The Los Angeles Lakers added their fair share of size on the wing this offseason bringing in Taurean Prince and Cam Reddish on top of LeBron James, Rui Hachimura and Jarred Vanderbilt. Specifically for Reddish, he was rumored to the Lakers for the past two trade deadlines although it did not materialize. Now, however, the front office has taken a flyer on Reddish in hopes that he can re-establish himself as a player.
Still only 23 years old, Reddish has bounced around the league the past couple of seasons. He was originally a lottery pick of the Atlanta Hawks before getting traded to the New York Knicks and then traded again to the Portland Trail Blazers last season before ultimately signing with the Lakers.
Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka believes that head coach Darvin Ham and his staff can work with Reddish and help him find his footing in the league, as well as continue developing as a player, via Jovan Buha of The Athletic:
“I think all the tools are there for Cam,” Pelinka said. “We have an assistant coach on Darvin’s staff, Chris Jent, who had Cam when he was with the Atlanta Hawks. He was a member of their staff and had a really good run with him where he had some really meaningful and impactful games in the playoffs where Cam made a difference. I believe in Darvin and his staff to be able to take a guy like that and get him back to playing confident basketball, efficient basketball.
This was someone who was a (top-10) pick in the draft just a few years ago. So it’s there, and I’m excited for him to show it.”
Reddish will be in a situation where he will have to truly show something to earn minutes or be a prominent rotation player. For his young career, Reddish is averaging 10.3 points shooting 40% from the field and 32.2% from the 3-point line in about 25 minutes a game.
Notoriously for James-led teams, shooting is necessary to let him operate, and the same can be said for Anthony Davis. Lakers assistants Chris Jent and Phil Handy will play two important roles in evolving Reddish’s game to work with the Lakers. For reference, Hachimura struggled shooting from downtown when coming over from the Washington Wizards but credited Handy for his hot shooting in the playoffs.
One can imagine that training camp and preseason games will be the building blocks on how impactful of player Reddish can be for the Lakers heading into next season.
Cam Reddish explains what he’ll bring to L.A. this season
Reddish described the intangibles that Pelinka and Ham were looking for heading into this offseason: toughness, a winning mentality and a positive personality. Reddish has shown some flashes defensively, showing the makes of a 3-and-D wing, but needs to find that consistency in his game on both ends of the court.
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