The Atlanta Hawks once traded a perennial MVP candidate for a fringe All-Star and a draft bust. Now the franchise is being reminded of that pain once again as Cam Reddish signs with a new team to continue his career.
The year was 2018, and the Atlanta Hawks held the No. 3 pick in the NBA Draft. Just three years removed from winning 60 games, the team was falling apart and ready to kick off a rebuild. Mike Budenholzer was gone, the Hawks had won just 24 games, and the best player on the roster was either second-year big John Collins or 42-year-old wing Vince Carter.
Atlanta needed a home run swing to jumpstart their rebuild, and it fell right into their laps with the No. 3 pick. The Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings both drafted big men and left the premier perimeter players on the board. Luka Doncic, a European star as a teenager, was right there for the taking. Hindsight is 20-20, of course, but most public draft analysts had the Slovenian guard No. 1 on their board, and he fit the Hawks' needs perfectly.
Instead, Atlanta valued Oklahoma point guard Trae Young over Doncic, and so they pulled off what they thought was a brilliant move: trade down with the Dallas Mavericks, pick up an extra first-round pick, and take the player they wanted all along.
The book on that part of the trade is still being written, but we know what section of the library it is going in. Trae Young is a talented and popular player who has been to four All-Star Games and made one All-NBA Third Team; he has very real flaws that have made it difficult for the Hawks to build a contender around him.
Luka Doncic, on the other hand, has been named to five All-NBA First Teams and led his team to the NBA Finals. In terms of star-for-star, the Hawks lost that trade.
But of course, they also picked up an extra first-round pick. Could that pick have swung the trade? Unfortunately for Atlanta, that is a resounding no.
Cam Reddish was a clear draft bust
The following year, the Atlanta Hawks held both their own first-round pick and the Dallas Mavericks' pick. Their own pick landed at No. 8, while Dallas sent over the No. 10 pick -- hardly the franchise-changing asset that the Hawks hoped it would be.
The Hawks used that pick on Duke wing Cam Reddish. Part of a superstar freshman class, Reddish had a middling year at Duke while RJ Barrett and Zion Williamson starred (and went in the top 3 of the 2019 NBA Draft). Reddish had a lot of pedigree and a reputation as a sharpshooter, but he didn't impress as a freshman.
He didn't impress as a rookie, either. He shot just 33.2 percent from deep, averaged more turnovers than assists, and largely looked like a disappointment from the jump. That did not get better, either. In just over two seasons with the Hawks he played 118 games and averaged 11.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, shooting only 32.9 percent from deep and 38.5 percent from the field overall.
Atlanta could have strung out the experiment, but they made the call to cut ties. They sent Reddish and a future second to the New York Knicks for fellow draft bust Kevin Knox and a conditional first-round pick. The first, acquired by the Knicks at the draft, belonged to the Charlotte Hornets and was protected enough that it was unlikely to ever convey (it did, in fact, revert to two seconds just this year).
That was a swing and a miss from the Hawks, both in prioritizing Trae Young over Luka Doncic and in using their extra pick on Cam Reddish. Stretch-4 Cam Johnson went No. 11; combo forward P.J. Washington went No. 12; All-Star guard Tyler Herro went No. 13. Yet the Hawks walked away with Cam Reddish.
Reddish has been on a journey ever since
There was no career takeoff in New York for Reddish, who lasted only 35 games before being traded again. He spend half a season in Portland to little avail, and then the Los Angeles Lakers scooped him up and forced him into a prominent rotation role. The result? More dissapointment.
In 254 career games, Cam Reddish has shot 39.8 percent from the field and 32.2 percent from 3-point range. He has turned the ball over as often as he has assisted, he is not a plus rebounder, and his defense is middling at best. His career projection went from two-way star potential to 3-and-D starter to bench wing to below replacement level. This summer, no NBA team wanted him.
That led Reddish to head overseas. For most players going from a multi-year NBA career to an international league, the options available are in the upper leagues. Spain, Serbia, Australia. Instead, Reddish had to sign a contract with Šiauliai of the Lithuanian Basketball League (LKL).
That's a second-rung team in a second-rung league; a chance to prove himself, to be sure, but hardly a place to continue refining his skills and make an NBA return. Things appear to be over for Reddish in the NBA, a truly disappointing end to what looked like a promising career.
For Hawks fans wondering what happened to Cam Reddish, there is your answer. And it's another twist of the knife for one of the Hawks' most painful mistakes.