The Athletic Date: 05/03/2021
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THE ATHLETIC DATE: 05/03/2021 Cam Reddish’s Year 2: What we learned, what’s next and what it means for Hawks By: Chris Kirschner https://theathletic.com/2562731/2021/05/03/cam-reddish-year-2-what-we-learned-whats-next-and- what-it-means-for-the-hawks/ Cam Reddish was effectively ruled out for the rest of the regular season last week when the Hawks announced he would be reviewed around May 16 for his right Achilles soreness. The team’s last regular- season game is on May 16. Reddish has progressed to running and dynamic foot contacts every other day and capacity-building strength work four to five days a week, the team said. Because he won’t be doing any on-court contact work in the next two weeks, it also means it’s highly unlikely we will see him in the playoffs, even if the Hawks advance past the first round. By the time the playoffs begin, Reddish would have missed three months and would be on a minutes restriction if he was able to return; it’s hard to imagine the team trying to reintegrate him into the lineup and focusing on his development when the stakes are much higher than the regular season. The likely absence ends a frustrating and disappointing sophomore year for the No. 10 overall pick in 2019. This is the second straight season where his season has ended unceremoniously. His rookie season was cut short because of the pandemic — just when Reddish was starting to emerge and show what he can do on both ends of the floor. This also is Reddish’s second straight season that began in less-than- ideal conditions. When he was a rookie, his offseason was limited because of his core muscle injury, which caused him to miss Summer League and impacted him for several months in the regular season. This season, the Hawks were not able to get in much team activities because of tight restrictions on the use of the practice facility. Through two seasons, Reddish has played 84 games and 2,301 minutes. To put that number into perspective, this year’s No. 1 overall pick, Anthony Edwards, has already played more than 2,000 minutes for the Timberwolves. RJ Barrett has played more than 3,900 minutes in his two seasons for the Knicks. Of last season’s top-10 picks, only Jarrett Culver and Jaxson Hayes have played fewer minutes than Reddish. Culver has been a disappointment for Minnesota; Hayes has recently started to show some potential for New Orleans. The numbers for Reddish as a whole have not been encouraging. He has the lowest win shares/48 (0.00) of any Hawks first-round pick since 1996; Priest Lauderdale, who was drafted that same year, played 74 career games and finished with a -0.074 WS/48. Reddish has the second-worst value over replacement in the same time span for Hawks first-round picks, the third-worst player efficiency rating. … I could keep going, but it would just be piling on. You get the point. Reddish’s statistics are not pretty. Equally concerning than the catch-all metrics is the fact Reddish has made only 27 percent of his midrange jumpers and 24 percent of his non-corner 3s, per Cleaning The Glass. If he has a long-term role in this offense built around Trae Young, he’s going to have to shoot at a much higher rate because the Hawks are going to depend on Reddish as a catch-and-shoot guy. He hasn’t shown a consistent ability in getting to the basket and scoring inside the perimeter, and he hasn’t shown much ability to create — he has 130 turnovers and 122 assists for his career. Controlling his dribble and making it tighter needs to be a priority this offseason. What makes Reddish such a tantalizing player to evaluate is that he does have the ability to do stuff like this: He straight-up bullied Evan Fournier on this play and then topped it off on the other end by drawing contact and finishing with the basket. You can’t draw this up any better. This is another example of what he can do when he’s confident and in control: But in the same game, he makes a play like the one below. It’s a one-point game late in the fourth quarter, and there’s still plenty of time on the shot clock. There’s just no need to even attempt this, even though the Hawks got the offensive rebound and the score. When Lloyd Pierce was head coach, he talked a lot about how Reddish needs to improve on letting the game come to him instead of trying to force opportunities when they aren’t there. Self-creation is not a strong suit for Reddish right now. He shot 15.4 percent this season when holding the ball for more than six seconds, 33.7 percent when holding the ball for two to six seconds and 40 percent under two seconds. That clearly illustrates how the less time Reddish has the ball in his hands, the better he can be. Defensively, he has the tools to be a constant disruptive presence. He’s shown good anticipation and an ability to get into advantageous positions to defend smaller players and ones who are stronger than him. This is where Reddish’s value solely lies right now. He can be a multi-positional defender who has size and quick hands. Here, he fights through a screen, never loses track of Jaylen Brown (his primary assignment), swipes the ball away and immediately looks ahead to Kevin Huerter in transition. Reddish’s pass ends up being picked off, which, again, slowing down is going to be important for him. Lakers coach Frank Vogel spoke about Reddish’s defensive potential before they played the Hawks in February — Reddish’s primary assignment in that game was LeBron James. “He’s got great upside on both sides of the ball but particularly on the defensive side of the floor,” Vogel said. “He really has good feet, obviously he’s got good length and good anticipation abilities. He’s a young player who’s still finding his way with all of the tricks that these vets have in this league, but he’s got tremendous upside on the defensive end.” Figuring out what kind of player Reddish can be is such a challenge because of his ultra-bright moments where he looks like someone who has the potential to be a star on both ends of the floor, but then there are more examples where he just looks like a bigger version of former Hawks first-round pick DeAndre’ Bembry, who was known for his ability to guard wings and point guards and offered almost nothing offensively. Reddish is just 21 years old. There’s still time for him to figure out where he fits in the NBA — if that’s with the Hawks or another organization. His former teammate Vince Carter believes confidence is key for Reddish. “As last season wore on, he got better,” Carter told The Athletic last month. “He’s always had that defensive mindset. Defensively, he’s great. You see more confidence in him on that end. I listened to one of his interviews when he was talking about guarding LeBron. He said he wanted to make it tough for him. You could probably attest to this from talking with him, but last year he would say, ‘I am gonna go out there, and whatever happens happens.’ This year, he said, ‘I’m going to go out there and stop him.’ “It’s confidence. Confidence is really important. You can ask a guy month-to-month, week-to-week and ask what’s changed? It might be just seeing a shot go in or fixing something or seeing three shots go in, and it can make all of the difference. It’s all about confidence with him. He’ll get there.” Since entering the league, Reddish’s words would make you believe confidence is a strength of his. He once told The Athletic during his brutal slump in his rookie season that he’s “still a bucket,” and he said before this season how we all would see a better, improved version of him. Both of those comments are still to be determined. Watching him on the floor, his confidence is a different story. He frequently drops his head after missing shots and lollygags back on defense thinking about the missed shot. This can be fixed, and there’s still hope that he turns into the player so many in the Hawks organization believe he can be. Several teammates said Reddish looked like one of the best players this offseason when the returnees all traveled to California for some pickup games, and Reddish locked up Kevin Durant. With Bogdan Bogdanovic playing at this level, De’Andre Hunter’s growth in fewer games played than Reddish and Huerter’s improvement, I’m not sure where that leaves Reddish in the mix moving forward. I’m not saying he needs to be traded — wings at his size who can defend have value — but from what he displayed in Year 2, there doesn’t seem like there’s a clear path to being a starter on this roster soon. There are numerous reasons to not give up on a player so early in his career. Just look at Barrett with the Knicks, Darius Garland and Collin Sexton with the Cavaliers, Miles Bridges and Malik Monk with the Hornets and even Hunter (many, myself included, thought Reddish was clearly the better prospect between the two of them coming into the season).