#5 — Cam Reddish, Freshman, Duke
For the third straight entry in this Big Board, this might be a controversial choice. Unquestionably Zion Williamson was the best prospect on Duke, and R.J. Barrett gobbled up points, headlines and double-doubles with ease at the college level.
However, he sometimes suffered from tunnel vision, and even though he was a good passer at times, he would often try to force the issue at the rim – leading to turnovers, offensive fouls and other negative plays. Despite that, Barrett will be featured prominently later on in this Big Board.
Here though, I’ve placed Cam Reddish of Duke as the #5 player on this Atlanta Hawks Big Board.
There is no doubt that Reddish had a nightmarish freshman campaign with the Blue Devils. His true shooting percentage was under 50 percent, and he only shot 35.6 percent from the field in what will likely be his only college season in Durham. Not great.
So why is he placed so highly on this list? Despite a lot of negative publicity, Reddish showed a lot of flashes in his freshman season and, at times, he was a high-level role player for this Duke team that had plenty of buzz around it all year.
That’s the key, though. Reddish is more of a high-level role player than a go-to bucket-getter at this point in his career. With the Atlanta Hawks, all they would need him to do is defend at a high level – an area in which he excelled in his freshman season, far more than on offense – and shoot the three-ball when he’s open.
Though Reddish only shot 33.3 percent from deep this season, his form is beautiful, and his percentage could be chalked up to the ball just “not going in” for him. When paired with a modern offensive system like Atlanta’s as well as a generational passer in Trae Young, and it seems likely that Reddish would flourish sooner rather than later at the NBA level.