In what has been quite an unfortunate turn of events for former Atlanta Hawks (26-28) lottery pick, Cam Reddish, some good news may be on the way. Ian Begley of SNY is reporting ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline that the former Duke Blue Devil and 10th-overall pick in 2019 is drawing interest from none other than the Los Angeles Lakers.
According to Begley, the Lakers “have been aggressive” in trying to acquire the player who has missed eight of 13 games since being traded to the New York Knicks, four of which went down as a ‘DNP’ in the books.
This comes after Begley reported on Wednesday the Knicks “have not immediately shut down conversations” regarding Reddish.
Cam Reddish’s journey post-Atlanta Hawks could be making another stop
The grass certainly hasn’t been greener on the other side for Reddish who had to read how his current head coach never wanted the team to trade for him in the first place. He is averaging 4.0 points on 25.0 percent shooting and 11.1 percent from deep with 1.4 rebounds while seeing 10.0 minutes per contest.
That’s a far cry from the 11.9 points on 40.2 percent (37.9% 3P) in over 23 minutes per game he was putting up with the Hawks.
But the Lakers may be coming to the rescue.
"“One deal that had been discussed leading up to Thursday was a three-team trade involving Nerlens Noel and Talen Horton-Tucker to the Toronto Raptors, Reddish and Alec Burks to Los Angeles, and Dragic and draft compensation to New York, SNY sources confirm.”"
The Knicks, who have lost four in a row and 10 of their last 12, are also dealing with rumors regarding star power forward Julius Randle.
Los Angeles, who just beat the Knick 122-105 in overtime, are in the midst of a 5-11 slump and are also dealing with swirling rumors regarding Russell Westbrook. Westbrook was not named in Begley’s piece.
Meanwhile, the Hawks are comfortable standing pat at the deadline. The latest reports put them at a “90% chance” of not making a move despite being two games under .500 and having lost three of their last five. They are two wins behind the Charlotte Hornets (who are on a six-game skid) for ninth in the East.
There are outside factors as well with Atlanta three games behind the Brooklyn Nets, losers of nine straight, for eighth.
The Hawks have gotten minutes out of Kevin Knox who they got back from the Knicks, mostly in garbage time. But they also have the protected draft pick from the Hornets which, as Travis Schlenk suggested, is of interest to a wider breadth of teams.
Whether or not riding with this current group is a wise move won’t be clear until the season ends. But, as several players have pointed out, they made a lot of noise with this same group that was clearly not playing up to its potential for much of the year. Perhaps the Reddish trade is truly a case of addition by subtraction.