Is Cam hurt again? Did our medical staff f*** this up for the 4th time? Asking for a friend. I did read after our last game, a few people noted Cam limped back to the bench. For what it's worth, Fox and Monk combined for 70.
I mean if you told me Cam wasnt going to play I figured the Lakers would have got smoked and they did. If Vando or Cam don't and yes they are roleplayers but in this team they are absolutely critical.
That's because having some dedicated defensive stoppers in addition to AD IS critical. Our perimeter D is quite porous. I love what Dlo and AR bring to the team but they aren't stopping anyone any time soon.
This is why we lay Caruso 2 years ago or so and we're not having discussions about Cam Reddish. Goodness. How do we go from KCP and Caruso to Cam Reddish? Probably because Vanderbilt has been hurt, but damn,... Sigh.
Yeah. The impacts of the moves we made that summer continue to haunt the team. I feel like if we had just resigned Caruso we weather the storm better. Oh well. Side note - I actually went to watch Alex a few weeks back when the Bulls came through town. He and Coby White looked really good.
Cam number of games played by season before joining the Lakers : 19-20 :58 20-21 : 26 21-22 : 49 2022-2023 : 40
Cam had a really nice 2-3 week stretch early in the season, but he's regressed to being the more or less the same below-average player he's been throughout his career. His FG% and TS% on the year are 40% and 52% respectively, for his career he's 40% and 52%. He's shooting 34% from three on 2.5 attempts per game, for his career he's 33% on 3.8 attempts per game. He's +1.0 DBPM on the year compared to his career -0.3, but his overall BPM this year is -3.0 compared to his career -3.2. Cam is a bad offensive player and an inconsistent at best defensive player. He was not bothering Murray at all the other night because he can't get over screens, he did no better than DLo would have done. I think the same thing has happened with him that happened with Stanley Johnson in 2022. The rest of our perimeter players are so unathletic that Cam's athleticism leaps off the screen. Like Stanley, he's had flashes of strong defense but has gotten overrated on that end due to the gap in athleticism. Vando is an actual defensive stopper (in the right scheme/role, he's bad at screen navigation too), Cam is not.
Cam has played extremely good defense this yeaer: yeah he had trouble with Murray but notice they were screening to get Cam off Murray. See how well he played in the OKC game, the Clips games where he got hurt, Phoenix his offense comes and goes but you can live with that with what this team has.
Being able to deal with screens is part of perimeter defense. If you can't switch onto bigger players and can't navigate screens, you're not as useful as a defender. I also do not see any recent evidence that he's played extremely good defense outside of maybe that early season stretch into the IST. He's been known as an athletic but inconsistent defender his entire career, he's the same guy now.
He's been hurt when he hasn't been he's been very good. Look at the Clippers game where he got hurt and the OKC game. Not only a good individual defender but does well at switch's because he's big and does a good job boxing out. The Denver game was a mess not just because of Cam but AD was not in Jokic so it messed up the backside rotations Even if you don't like him as a defender he clearly is better then Prince, DLo, AR etc. You have to play your best defenders when your getting clocked on defense
Not if they'd be marginally more effective at best and hurt you way more on the other end. Again, the Denver game was a perfect example. The ran the high P&R every single time down the stretch and Cam died on every screen. No difference at all than if DLo had been in. Then they completely ignore Cam on offense and pack the paint with the extra defender. It's not as simple as "our defense is doing bad, play the guy who is better at defense". If we put Cam on Fox either (1) Fox blows by him, because he's way faster or (2) they spam the P&R and 2-man stuff with Fox and Sabonis to rub Cam off Sabonis and get Fox downhill toward the basket. Then they get to hide one of their small guards on Cam who doesn't do anything well on offense. I appreciate the effort Cam has played with this season, but he just isn't very good. He had flashes of solid 2-way play in Atlanta but they dumped him before he was 22. He was in NY with Thibs who loves nothing more than effort and defense and they dumped him too. There's a reason he signed with us for the minimum. He's a replacement level player.
No it doesn't work like this Denver is Denver - the problem they present is that Murray is not only an extraordinary shot creator but he's big and paired with a the best passing big man of all time, shooting and finishing. Sabonis while a good player just isn't as good as Jokic and he's not as big and more importantly SAC doesn't have teh combination of size and shooting that Denver had. Fox isnt as big or as good of leaper as Murray so Cam's size would make a bigger difference here as he would have been able to force Fox right as he can provide bigger cushion and more importantly his size allows him to rotate onto Sabonis and Barnes if the switch has to happen which you really can't do Jokic and Gordon (jokic just too big and Gordon just outleaps everyone)
The Knicks run starting on the back side of 21-22 through the front end of 22-23 isn't the most accurate representation of his availability because Thibs actively hated him for existing.
Looked a little healthier moving around out there last night Welcomed appearance by Corner Cam Nice read
He did look a little better. I’m still really glad we picked up Cam and I think he was signed for two years, right? Great project player to have along with Hayes. I like both of them a lot.
He has a PO this summer. With how he started the year, I thought he'd be gone and get 2x that. With the injuries and some of the up and down play, somewhat injury related, I'm not sure he gets more elsewhere in free agency. I'm as pro Cam as it gets, so I hope he stays around. There's never enough POA defenders on a roster.
I hope he stays. He missed too many games to get a better offer elsewhere and we can definitely use him.
