The New York Knicks can’t ignore this self-created Cam Reddish problem

As the New York Knicks head into the final weeks of the regular season, the conversations around the direction of the team and the coach’s nightly rotations are only going to get more and more magnified.

With the team struggling to both win games and find playing a lot of their young players, the heat has been put on head coach Tom Thibodeau more than ever. Perhaps most mystifying has been the lack of attention put on Cam Reddish.

What are the New York Knicks doing with Cam Reddish?

After the Knicks traded Charlotte’s protected 2022 first-round pick and Kevin Knox for Cam Reddish a few weeks ago, there was a lot of hype around what Reddish could bring with his new team.

Reddish was the 10th overall pick back in 2019 and was unhappy with his lack of playing time in Atlanta. Reddish handled it like a pro — making it known he would like a better opportunity to grow, but he did so quietly while still being ready to play whenever he was called upon.

The New York Knicks recognized the untapped potential in the 6’8 wing and went out to get him.

Here we are weeks later and… Reddish has appeared in 9 games, averaging just 11 minutes per game? That’s less than half of the minutes he was averaging with the Hawks.

I don’t think anyone expected him to come in right away and play some sort of 30-35 minute starting role.

New York has numerous veterans that they signed and re-signed this offseason.

A lot of these veterans have been miscast into major roles and have struggled, and the New York Knicks tried to trade some of them at the deadline — to no avail.

These bizarre rotations have really tanked any value any of these guys had. So now, they have the same logjammed roster, with the only change being Kemba Walker being shut down for the season due to injury.

So here they are, 9 games under .500,  and based on the language of recent interviews from Tom Thibodeau, it’s hard to see anything changing.

While Thibodeau deserves a lot of the blame, you have to put some on the front office as well.

This team just signed Evan Fournier to a big contract, brought back Alec Burks, and of course, has RJ Barrett playing a massive role on the wing.

Finding time for Reddish was always going to be tricky, but with a coach like Tom Thibodeau, it’s going to be near impossible to convince him to get Reddish into a consistent role.

This idea of trying to balance winning basketball with youth development is great, except when you’re both losing and not developing your young players.

This isn’t something you throw on the backburner. Reddish isn’t some 18-year-old, raw prospect rookie who just started playing basketball. He’s in his 3rd year, has been a top prospect for his entire career, and needs a chance to show if he’s going to be a legitimate part of this team’s future.

Next year will be Cam Reddish’s 4th in the NBA, and he’ll be up for a contract extension very soon.

The New York Knicks need to at the very least, have a better read on what Cam Reddish can bring to the court when he’s given a consistent role. This was an entirely self-created problem and they need to fix it in this last quarter of the season.