ATLANTA — Cam Reddish will begin his NBA career, as all rookies do, facing a few questions:
About his shooting, about his inconsistent single season at Duke, and about how he will blend his game with the rest of the Hawks’ exciting young core.
But he’s already answered the most important question: He knows who Outkast is.
A video ESPN posted to Twitter on Friday featured a number of rookies, including Reddish, playing “Name the 90s.” It featured the youngsters looking at pictures and struggling to name a Super Nintendo and Easy Bake Oven, among other things
But what really made it go viral was Reddish’s response to a picture of Andre 3000 and Big Boi: A shrug, a laugh and… no answer.
As the Hawks introduced him at a press conference on Monday, he explained that he does, in fact, know the hip-hop duo, who are basically Atlanta royalty.
“To be honest with you I think I was just blanking in front of the camera,” he said. “But no, I knew a few songs from Outkast, obviously a great group.”
Reddish, the 10th pick in last Thursday’s NBA Draft, will be expected to fill a critical role for the Hawks.
While Atlanta was one of the most exciting young teams last season, playing attractive basketball spearheaded by Trae Young’s daring playmaking and John Collins’ ferocious scoring, they also lost a lot of games because they were one of the worst defensive teams in the league.
They ranked dead last, in fact, in points allowed per game (119.4), a full two and a half points per contest more than the next-worst team. (Some of that was because they simply played faster, higher-scoring games as a matter of style, but they also ranked third from the bottom in points allowed per 100 possessions, at 113.0.)
Enter Reddish.
The 6-foot-9 forward arrives with a strong defensive reputation and the potential to guard up and down an opposing lineup, ideally giving the Hawks the defensive dexterity that’s become a hallmark of top teams. Atlanta coach Lloyd Pierce focused on that as one of the most important reasons the team targeted Reddish.
“You just like the tools that you know you have in a 6-9 perimeter player like Cam, because he’s versatile and he can switch onto multiple opponents, defend point guards as well as some of the perimeter forwards in our league,” Pierce said. “I think defensively is where you get excited, and as you watch the playoffs in each round - who can switch 1-4, who can defend on the perimeter, who has the length to rebound and attack, and I think Cam brings a lot of that.”
Reddish will still have to show how he fits offensively. He was a highly-rated youth player who was touted for his scoring skills when he arrived at Duke, but struggled to always find his rhythm in an offense that included Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett commanding the ball most of the time.
With Young and Collins already established stars in the Atlanta offense, that dynamic won’t necessarily change for Reddish, even as he talks about spreading his wings more in the NBA.
“You know I do feel like it is time for me to kind of step it up a little bit, take it to another level and through my work, I feel like that’s possible,” he said.
The idea will be to incorporate Reddish as a complementary shooter and playmaker who can facilitate offense, be a threat off the ball and attack the basket as he cycles through duties with Young and Kevin Huerter, Atlanta’s other promising young backcourt player.
Reddish said he’s embracing that vision for the offense.
“I wanna really work on my ballhandling ability, my playmaking skills and sharpening up my shooting as well, so I would just say all aspects of my game really need to improve,” he said.
However his game develops in his first season as a Hawk, it was clear he was ecstatic to be in Atlanta.
“When I first landed and I was on the way here, I saw my face and my name on a building and it was at that moment I was like, ‘I love this, I love this city,’” Reddish said. “I mean, it was great.”
And, for what it’s worth, he said he’s a big fan of Gunna, Lil Baby and Migos.
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