But let’s focus on rookies Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore. Whitmore ended up winning MVP of the event after playing in all of the team’s games and averaging 19.3 points, 5.2 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.5 steals. He wouldn’t necessarily have been my pick (that would have been Cavs’ sharpshooter Sam Merrill), but Whitmore displayed all of the things, both positively and negatively, that made him such an exciting yet polarizing prospect. On the plus side, the athleticism was readily apparent, and his blend of power and explosion was real. The footwork and decisiveness on his drives isn’t necessarily quite at the level it needs to be yet — he’s a teenager and plays a very deliberate brand of basketball — but he’s just such a freight train when he decides to get downhill that it’s hard to stop him even if you get a body in front of him. He just can go through bigger, older players like they aren’t there. He attempted about seven shots per game at the rim and made them at a 63 percent clip.
by Hoops Hype