Taking a look Cam Reddish’s up and down rookie season

Cam Reddish’s had his ups and downs for the Atlanta Hawks this season, but his impact on both ends of the floor is promising.

Cam Reddish had a solid rookie season for the Atlanta Hawks and flashed the potential to be a really great player in this league for years to come. At just 20 years old, Reddish still has so much room to grow. The 6-foot-8, 208-lb shooting guard has great defensive instincts and really good shooting mechanics, a recipe for an elite level three and D wing in the NBA.

Before coming into the league Reddish was compared to the likes of Rudy Gay,  Joe Johnson and other pure scoring wings. However, Reddish has shown much more defensive ability than either of those guys. Reddish is almost certainly going to end up being more of a three and D wing than both Gay and Johnson.

However, on the offensive end of the floor, if Reddish is able to be as productive as guys like Rudy Gay and/or Joe Johnson, paired with his elite defensive potential, Reddish could easily be a future All-Star.

Reddish averaged a solid 10.5 points and 3.7 rebounds per game with shooting splits of .384/.332/.802 in his rookie season. These numbers are actually quite impressive for a rookie considering the ups and downs all rookies are expected to have. The fact that Reddish shot above 80 percent from the free-throw line is encouraging for his future as a shooter.

The most encouraging part of this season for Reddish is the fact that he was really catching his stride right before the NBA’s hiatus.

In the four games, Reddish played in March, he averaged 17.5 points and 4.0 rebounds per game on .551/.476/.857 shooting splits in just 28.8 minutes per night. If Reddish is able to shoot with those kinds of percentages on a consistent basis, he will be a force in the next couple of years.

In addition to Reddish’s impressive final stretch of the season, he also proved to be quite durable this season. Cam Reddish this season played 26.7 minutes per game and played in 58 of the Hawks 67 games. He also started 34 of the 58 games he played in, this will likely increase as he improves. Let’s just hope he’s able to maintain this level of durability late in his career.

Lastly, Cam Reddish is on a rookie contract for the next three years and is an incredibly valuable player on that contract. Making, at most, $5.9 million in the fourth year of the contract is an absolute bargain for a guy that brings high-level three-point shooting and defense every single night.

Hawks fans should be more than happy with the rookie season they just saw from Cam Reddish, let’s just hope he continues to improve going forward.