New York Knicks: Cameron Reddish’s potential fit

With the NBA lottery approaching, the New York Knicks will fall anywhere between the first and fifth pick in the draft. With the possibility of falling with the fifth pick, the Knicks talent evaluators have looked into Duke’s wing Cameron Reddish.

In a draft class filled with arguably a lot of question marks after the third pick, the New York Knicks have become fans of Cameron Reddish in the lead-up to June 29, according to SNY’s Ian Begley. With every potential pick at the four or five spot, the Knicks will select unfavorably to their projected “number one” spot.

In a perfect world, the Knicks win the 14 percent of obtaining the first pick and draft Reddish’s Duke teammate Zion Williamson. But as everyone knows, New York has found themselves in worse ends with the lottery. Think Kristaps Porzingis, when the Knicks had the second best odds at the number one pick in 2015, but dropped to the fourth.

Obviously, this worked as a blessing in disguise at the time, but it should be set as a reminder to fans that falling in the draft, is not an unlikely scenario.

With that being said, if the Knicks were to hypothetically draft Reddish, where would his role be in year one and in the future?

Reddish’s time at Duke was a bit overshadowed by the presence of teammates Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett. Though, even with a lot of the pressure being focused on his teammates, Reddish still only shot 35.6 percent from the field and 33.3 percent beyond the arc.

Offensively, he was streaky and overall served as a spot-up shooter for the Blue Devils, but on the defensive side of the floor is where Reddish shined.

Standing at 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-1 wingspan, Reddish ended the season with 1.6 steals per game and 0.6 blocks per game. This is the part of Reddish’s game the Knicks talent evaluators believe will translate the most to the NBA.

For the Knicks, a team looking desperately looking for a big splash in free agency, they will be looking for depth players at the fourth and fifth pick. Arguably the third as well, but Murray State’s Ja Morant and Duke’s RJ Barrett will likely find themselves in the starting lineup next year, or at least in a regular rotation.

For Reddish, I don’t see this as a likely scenario in year one, regardless of big moves being made in free agency. He may get a spot in the regular rotation as the season progresses and he finds his role, but for the time being, I see Kevin Knox taking most of the minutes for the start of the season.

Reddish’s time will likely be contingent on Knox’s performance over the season, but there is the possibility of both sharing the floor together with both playing the forward spots. In this case, Reddish would complement well being a player who doesn’t command the ball and get his teammates involved. This could also help with Knox’s deficiencies on the defensive side.

Hopefully the New York Knicks don’t have to go the route of developmental players with someone like Reddish and can land in the top three.  Still, being that the odds are not completely in our favor, the Blue Devil’s forward would be a viable option at the fourth or fifth pick. And with Coach David Fizdale, Reddish can develop into a serviceable player in today’s NBA.