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Duke Basketball: Cam Reddish’s struggles might come to an end soon

By Chad Wickham

DURHAM, NC - NOVEMBER 11: Cam Reddish #2 of the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on November 11, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NC - NOVEMBER 11: Cam Reddish #2 of the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on November 11, 2018 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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One of the four starting Duke Basketball freshman, Cam Reddish, has hit a bit of a rough patch in the early season, but his struggles might be coming to an end soon.

Cam Reddish has gotten off to a good start his freshman season shooting the ball from three-point range.

The 6-foot-8 wing is shooting 43% from deep on an ACC-leading 51 attempts through the first seven games. He’s also been a solid free throw shooter, but he struggles with one aspect of his game.

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Reddish has really struggled from two-point range so far this season — shooting just 36% from inside the arc and 45% from inside the paint.

The Norristown, PA native has not handled contact very well and, because of that, has struggled to finish at the rim.

When driving to the basket, he tends to try to avoid contact and go for a reverse layup, which obviously hasn’t gone well for him.

Other times when he drives to the basket, he fails to keep his balance and as a result ends up either falling down or committing an offensive foul.

Hopefully this improves as he adjusts to the physicality of the college game.

To be more effective in the offense, I think Reddish should take more of a Klay Thompson role on this Duke team.

Thompson attempted around seven three-point field goals, and nine two-point field goals per game for Golden State last season, with just 148 of those two’s coming around the rim, according to NBA Savant.

As Reddish’s body continues to mature and he gets more comfortable driving to the basket, that is the approach I would like to see him take — limit the two-point attempts and attempt more spot-up three’s off of Tre Jones, R.J. Barrett and Zion Williamson drives to the basket.

Thompson benefits from playing alongside  Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, and Draymond Green as they get a ton of attention from defenses. This would be the case if coach Mike Krzyzewski makes an adjustment to the offense.

One thing Krzyzewski could do to help Reddish is to balance the offense out a little more among the four freshmen and Jack White.

Duke currently has three players who all have a very high usage rate — Barrett (36%),  Williamson (28%), and Reddish (29%).

Williamson’s rate should stay about the same or even increase because of how efficient he has been, but Barrett and Reddish could stand to lower their rates a little bit. This would give more possessions to Jones, who has been very efficient (134.2 Offensive Rating) on just a 14% usage rate.

In other words, Jones needs the ball in his hands a lot more.

Doing so would benefit Reddish greatly, as he would be attempting less two-point field goals per game, and getting more open looks from Jones.

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