Prospect with biggest draft slide becomes Summer League MVP

Whitmore averaged 19.3 factors, 5.2 rebounds and a couple of.5 steals in his six video games in Las Vegas, as his Houston Rockets reached the championship sport—they misplaced to the Cleveland Cavaliers. After No. 4 decide Amen Thompson suffered an harm within the first sport, and Houston shut down Jabari Smith Jr. and Tari Eason after two video games, Whitmore carried his squad.

It is a marked distinction from draft night time when Whitmore dropped all the best way to the No. 20 decide after being projected as a excessive lottery decide. Nobody is aware of precisely why he fell to date. It might have been unhealthy group interviews, troubling medical data or Whitmore’s lack of passing. However he confirmed out in Summer season League, demonstrating why he was as soon as so extremely touted.

Now, Whitmore thinks he can win Rookie of the Yr.

He instructed ESPN, “Not simply the skillset, I feel I’ve the boldness total,” and referred to as himself “essentially the most explosive athlete” within the draft.

Whitmore is not the one one who believes in his potential. 76ers group president Daryl Morey hinted that the group tried to maneuver as much as choose Whitmore, who performed simply down the street from the Sixers at Villanova.

If he does win Rookie of the Yr, he’ll be following within the footsteps of Damian Lillard, who received Summer season League MVP in 2012 prematurely of his Rookie of the Yr marketing campaign. Blake Griffin additionally doubled up, profitable Summer season League MVP in 2009 and Rookie of the Yr in 2011, however he missed the 2009-10 season after a preseason harm.

Most lately, final 12 months’s Summer season League MVP, Keegan Murray, made the All-Rookie first group and set the all-time rookie file for three-pointers.

Whereas it is no assure of success, Whitmore’s summer season efficiency despatched a robust message that a few of the groups that handed on him could remorse it. If they do not already.