Zion Williamson and R.J. Barrett got most of the hype for Duke this season, but Cam Reddish earned himself a lot of fans in the NBA.
Duke fell short of reaching the Final Four this season, but quite a few players on their roster solidified their status as potential first round picks in the NBA Draft. Cam Reddish is definitely one of those guys.
The 6-foot-7 forward might have been Duke’s third option behind Williamson and Barrett, but he still managed to have a really productive year for the Blue Devils. He managed to average 13.5 points per game in just under 30 minutes of action a night for head coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Reddish played well enough to give himself the opportunity to leave school after his freshman year and land in the first round.
That doesn’t mean Reddish is anything close to a perfect prospect. While his raw scoring numbers are solid considering where he landed in Duke’s offense, his efficiency totals are concerning.
There’s no reason a player of his size and physical gifts should have a true shooting percentage under 50 percent.
Reddish showed flashes of stretching his jump shot out to three, but he only made a shade over 33 percent of his attempts from behind the line. He’s got a lot of work to do before he becomes a reliable shooter from behind the NBA line.
There’s still a ton of optimism around the league that he can become an above average scorer. What really concerns scouts is Reddish’s inability to rebound. He only averaged 3.7 boards per game last year for Duke.
Again, Williamson took up more than his share of boards inside, but a player with Reddish’s size and athleticism should have been able to assert himself much more on the backboard.
Fortunately for Reddish, this year’s draft class isn’t blessed with a ton of perfect wing prospects. Guys like Jarrett Culver and DeAndre Hunter had their moments during the NCAA Tournament, but no one really transformed themselves into a consensus top-five pick in March.
That leaves the door wide open for a player with Reddish’s physical tools to boost his stock during the pre-draft process. The bottom line is that Reddish is almost certainly a lock to hear his name called in the first round.
That’s enough to make leaving Duke an easy decision. The chance to rise into the Lottery only encourages him to enter the NBA Draft.