After a long awaited off season, our Atlanta Hawks are officially back for the 2021-2022 season. Today was the first day of training camp and below are 3 key things to come out of day 1!
#1: Cam Reddish looks ready to take a big leap
If you’ve been on social media at any point today, theres a good chance you saw clips of Cam Reddish nailing jumpers over De’Andre Hunter and Bogdan Bogdanovic. In yesterday’s media day, Cam told reporters he was “100% healthy” and that certainly seemed like the case today. His movement and jump shot looked incredibly crisp and he impressed a lot of people by beating out De’Andre Hunter in the 1:1 post up drills. We’ve all heard from multiple players and coaches that Cam often looks like he’s the best player on the court during practice, and that certainly held true in today’s training camp. Now, that Cam has a healthy off-season and training camp underway, and a full season with Nate McMillan at the helm, I believe this will be the best version of Cam Reddish we’ve ever seen. Keep in mind, Cam has only played 84 games for his career, which is basically 1 full season. I’m a firm believer that Cam will truly blossom in year 3 and the rest of the world will see why us Hawks fan often call him “Paul George 2.0”.
#2: Bogi BUCKETS
Our Serbian Sniper looks like he’s due for yet another career year! If you didn’t know, Bogdan is coming off the best season of his career this past year when he averaged, 16.4ppg on 43% from 3. In today’s camp, Bogi displayed a number of high difficulty shots, when he nailed 3’s over Cam Reddish and Skylar Mays. Some of these shots he was making in the 1:1 drills, literally made me drop my jaw on the floor. In an off-season interview he had with Chris Kirschner of the Athletic, he told him that he wants to prove to the NBA that he’s one of the best shooters in the world. If day 1 of training camp is any indication of what version of Bogi we’ll be getting, the league is in TROUBLE. Remember, when he came back from injury last season, Bogi averaged 21.2ppg in the entire months of April and May. Given the talent this team has, I’m not quite sure we will see 20+ppg, but I think 17.5-18 is very possible.
#3: Jalen Johnson injury
Soon after the day got started, our #20 overall pick, Jalen Johnson, fell awkwardly on his right foot and limped back into the locker room. We have yet to hear the extent of the injury, but after practice it was reported that he had his foot wrapped and was “walking around”. Let’s all pray this is a minor ankle roll and nothing significant for the long term. Although I’m not a doctor, the fact he was walking around is somewhat of an optimistic sign. Let’s just hope we’ll be able to see him in some pre-season action!
Nothing is more exciting than a healthy, hungry Cam Reddish. Thanks for all you’re doing promoting the team and amplifying fan voices.