Cam Reddish’s Lakers Grade: C+
Cam Reddish was thought to be a great candidate to turn his young career around in Los Angeles learning from and playing with LeBron James. Like Lonnie Walker and Rui Hachimura last season he has the chance to rejuvenate his career and earn a bigger contract next season.
However, early on this year, he has been inconsistent in fulfilling that prophecy. It is clear that Darvin Ham wants him to use his length and athleticism to develop into somewhat of a defensive stopper and take on the role of defending the other team’s best wing players.
He has done that well at times so far this season, but on the other end of the court, he has been somewhat of a disaster. He is averaging a measly 7.0 points while playing 22.8 minutes per game and before his impressive performance in Phoenix, he was shooting an abysmal 12.5 percent from 3-point range.
The low point of his season came when he missed a wide-open 3-pointer that would’ve won the game against the Miami Heat. Yet the team did not lose confidence in him, LeBron told Reddish after that game to stay ready and that there will be “many more opportunities, especially from me”.
That paid off big time when Reddish turned his season around with his performance in the first game of the play in the in-season tournament against the Suns. He played great defense on Kevin Durant and redeemed his missed game-winner by hitting the biggest 3-pointer of the game in crunch time.
If Reddish can continue to play as well as he did in that game, he will be one of the most valuable role players on the team. But consistency has been the biggest issue for him in his young career, so the best grade he can receive for now is an average C+.