On Friday evening, Cam Reddish had one of the finest games of his young career, scoring 26 points on 6-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc, adding four rebounds, an assist, and a steal. His performance actually put him in elite company:
Cam Reddish is the youngest player to have 26+ points on less than 15 field goal attempts with 4+ made 3’s and 0 turnovers, since Kobe Bryant on April 5, 1999. pic.twitter.com/ECt3DDMl3a
— Kevin Keneely (@KevinKeneely1) February 29, 2020
Here is a quick two-minute highlight tape from last evening if you missed the game:
It is honestly comical seeing the difference in the amount of confidence Reddish is playing with now compared to the start of the season. Shortly before the turn of the new year, we started to see Reddish start to aggressively attack the hoop at times, and the three-point ball start to fall. In fact, up to this month, we had seen Reddish vastly improve all of his shooting marks month to month:
October: .209% FG, .056% 3PT
November: .32% FG, .279% 3PT
December: .359% FG, .310% 3PT
January: .411% FG, .403% 3PT
Reddish has not shot as well from beyond the arc in the month of February but has still shot a respectable 34.2% from beyond the arc. With that being said, he does have a 45.2% shooting percentage the best monthly split of his young career. Most importantly, he has also averaged 14.1 points per game for the month, showing he can be a legitimate scoring option in this league. This is in just 27.7 minutes per contest and is a big improvement from where he was at at the beginning of the season.
Atlanta could not have been a better landing spot for Reddish, as he not only has gotten to join a team that is focused on player development, but he has also gotten to play starter minutes all year long to work out some kinks in his game and get fully adjusted to the NBA. We are starting to see this pay dividends, and he has flashed a bit more lately than fourth overall pick De’Andre Hunter.
The defensive projectability has already been there, and Reddish has the makings of a very strong two-way player who is finally starting to meet his potential. There is no reason to think he will not keep developing on both ends of the floor, and he is starting to look like Paul George lite with his style of play.
While the Hawks are out of the playoff mix, there are still a number of reasons to keep tuning in for every game. There is the star ascension and development of John Collins, the return of Clint Capela, and the rise of Cam Reddish. We could be in for a big year two folks.
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