Will Cam Reddish take the next step in his development with the New York Knicks? Is trading Reddish addition by subtraction for the Atlanta Hawks?
The Knicks and Hawks, who met in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs last year, teamed up again for an intriguing trade reported Thursday by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski -- the biggest struck during the season thus far.
Reddish, whose NBA career has featured more promise than production, heads to New York to reunite on the wing with Duke teammate RJ Barrett. The Knicks presumably will offer Reddish a larger role after he averaged a career-low 23.4 MPG coming off the bench for Atlanta during his third season.
That decline in playing time had to do with a crowded Hawks wing rotation, which saw Reddish return after missing the second half of last season and most of the team's run to the Eastern Conference finals due to injury. Even with starting small forward De'Andre Hunter sidelined nearly two months following knee surgery, there still wasn't enough playing time for coach Nate McMillan to keep everyone happy. Hunter's return to the lineup Wednesday night surely precipitated the timing of the deal.
Let's take a look at the implications for both teams.
Knicks get: Cam Reddish, Solomon Hill, 2025 second-round pick (via Brooklyn)
Hawks get: Kevin Knox, protected first-round pick (via Charlotte)
New York Knicks: B
The idea of Reddish has been better than the actual player thus far. On paper, Reddish checks every box you'd want in a modern wing. At 6-foot-8, he's big enough to defend multiple positions, can handle the ball and create his own shot and has added above-average 3-point shooting this season (38% on a sample of 153 attempts).
Reddish has also tended to splash when the lights are biggest, including an impressive series of games when he returned to the lineup in last year's conference finals, capped by 21 points on 6-of-7 3-point shooting as Atlanta was eliminated by the Milwaukee Bucks. He followed that up with 20 points in 21 minutes in the Hawks' nationally-televised season opener.
And yet something still seems to be missing with Reddish, helping explain why Atlanta was willing to part with such a promising prospect. That improvement as a 3-point shooter hasn't translated to efficient scoring. His .537 true shooting percentage, while improved from his first two NBA seasons, is still weaker than the league average of .557. Reddish has also been a shoot-first player, handing out a paltry 1.7 assists per 36 minutes this year.
That "something" certainly could be time. After all, Reddish is just 22. He's younger than three players (Chris Duarte, Corey Kispert and Davion Mitchell) taken among the top 15 picks of last year's draft. So New York landing him for a first-round pick that may fall later than that in the round (the pick, acquired from the Hornets during the 2021 draft, is top-18 protected this year and can never be any higher than No. 15) and a player who had been out of the rotation is certainly reasonable value.
It will be interesting to see how coach Tom Thibodeau uses Reddish. After all, the Knicks' wing rotation isn't exactly barren itself, with Barrett bouncing back from a poor start to the season, fellow starter Evan Fournier in the first year of a four-year contract and Alec Burks and Immanuel Quickley also in the mix.
This trade appears to suggest that New York will continue playing without a traditional point guard while Derrick Rose is sidelined, putting Burks and Quickley in that spot and freeing up minutes on the wing. Given Fournier's own uneven play -- he hasn't been much better than Reddish as a scorer or distributor and is a weaker defensive option -- it's entirely possible Reddish usurps some of his minutes.
Because Reddish is so young, this isn't exactly a win-now trade despite sending out a future first-round pick. Assuming he develops like New York hopes, Reddish fits well into a lineup of the future alongside Barrett, who is nine months younger.
Extensions next offseason for both players would largely take New York out of the running for cap space in 2023, when the Knicks hold team options for Burks, Rose and Nerlens Noel. However, New York has moved away from free agency as a primary strategy in favor of accumulating useful players and picks to be ready to trade for a star player. Reddish fits into that mode of operation.
Atlanta Hawks: B-
The Hawks making a trade has seemed inevitable since president of basketball operations Travis Schlenk told local radio station 92.9 The Game last week, "Maybe it wasn't such a great idea to bring everybody back; that's on me. We have a few weeks here at the trade deadline and that's what I need to figure out."
A year after reaching the conference finals, the Hawks sit 12th in the Eastern Conference, three games back of the two teams (including the Knicks) tied for the 10th and final play-in spot at 21-21. Atlanta's run during the second half of last season and the playoffs has not carried over and the honeymoon period is long finished.
As the most obvious difference between the Hawks' 2020-21 rotation and this year's group, Reddish was an easy target. And if Hunter can stay healthy -- a major question mark after he's played just 40 combined games over the past two seasons, including the playoffs -- Atlanta indeed has too many quality wing options.
Based on his 2020-21 performance when healthy, Hunter looks like an ideal long-term fit alongside the Hawks' Trae Young-John Collins core, while veteran Bogdan Bogdanovic might be the best of the group right now. Kevin Huerter is an easy fit who's also signed up long-term after agreeing to an extension before the season. That left Reddish as the odd man out.
Schlenk's work upgrading the roster may not be finished. The Charlotte pick gives Atlanta an extra one to use between now and the Feb. 10 trade deadline, and the Hawks could still consider upgrading their backup point guard position with Delon Wright in the final year of his deal. Per NBA Advanced Stats, Atlanta's offensive rating drops by 14.9 points per 100 possessions with Young on the bench.
Although the pick was obviously the centerpiece of this trade, the Hawks also get a free look at Knox, the No. 8 pick in 2018 who had fallen out of favor in New York. After struggling as a shooter during his first two seasons as a rotation player, Knox has made 38.5% of his 3s since the start of last season -- albeit on just 117 total attempts. He needs to be a plus shooter to get on the court given his other limitations.
Additionally, Atlanta used the Knicks' open roster spot to clear one of its own. Hill, who started 16 games last season, was out the remainder of this one after suffering a hamstring tear. The Hawks now have the ability to add a 15th player on a full NBA contract without having to worry as much about a future trade taking them into the luxury tax. Per ESPN's Bobby Marks, Atlanta's salary is currently $2.4 million below the tax line.