One of the few bright spots during the Portland Trail Blazers’ recent struggles has been the play of forward Cam Reddish, who delivered his best performance with his new team Friday night at the Atlanta Hawks.
Acquired at the trade deadline from the New York Knicks, Reddish scored 25 points on 9-of-17 shooting while hitting 4 of 9 three-pointers during a 129-111 loss to the Hawks, who made Reddish a lottery pick in 2019.
Blazers coach Chauncey Billups praised Reddish’s play, especially on offense, which was needed with Jusuf Nurkic and Anfernee Simons out with injuries.
“We needed him to be aggressive,” Billups said. “Particularly when Ant’s out, Nurk’s out, we need another guy that can be aggressive. That can score a little bit.”
In eight games with the Blazers, Reddish is averaging 14.1 points per game while shooting a career-best 47.7% from the field. He’s also shooting 37.3% on threes, well above his career average of 32.7%.
Reddish never clicked like this with the Hawks (he shot 38.5% in three seasons) or the Knicks (he fell out of the rotation in early December), leading to both franchises trading him away. But now he’s with the Blazers, who hope the former Duke star develops into an impact player.
Reddish said in Atlanta that he loves the environment of his new team.
“Outside of us losing, I’m happy,” Reddish told reporters. “I’m enjoying basketball again and it’s honestly a blessing. It wasn’t always like that.”
The main objective now is for him to learn his new team’s schemes.
Against Atlanta, the 6-foot-8 Reddish started at small forward but also saw time at point forward when starting point guard Damian Lillard rested.
Reddish said he felt he played well but added: “It would be going a lot better if I knew all of the plays.”
Be that as it may, Billups said Reddish demonstrated the ability to be a point forward.
“We haven’t had practice that much and even when we did, he wasn’t playing really the point or like a secondary ballhandler, which he’s easily able to do,” Billups said. “But he was kind of thrust into that position tonight because I kind of played him on the ball in the second unit, and I thought he did a really good job.”
— Aaron Fentress | afentress@Oregonian.com | @AaronJFentress (Twitter), @AaronJFentress (Instagram), @AaronFentress (Facebook). Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts
