2019 NBA Mock Draft: Will the Knicks’ big gamble pay off?
. F. Duke. Cam Reddish. 6. player. 38
It has to make NBA talent evaluators smile to see Reddish getting more shots up from deep once again even if he hasn’t exploded for the type of scoring night optimists believe he’s capable of considering his 3-point efficiency and ability to put the ball on the floor. Duke is in the soft part of its conference schedule and Reddish taking advantage.
Over his past three games, Reddish is 11-of-29 from distance (37.9 percent) and making opponents pay for leaving him to devote more attention to playmakers R.J. Barrett, Tre Jones and Zion Williamson. This year, the Magic are 19th in overall 3-point efficiency, 14th in 3-point attempts per 100 possessions and right in the middle of the league in terms of the percentage of their total shots that come from 3 — at 35.7 percent. Eventually, Mo Bamba will start to expand his range, but Jonathan Isaac seems unlikely to do that any time soon and the next great Magic team will also be without either of Evan Fournier or Nikola Vucevic, two of Orlando’s best shooters right now.
As the Magic start to look outside the frontcourt in the draft, shooting has to be on the list of needs for the team. Using Bamba in the screen game will be the basis of Orlando’s offense once they get an above-average point guard, but one could also see the front office of Jeff Weltman and John Hammond bypassing a point guard this year in favor of Reddish and continuing to run the offense from the inside.
If the Magic re-sign Vucevic and try another young point guard next to D.J. Augustin next year, Reddish could fill in as a developmental 3-and-D role player while Orlando tries for the playoffs once again.