Shepard tax because them like the tariffs that Donald Trump handing out. It’s going to take a while for us to overcome from that that deficit. You feel me? Uh but C with more to DC uh just another uh string along the lines of the m uh the moves that will dog has made to rebuild this roster um after what not only Tommy Shepard but Bradley Bill left um in their de uh departure from DC. Um as I mentioned though, Cam Whitmore, it’s not like we’re trading for some allstar. It’s not like we’re trading for some allstar. And Cam Whitmore isn’t an all-star right now, but nobody outside of me, and I do have the tweets to prove it, thought that Shay Gil just Alexander was gonna be an NBA MVP when the Oklahoma City Thunder traded Paul George uh for Shay and a plethora of picks and things of that nature. Um during the 2019 offseason, nobody had Shay Gil just Alexander being a MVP on their bingo card. So I say that to say a lot of times in these rebuilds the superstars can come out of nowhere. They can develop. Jokic was Nicole Joic was a second round pick. He got drafted during a Taco Bell commercial. Nobody projected him to be a three-time MVP. Nobody. So we don’t know where these superstars are going to come from. But Will Dawkins and Michael Winger taking as many swings at Upside and at them retaining this superstar. You can’t knock the move. You can’t you can’t knock the move. You can’t. And like I said, I don’t know where the minutes are going to come from uh for Cam Whitmore uh because the Wizards have more wings than Buffalo right now. The Wizards have more wings than Buffalo. He’s kind of leaving a situation as far as like roster makeup similar to the Houston Rockets, but we’re not in, you know, win now mode. We’re not in contention mode. We’re in the mode where come September when training camp comes, we’re going to roll the ball out and tell them boys, come go compete. Go compete. I want to see some footage from training camp this year because with nine first round picks, nobody’s entitled to any position outside of Alexar. We know he’s starting. We know he’s starting, but everybody else is going to be competing. I think Bud might have the green light um as the league guard to experiment with this season to see what uh we have in him as a potential, you know, PG-1 for the future. Even though I have some skepticism about that that I’ll touch on in another episode. U and I really will crash out if CJ McCollum is our starting one um come October. But you can’t you can’t as I as I keep saying you can’t knock the moves. You can’t knock the moves um as taking as many swings as possible to get that superstar that we’re in dire need of. Now from the outside looking in, do we have that superstar on the roster right now? I don’t know. I don’t know because I believe that I’m higher on Alexar than a lot of people in the Wizards community and in the national media as well. And I think that Alexar has superstar potential. But I I’ll be a fool to say that he doesn’t have to make leaps and bounds of an improvement to get there. But I think he has a superstar uh skill set if you know reaches his ceiling. Uh Cam Whitmore can be a 20 point per game score. Is that empty calories though? Is that an empty stat sheet score? Um, somebody that doesn’t necessarily contribute to winning some along the lines of like who can we talk like a Kevin Martin or J.R. Smith even got a ring. So, I don’t even want to put that smud on J.R. Smith. But early career J.R. Smith who uh could fill filled the uh you know the the cup but wasn’t necessarily contributing to winning cultures and things of that nature. Is Cam Whitmore going to be that type of player? Um because as I mentioned while you know Houston’s in win now mode and things of that nature and Cam isn’t uh of no fault for the reason that he didn’t uh you know ever crack the roster u solidly there has to be some context right uh you know I knew as soon as Cam Whitmore had requested or murmurss that started to come out about you know his discomfort and you know him being upset about his place in the rotation And then I think it was even a video where they was highlighting him walking off the court against us this past season. I knew he was cooked. I knew he was cooked. Y’all gotta remember who his head coach is. His head coach is Eay Odoka. Eay Adoka is an [ __ ] Y’all like y’all know y’all come to Wiz Kiss forever for the most raw uncut and unfiltered analysis on your Washington wizards. And I’m gonna give you this. Eay Adoka is an [ __ ] Any man that can cheat on Neil in his mid4s is a [ __ ] [ __ ] That’s a man that’s never satisfied. That’s a man that is never pleased. So, I knew once Cam started talking smut on, you know, his place on the roster, I knew that he was done. Uh didn’t necessarily think that him coming to DMV was ever a possibility, but this is a guy that uh talked about, you know, him growing up as a Wizards fan. Uh I don’t know if it was him or his dad posted a picture where he was getting his John Wall jersey signed