The Atlanta Hawks are going to need the size of Cam Reddish

The Atlanta Hawks go into the first game of the home and home against the Chicago Bulls with a major positional deficiency. Most of the season they have had an issue at the wing position but going into the Bulls game, they have no healthy power forwards on the roster.

Danilo Gallinari was one of the first Hawks players to enter the NBA’s health and safety protocols. This was not a massive issue at the time because the Hawks still had the services of their starting power forward in John Collins and their first-round draft pick Jalen Johnson.

Unfortunately, both of these players have entered the protocols, joining Onyeka Okongwu who played a tremendous game against the Philadelphia 76ers. This only leaves Clint Capela and Gorgui Dieng as the two healthy front-court players on the Atlanta Hawks squad.

The Atlanta Hawks may use Cam Reddish as the stand-in power forward.

Cam Reddish, as most Atlanta Hawks fans know, is a natural wing who also has the ability to play at the two-guard position. Even though he is 6’8″ it is a very rare lineup where he is asked to play at the power forward position, despite the fact he has a 7’1″ wingspan.

The good news for the Hawks is that the Bulls have only two regular players in the rotation over Reddish’s height. These are their centers Nikola Vucevic and Tony Bradley. Vucvevic should have his hands full as the Hawks need to exploit Capela’s size.

It is likely that the Bulls will start DeMar DeRozan at the four which is the natural matchup for Reddish against the team anyway. However, he will be asked to play the weakside defensive role more, protecting the rim in a manner similar to Collins.

Hopefully, the Hawks will have some players back out of the protocols for the second game of this home and home. This will allow Reddish to get back to his normal role and the Hawks can then exploit this size advantage in the second game.