Duke basketball teammates could be reunited in draft night trade

Former Duke basketball teammates could be reuniting via a draft night trade. 

The potential of former Duke basketball standout Cam Reddish was on display during the NBA Playoffs after returning from an Achilles injury during the regular season.

Reddish put the exclamation point on his postseason run with 21 points in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Milwaukee Bucks, the eventual NBA Champions.

However, with Reddish struggling in his rookie season and dealing with injuries in his second year with the Atlanta Hawks, some could see the franchise selling high on the former Blue Devil and trying to trade him this offseason.

The first chance the Hawks will have to deal Reddish is during the NBA Draft on Thursday evening.

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Chris Kirschner of The Athletic reported that Atlanta is listening to trade offers for Cam Reddish and would be willing to move him in a package for a superstar or a first-round pick.

Reddish averaged 11.2 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per contest this season while shooting 36.5-percent from the field but a lowly 26.2-percent from 3-point range in 26 regular-season games.

How could Cam Reddish be reunited with former Duke basketball teammates?

Two of the teams that have been rumored to be interested in the services of Cam Reddish are the New Orleans Pelicans and the New York Knicks.

Zion Williamson, Reddish’s teammate at Duke, was the No. 1 overall pick of the Pelicans in 2019, and RJ Barrett was the No. 3 overall pick of the Knicks in the same draft.

Will Guillory of The Athletic detailed what a New Orleans-Atlanta trade could look like, and the idea of Reddish in the Bayou seems intriguing.

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“[Reddish would] be an excellent fit next to Zion [Williamson] and [Brandon] Ingram on the wing,” Guillory explained.

Ian Begley of SNY reported that ESPN front-office insider Bobby Marks said that he’d be surprised if the Knicks remain with both of their first-round picks at No. 19 and No. 21 as the franchise is trying to package both picks and move up into the lottery or trade for an NBA-ready player.

The NBA offseason is always full of twists, turns, and rumors. And Thursday night seems like the beginning of the chaos as the draft is set to begin at 8:00pm EST.