The reduced role that Cam Reddish had with the Hawks before being traded to New York came about because he expressed a desire to be dealt over the offseason, head coach Nate McMillan told reporters, including Sarah K. Spencer of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Twitter link), before tonight’s game. Even though the team was beset by injuries and players in the league’s health and safety protocols, Reddish averaged a career-low 23.4 minutes per night in 34 games.
“This year, he made the decision during the summer that he wanted to go elsewhere and play somewhere else,” McMillan said. “So it was tough. It was tough for him to come in and he was a professional. He was a pro. He didn’t do anything through the media, he came in, he tried to work.
“A lot of you guys were asking why he wasn’t in the rotation or why we weren’t doing certain things, and it was we knew that this was something that wasn’t going to, he wasn’t probably going to end the season with us. Unfortunate. I think he has a lot of talent, great kid, and I wish him well. We had a conversation when it happened and he’s looking forward to the opportunity.”
There’s more from the Southeast Division:
- Kevin Knox, who was part of the Hawks‘ return for Reddish, has passed his physical and is eligible to play in tonight’s game against the Knicks, Spencer tweets.
- Rookie guard Jalen Suggs returned to the Magic’s lineup Friday night for the first time since fracturing his right thumb on November 29, per Khobi Price of The Orlando Sentinel. Suggs, who got off to a slow start, called the injury “a blessing in disguise” after putting up 12 points, six rebounds and seven assists in a win at Charlotte. “It gave me time to sit back and reevaluate the things I was doing, the habits I had, change those to better ones and grow. I needed that,” Suggs said.
- Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma is firmly entrenched as a starter in Washington after coming off the bench for the Lakers the past two seasons, notes Jackson Filyo of NBA.com. Kuzma, who narrowly missed his first career triple-double this week, said he benefited from the lessons he learned in L.A. “I credit a lot of my success this season to the last two years, taking a seat and watching some great players play basketball and learning from them,” Kuzma said. “I just knew once I got traded, it was a golden opportunity for me to enhance my game and show everything I’ve learned and what I’m capable of with opportunity. I’m just showing that right now.”
Ppl laughed at Kuz, saying he was overhyped cuz he played for LAL. Ask any Washington fan – they love him.
In fact, the Lakers had unusually high success rate with their late first and second round selections – Kuzma, Nance, Clarkson, Josh Hart, Zubac, to name a few. All those guys are rotation players, which is a lot considering the place in the draft they were taken.
That’s usually how it goes in LA tho. They draft well, then everyone hyped it up as if they have the steal of the century and once this player develops he will be an all star and we will win titles blah blah blah. Then they struggle to develop the young players cause they are so focused on winning games.
Then a lot of the time the player gets traded, and after learning from LeBron they do well on their new team which gives them more freedom.
Examples also include Ingram, Randle and Lonzo.
Not to mention the Lakers drafted Jaden McDaniels before they traded him to get Schroder.
Great stuff from Kuzma. Knew what he was capable of and he’s finally showing it. Never had the opportunities he has now been given. Even with his diva attitude, or atleast that’s how he was portrayed at times, he’s being humble and not throwing shade at the Lakers at all.
Tried to tell all the Lakers fans that were crushing Kuzma that they’d miss him!! He did alot of the underappreciated work for that Lakers squad, him and Caruso both, yet Kuzma was constantly ragged on.
Hope Lakers fans are enjoying Westbrook now!! That’s what they get for not being able to recognize when a player is sacrificing for the betterment of the team!!
I am very happy with Russ & I am not missing like at all Kuzma, so what?
LAL is a better team this year & WAS are worst than last year as a matter of fact!
Byby Kuz good luck out there,had plenty of time in LA to shine the lights in LA are to bright for players like him hahaha