Cam Reddish Discussion: Opted In

Cam and Prince, with their defensive intensity are my guys.
Love that Cam is able to redeem his career in the Purple and Gold.
You can just see his confidence rising.

 

He and Prince both had awesome plays where they usd those quick hands to knock the ball free out near half court and then sprinted like hell to get to the ball out hustling the opponent. Cam incredibly caught up before it went out of bounds at Portland’s end line and saved it to a teammmate while Prince caught up to his and redirected his speed somehow from near the sideline past half court to take it all the way to the rim with just one dribble for the score.

 

Please become the small forward version of KCP. Please become the small forward version of KCP.

Prince is not a good defender and Max has bombed his audition. Come on Cam you can do it

 

All aboard the Cam train

 

Young man is still only 24 years old, hopefully he's finding his place in the league, on his 4th team. That's just crazy how people, can give up so quickly, on some of these young guys. Cam is turning into a pretty cool story, great to see him playing with some confidence. Great job of showing some faith Lebron/Darvin

 

Inserting Cam in the lineup solves many of our matchup problems vs Denver. Especially when Vando returns.

DLo (6’4)
Cam (6’8)
Vando (6’9)
Bron (6’9)
AD (6’10)

The problem has been AR getting switched onto Porter,Jr. and that’s just a tough assignment.

 

i think it solves some, but really, mpj isos aren't killing us. it's the fact that jokic can score efficiently against AD in isolation--something basically zero other bigs can claim--and this just creates defensive problems all over the place for us.

even with that, had we made a couple more shots, we're in that series. if reddish can become a kcp type, maybe he helps there and gives us another body to throw at murray (who's the one that REALLY thrives off all the attention jokic gets).

 

You start Wood/Hayes against Jokic and let him go off. You put AD in roaming mode and close down the paint with him and Vando.

 

Lemf

 

Idk..run Hayes at him just to wack him and try and get under his skin? 6 fouls, preferably hard ones, but not dirty

 

I had zero expectations that Cam was going to look this good for us. He is impressive, if he can keep it up, he is for certain a starting player for this team. Hard for me to stomach AR back on the bench but at this point, Cam is passing the eye test. Plus truth is, he needs to be with other guys who don't make too many boneheaded plays. They make him better, while AR seems to make those around him better. He plays great with Rui. They can be a solid 1-2 punch coming off the bench together. When the games slow down in the 4th quarters, you can pair him with Cam, instead of pairing him with DLO. If Cam keeps playing this good, he is going to eat up a lot of minutes.

 

Right on Zen. This is the way to beat Denver. Wood/Hayes alternating guarding Jokic. Always a fresh antagonizing irritating body on him. AD free to be AD on defense and more energy for offense. Occasionally he can move over and block Jokic a time or two. Don't want to intentionally just foul him but good hard fouls going for the ball are fair. Between Wood/Hayes we got 12 to give. Disguise your coverages and hit him with doubles every so often from unexpected spots. Jokic is good but he isn't superman. Don't play scared of him.

 

lol, forgot about where this one came from

 

Lull here so went a lookin'. Found an interesting post from joeblow on LG who was asked to compare Cam and Vando as defenders. Graded both very high.

"Quite a bit goes into being an elite individual defender. Below is how I always break it down for myself when I'm scouting players, and it is why I was one of the early ones here stanning for Reddish as a Laker a few years ago, and for Vanderbilt to get snagged a year ago.

Watching games, video clips and reading comments from team forums of NBA fans paints a picture of what a player is defensively capable of when you know what to look for, and to me it comes down to three major categories. To keep it simple in this response, I'll only focus on perimeter defenders as opposed to those expected to guard the paint:

1) Defensive physical traits - How tall is the defender? How strong is he? Lateral quickness, jump height, twitch muscles (how fast he can move / get off the ground), etc. are all important for this category. A lot of this comes from just being born in the right body, but things like strength can be developed (especially for youngsters).

2) Defensive BBiQ - How basketball-smart is the defender? How much experience has he gained? How well has he been coached to understand what the team needs as far as when to double team (and when not to!), how to direct an opponent towards help, taking away an opponents first and second favorite offensive option, simply defending without fouling, denying a good player the ball to begin with, etc. I look for potential here if the player is still kind of young.

3) Defensive effort - Does the defender sincerely try to stop an opponent from scoring, or is he just going through the motions? How consistent is that effort, etc.? How hard does he get back on defense after a missed shot? How tightly does he stay near his man without the ball who is constantly on the move? When an opponent he's not guarding takes a shot, how hard does he fight for the rebound or box out (unless called on to run a fast break?

With Reddish, I was sold on his potential after watching things like the '21 playoff series as a Hawk vs. the Bucks (outstanding defensive sequences) and reading comments from NBA fans like on Knick forums where his defensive effort was often commended. I wanted him here to see if our team could help him put it together.

With Vandy, my jaw dropped when watching how well he defended the entire Warrior team in this game where he effectively guarded Curry, Klay, Wiggins and Poole from start to finish. I monitored him closely after that to the point where he was already a proven product to me.

Both players have EXCELLENT physical traits as perimeter defenders, with Vandy being slightly taller. The lack of athletic, defensive size on the perimeter is what we were desperately needing the last few years after winning a ring with PLENTY of it from the supporting cast, and is one reason why we got swept by Denver in the playoffs. J. Murray and the Nuggets had near zero respect for attacking Dlo's defense or shooting over Dennis small size.

The defensive BBiQ edge goes to Vanderbilt in part because it is clear he is already sure of who he is as an elite defender. Everyone tells him that, and he calmly gets on the floor knowing exactly what to do.

Cam no doubt has needed a boost in his confidence, especially after Thibs benched him in New York. From what Knicks fans say, their coach went all in on Quentin Grimes (who is too small for me) after Reddish missed time with an injury. Their loss is our gain, because for a young athletic player with size and upside, he was an excellent candidate to mold in hopes he could put it together. As a Laker, so far so good.

Lastly, being elite can't be a thing if a player relies only on his physical attributes and defensive smarts. If he is lazy, what good is he for a team trying to win a championship. As you can see in the clips and in their play as Lakers, no one criticizes Vandy or Cam as being low-effort defenders.

That is huge for us because with AD's frequent health issues and Lebron's age, they can't be expected to go all out every minute they are on the court. Vandy and Cam (along with other Laker role players) have to be high effort defenders to limit how easy it is to score on us.

~~~

So which of the two should get minutes. Both! Whether on the court together or switching off depending on the match ups and how well either of them are rolling, I am pleased how coach Ham this season is not afraid to make tweaks until he sees what's working.

Playing them together is not ridiculous because having a scary defensive unit on the floor has its benefits that a lot of people don't appreciate. The best version of the Jordan Bulls in the 90s had Ron Harper as the point guard.

No one would say he was an elite ball handler or passer (or even outside jumper) that you would expect from that position, but Phil Jackson had him as a starter because of the three defensive traits I listed above. With Jordan, Pippen and Rodman also on the floor, opposing teams were swarmed with long arms in the passing lanes, athletic defenders of size guarding them one on one wherever they turned, there were always big bodies crashing the boards (compared to small guard lineups of most teams), etc.

This is why there is no need to try to pick one over the other... we can be happy that both are on the team, because there are some highly talented offensive squads out there that we will have to slow down.

We beat the Suns twice, but they didn't have Booker some would say. I would say we didn't have Vandy healthy either who guarded Booker well last season. And if Luka is giving Reddish a tough time this year, we can switch in Vandy and expect good results.

If we can stay healthy and Ham keeps his focus on putting out effective lineups that can slow down other teams from scoring at will, it will be a fun season. "