Atlanta Hawks 2019 NBA Draft: The Theory of Cam Reddish

A quick look at how Cam Reddish might fit on the Atlanta Hawks after he was selected in the 2019 NBA Draft.

At long last, the 2019 NBA Draft is over, and the Atlanta Hawks came away with three players that GM Travis Schlenk clearly valued quite highly: De’Andre Hunter of Virginia at #4, Cam Reddish of Duke at #10 and Bruno Fernando of Maryland at #34.

All three were great picks, as our draft grades would entail, but the one that will likely garner most of the attention and adoration from the team in the early going will be Reddish. An unpopular player among NBA Draft circles due to his inefficiency and lack of feel, there can be no question about his talent.

Sure, sometimes Reddish looked a bit lost out there, and watching Duke games became an exercise in watching Reddish get called for charge after charge – giving up the ball with regularity due to an avalanche of offensive fouls.

However, when he was good, he was very good. Just look at this high-level sequence in which he nabs a rebound and takes it all the way for a forceful slam (which was a rare feat for Reddish at Duke, as he only tallied 7 dunks all season per Bart Torvik):

Of course, the main focus of Reddish on the Atlanta Hawks will be three-point shooting, and many of his highlights are a laundry list of different looks from beyond the arc. Reddish seems to be ready and willing to take catch-and-shoot jumpers with regularity, as 61.8 percent of his shots were from deep and 82 percent of those were assisted per Bart Torvik.

His shooting form is excellent, though there are concerns about his elbow angle, which is usually acute or very acute per Red Team Scouting – leading to a flatter arc and essentially making the basket narrower.

Other that that, though, Reddish’s early role on the Atlanta Hawks in the 2019-20 season will likely be as a three-point shooter who has the size and length (6-foot-8, 7-foot-1 wingspan) to simply rise up over smaller players – making his catch-and-shoot efforts that much easier.

Lastly, where the Atlanta Hawks will really need Reddish’s length and fluidity is on defense, where he produced a 2.9 percent steal rate and 1.9 percent block rate with Duke per KenPom, and his size on the perimeter caused problems for many a team.

With the #10 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks took something of a gamble. However, due to having multiple picks and selecting a player with a higher floor at #4, they don’t necessarily need to “hit” on every pick. Reddish has the talent to pan out in the NBA, and it will be fun to watch him in Summer League, which starts in under two weeks!