Cam Reddish's debut may be Knicks' diversion from tailspin
Cam Reddish #21 of the New York Knicks looks in the first half against the Pelicans at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
The Knicks have lost three in a row. Julius Randle is struggling to score while getting booed on a regular basis. And the whole mess seems to be on the verge of snowballing into something really ugly as Randle has not talked to reporters in seven games and the organization has started getting fined for not compelling him to do so.
The Knicks are desperate for some kind of spark, or at least some kind of diversion. Who knows? Maybe they will get it Sunday when Cam Reddish will be available for his first time as a Knick.
Reddish, whom the Knicks acquired last week in a trade with Atlanta for a first-round pick, has yet to play because he has been recovering from a sprained ankle. After practice Saturday, however, Reddish declared that he was "100%" and "is looking forward to getting back out there" against the Clippers.
Knicks fans were overwhelmingly supportive of the trade and have been itching to see what their newest addition can do. The question is just how much of Reddish they will get to see as coach Tom Thibodeau already has four wings — RJ Barrett, Evan Fournier, Immanuel Quickley and Alec Burks — using up most of the minutes.
""We have a rotation so he has to be patient and work his way through that," Thibodeau said on Saturday.
There is irony in all this in that Reddish asked to be traded from the Hawks because he wanted to play a bigger role than he was being slotted for in Atlanta.
The 22-year-old started 62 of the 118 games he played in three seasons for the Hawks, but was mostly coming off the bench this season and wanted a change of scenery. Still, Reddish was averaging 11.9 points and 23.4 minutes this season in Atlanta, which seems like a bigger role than he will initially have with the Knicks.
"To be honest I didn’t know what was going to happen with the whole trade situation. I literally woke up to it all and ended up in New York," Reddish said. "So, I’m just excited man to just get started.
"I can’t really control everything, minutes and stuff like that. But I can control my attitude and my effort. I’m going to do my best to give all that up."
The Knicks enter the game against the Clippers badly needing a win at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks have lost three straight to teams who aren’t exactly powerhouses.
The worst of those losses came on Thursday when Randle scored just four points and shot 1-for-9 in a 102-91 loss to the Pelicans. Fans booed Randle and chanted for the team to put in Obi Toppin for a good chunk of the game.
Randle has had his struggles throughout the season as he is averaging 5.3 few points this season than he did last year when he went to his first All Star game. His problems, however, have come to a head in the seven games since the flashed a thumbs-down sign at fans during a win over Boston. Since then, Randle has averaged 14 points, which in addition to the disaster against the Pelicans also include a two-point game where he shot 1-for-7 against the Spurs at the Garden.
Thibodeau maintains he isn’t worried about his star, because he has played at a high level for a long time over the course of his career.
"He’s done it at a high level," Thibodeau said Saturday. "So just come in and keep working. It will bounce back around for you. He’s a terrific player."
Thibodeau agreed that part of what makes Randle a good player is that he is an emotional one.
"There’s a fine line with emotion and it’s also what fuels him," Thibodeau said. "So you don’t want to take that away from him. I can recall when I was in Boston, we tried that once with Kevin Garnett. It didn't go very well.
"That’s where the fire comes from. So we don’t want him to cross over the line. But we don’t’ want to take the emotion away from him. We want it to be controlled and channeled in a positive way, and for the most part he does that."
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