from Marson Gortai. So, he’s going to be uber motivated um coming to DC um to prove not only the Rockets, but to prove the rest of the league wrong because this is a guy that’s been doubted ever since he’s been in the NBA since draft night when he fell to that 20th overall pick. Now, he does have some defensive struggles. I’ve talked about his, you know, um, you know, tunnel vision at times, but these are all things that he can work on and develop with the green light that, you know, we gave not only our rookies last year, but I think that we’re going to give everybody um, on the roster, um, 23 and younger this year. Now, I’m talking about the rotations, and I don’t even want to get too deep into the rotations, uh, because it it’ll make my brain hurt. It’ll make my It’ll fry my brain, scramble my brain. Um because as I mentioned, the Wizards got more wings than America’s Best right now. Um in Balau, in Cam Whitmore, in a guy like Keshan George, uh Trey Johnson, Will Riley, Corey Kiss, Chris Middleton, Jamir Watkins, Dylan Jones, like you name it. I got like you get a win, you get a win. I feel like Oprah. I feel like Oprah right now. Uh Will Dawkins should feel like Oprah when talking about wings. Um, and it’s going to be interesting to see this rotation. And the reason that I say that is because I actually um put a little filler out there yesterday. I put a little filler out there yesterday when I was looking at the analysis of the uh, you know, wing position and the roster and the rotation when projecting how these guys are going to get um, you know, time and things of that nature. And I say, am I crazy to think that the team might be projecting Balo Koulabali as a four from here on out? Ais a Giannis and Tetakumbo career archetype. Um, and I’m not I’m still I slept on it. I slept on it and I still think that this might be in a realm and this might be a possibility with all the wings on the roster. I know you’ve heard some people in the Wizards community say that we don’t have a center. Um, and they think that Alex Sar is a four. I personally think we don’t have a four and I think that Alexar is a center in 2025 basketball. Um and you know Balo told everybody that listen last year that he was 69 uh in shoes last year. So he has more than enough height and length to play the four position in you know 2025 modern NBA basketball because that’s not necessarily even a small a ball four type. uh if you said in 2002 that you had a 69 power forward like they weren’t calling you undersized uh back then. So that’s more than enough for lymph um does don’t know if he necessarily has the girth and the size Pauls no diddy um to play the four right now but if we can remember Giannis in his first couple of years um in Milwaukee they were playing him at the shooting guard position they were playing him at the small forward position until he finally got entrenched as that like whatever the [ __ ] Giannis is demiggod type stretch power forward point power forward um that he is today you know the allow had a lot of Giannis type comparisons coming out of the draft. Uh because people were going to say that he was going to grow and you know the type of you know growth spurt that he had coming into I think it was like the last two years prior to him coming out of the 2023 draft. So, am I crazy to think that the team might project be projecting Balao as a four U from here on out? Because one thing that this Cam Whitmore move did tell me is that Balo might be on higher alert than I thought. And I’m not saying that like his job is in any danger or anything. And I’ve expressed that I’m I think that I’m personally lower on Balo than a lot of the fan base is. I think that they’re super high and they want Balo to be something that he’s not right now because he was the first pick of the new regime. And I think that he has the potential to get to their end more, but Blau didn’t necessarily take the leap that I wanted to see offensively last year. He’s still one of the better on ball defenders. He’s the best on ball defender uh on the roster, and I think that he can still improve as an on ball defender, but he has all the tools um to be that point of attack defender. And I think that blow honestly can guard one through four if we’re being type uh if we’re being quite honest. So if you filling out your roster with a bunch of wings that you’re going to be switching and things like that, Bala is the perfect candidate for that type uh for that type of roster. But I think that you know with the drafting of a Jir Watkins, with the signing of a Cam Whitmore, um you know, well Dawkins and Michael Winger are putting Balo on high alert like bro you’re in an extension year. We’re going to have to see a leap from you offensively if you want to be this long-term piece for the future that we projected you to be um coming out of the 2023 draft cuz now you got somebody uh from your draft class on this roster as well um that’s been in the league the same amount of time as you and and we giving