2023 NBA Draft: Villanova’s Cam Whitmore drafted 20th overall by Houston Rockets
Whitmore, who was initially expected to go in the top 10, slid on draft day. The 6-foot-7 wing finally heard his name when he was chosen 20th overall in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday night in Brooklyn.
After missing the first seven games of the 2022-23 season, Whitmore went on to average 12.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game in his lone season on the Main Line. He earned Big East Freshman of the Year honors.
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He is Villanova’s first true one-and-done since Tim Thomas in 1997, and the Wildcats’ latest first-round draftee since Saddiq Bey was chosen by the Detroit Pistons in 2020.
Before Whitmore, over the last decade, Villanova has seen five other Wildcats go in the first round and a total of nine players drafted.
Whitmore performed well at the NBA Draft Combine and had the measurables to support. He had a 40.5-inch max vertical leap and tested well in speed and agility. Also, at only 18 years old, there’s plenty of room for the Rockets to mold Whitmore.
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The first round of the 2023 NBA draft saw a generational 7-foot-5 talent hearing his name called at No. 1, trades involving top-10 picks and one player surprisingly sliding out of the lottery.
The moves NBA teams made Thursday will have a ripple effect into free agency, the 2023-24 season and beyond.
As expected, French phenom Victor Wembanyama was drafted with the first overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs. Wembanyama’s status as the most hyped NBA prospect since LeBron James in 2003 gives the Spurs hope of building around a young superstar.
Several other teams are hoping their picks will give them similar hope, including the Charlotte Hornets after drafting Brandon Miller and the Portland Trail Blazers, who selected Scoot Henderson. Twins Amen and Ausar Thompson became the first brothers taken in the top five picks of the same draft in NBA history when the Houston Rockets took Amen at No. 4 and the Detroit Pistons took Ausar at No. 5.
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The first round also saw its fair share of trades, as the Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards swapped draft rights for Bilal Coulibaly and Jarace Walker, and the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks swapped draft rights for Cason Wallace and Dereck Lively II.
Our basketball insiders break down the biggest storylines from the night and what they mean for the league moving forward.
What surprised you most from the draft?
Jeff Borzello: Bilal Coulibaly going at No. 7 seemed a couple spots early. Perhaps the surprise wasn’t simply Coulibaly going ahead of the likes of Jarace Walker, Taylor Hendricks and Cam Whitmore, though, but his rise over the past few months. He was barely on the radar this time a year ago and was still an afterthought earlier this season. Over the past couple weeks, buzz had grown that he was going to be drafted in the lottery, and his perceived ceiling just kept rising. It’s a long-term play with huge potential for the Wizards.
Tim Bontemps: The lack of trade activity. Only two teams — the Sacramento Kings at 24 and Boston Celtics at 25 — moved out of the first round completely on draft night. The other two trades that happened during the first round came in the form of a pair of swapped picks in the lottery. Given how wide open it seemed like things could be heading into the draft, it was interesting to see it play out close to how it was lined up at the start of the night.
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Jonathan Givony: The lack of surprises. By NBA draft standards, it went almost entirely the way we thought it would, starting with Brandon Miller being drafted second (the worst-kept secret in the NBA the past month) and continuing with the fact that we were able to project 18 of the top 24 picks precisely to the right team, and 28 of the 30 players who ended up hearing their names called in the first round overall. That doesn’t normally happen. Sure, there were a couple of players who went higher or lower than we thought they would, but overall it might have been the most predictable draft we’ve seen in some time.
Jeremy Woo: Jett Howard at No. 11 was the main thing I wasn’t expecting, but it wasn’t entirely out of left field. We knew Orlando needed to add shooting, and it opted for him instead of Gradey Dick or Jordan Hawkins, placing a bet on Howard’s potential to become a more dynamic all-around scorer playing alongside Franz Wagner, Paolo Banchero and now Anthony Black. It’s not necessarily what I would have done, and I didn’t see it coming, but in a first round that went mostly according to our projections, this pick stood out.
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Dave McMenamin: Besides Gradey Dick’s red-sequined jacket? The lack of centers selected in the first round. There’s an argument to be made that the three best players in the league are all centers in Nikola Jokic, the reigning Finals MVP; Joel Embiid, the reigning regular-season MVP; and Giannis Antetokounmpo (no further context needed for the Bucks superstar). That said, there were only three centers in the first 30 picks: Victor Wembanyama (No. 1), Dereck Lively II (No. 12) and Noah Clowney (No. 21). And Wembanyama declared he wants to play the 4 next season, with a 5 playing alongside him.
With the Trail Blazers drafting Scoot Henderson No. 3 overall, what does Damian Lillard’s future in Portland look like?
Borzello: Whatever it was before the draft. Portland couldn’t pass up on a talent such as Henderson, regardless of Lillard’s decision. If Lillard leaves, Henderson is a player for Portland to build around. If Lillard stays, the Trail Blazers will balance trying to be competitive with Lillard and keeping an eye on the future with Anfernee Simons and their other young players.
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Bontemps: Uncertain. Henderson has massive upside. I love the pick for Portland and think taking — and keeping — Henderson always made the most sense moving forward. It remains to be seen how Lillard will react to the Blazers not using the third pick to land an impact veteran player to help the franchise move more quickly toward contention.
