It wasn't that the Portland Trail Blazers were wrong to trade Josh Hart in 2023, but they wish they could've gotten more in return for him. The Knicks sent Cam Reddish, Ryan Arcidiacono, Svi Mykhailiuk, and a 2023 protected first-round pick to the Trail Blazers for Hart. The latest news managed to make that deal look even worse for Portland.
On Wednesday, Donatas Urbonas of BasketNews.com reported that Reddish is "expected" to sign a deal with a club in Lithuania.
Reddish was the most "valuable" player the Trail Blazers got in that deal (we're not talking about the pick). He averaged 11 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.2 steals per game to close out the season, 44.3% from the field and 31.8% from three. His time in Portland was brief—20 games to be exact—before he signed a deal with the Lakers that summer as a free agent.
Two years later, Reddish is out of the league, at least, for now. He's only 26, so he could find his way back depending on how his next venture goes.
Cam Reddish expected to sign deal to play overseas
It actually took less than two years for Reddish not to be on an NBA roster, as Los Angeles waived him in March. He was part of the Mark Williams trade that the Lakers rescinded. Reddish played sparingly since the start of the calendar year, appearing in only eight games for LA.
There was a mix of hype and uncertainty surrounding Reddish when the Hawks drafted him with the No. 10 overall pick in 2019. He lasted two and a half years in Atlanta before he was traded to New York, where he spent a year, most of the time outside of Tom Thibodeau's rotation.
Portland didn't make the Hart trade under the assumption that Reddish would stay (he was on an expiring contract!), but there was the slight chance that maybe he'd find his footing as an NBA player with the Trail Blazers. That was far from the case.
Hart is the exact player the Knicks needed, and all it took to acquire him was giving up three non-rotation players and a first-round pick that hasn't lived up to expectations.
You win some, you lose some. Portland lost that one, with the Reddish news confirming that once again.