him the green light to potentially outplay you. And if he does because he’s going to be eligible for the extension as well. We we just going to let the car the cards fall where they lay. Um, and yeah, that’s why I said the Wizards are playing chess right now while the majority of the league is still playing ch checkers. The last thing that I wanted to touch on before I ended this video is that the Wizards finally feel like the Rock. They finally released their summer league rosters. Um, they had that [ __ ] top secret like it was the Krabby Patty formula uh for a minute. I don’t know what was going on. Um, but they take place uh the Vegas summer leagues takes place next week. Um, and they were one of the last teams to release their roster. And they’re going they’re going to Vegas all hands on deck. They’re going to Vegas with a with a with a goddamn with a goddamn tank squad. I’mma say it right now. I fully expect the Washington Wizards to win the 2025 Las Vegas summer league. When you send out Bub Carrington, when you send out Keshan George, AJ Johnson, Trey Johnson, Alex Sar, Jir Watkins, these are all guys that I fully expect to be in a rotation come February of 2026. [ __ ] there might be a starting five that head coach uh JJ, whatever his name is, there might be a starting five that he tries out in the summer league. There might be an actual starting five for us come December 23rd. And if that is the case, if that is the case, we should fully expect to compete for a championship in the Vegas Summer League. And I’m honestly not surprised um that that is the case with, you know, all the guys uh that played heavy rotational minutes like Keshan, like Bub Carrington, like Alexar u playing in the summer league because that’s the approach that will do learned under Sam Prey and that’s the approach that OKC has been taking. I know people comped to, you know, when OKC won the summer league title, was that 2022 or 23 when they had CE and Jaylen Williams that projected into them, you know, winning NBA title three years later. But OKC has been doing this since KD, uh, Russ, and James Harden. All three of those guys played summer league basketball in their second year, no matter the mark they made as rookies. And all three of those guys that I listed made more dynamic marks than any of the uh Wizards that I listed from last season. Even though I love our roster and I love our young guns, they they weren’t KD, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden entering year two. Um so to see these guys build that chemistry um over the course of the summer and hopefully it can translate into the season, I’m super excited. I’m expecting to win it all. Alex Sar better go for summer league MVP. You know, they was bidding on Alex all last year when he had that zero point performance. Everybody was asking if he was a bust. I ain’t see those videos after he dropped 35 on yoga head. But I’m quiet. I’m quiet. I’m gonna need him drop 34 at some point in this summer league. Um because guess what? You got your point guard of the future that should be able to set the table for you. Keshan George. We seen him clamp Giannis next year. And I’m super excited to see AJ Johnson because I got a hot take about AJ Johnson that I don’t know if I’m willing to stand 10 toes down yet, man. Matter of fact, yeah, I’m I’mma say it then, then I’m gonna get out on the video. I think that while Bub Carrington is getting all this hype and I love it for him, Baltimore bread, I want Bub to succeed and I want him to succeed for the Wizards, I think AJ Johnson might potentially be the point guard one for the future for the Washington Wizards. And the reason that I say that, I’m not gonna get too deep to it right now, is because I I don’t know if I love the fit of a Trey Johnson and Bub Carrington backcourt because that’s a back court that’s allergic to the paint. And one thing that AJ Johnson does get is rim pressure, but I’m getting too deep into, you know, the weeds right now. We’ll talk about that in another time. Um, check it out. Check us out. We’re signing out. Excuse me. Um, if you’re listening to us on audio only platforms like Spotify, Apple podcast, please leave a rating, leave a review. That’s how we finesse these algorithms so that when you’re searching anything Whiz Kids Forever, um, or anything watching the Wizards, Whiz Kids Forever is that number one content hub that pops up in your search bar. As I said at the beginning of the video, if you’re checking this out on YouTube, be sure to comment, be sure to like, be sure to subscribe. More Wizards content dropping in the future. Summer League up next. I’m excited to see what the boys do. I might I might I might do some summer league reaction videos cuz like I said, I expect the Wizards to go all the way. I’ll check in on y’all on the next video. Peace.

The latest Cam Whittmore trade was another chess move for the @WashingtonWizards front office. We talk about it here!

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