Sacramento Kings: Buddy Hield putting it all together

Two years removed from being a centerpiece of a blockbuster trade involving DeMarcus Cousins, Buddy Hield is putting it together for the Sacramento Kings.

Just two years ago, Buddy Hield was the crown jewel of a trade package that sent DeMarcus Cousins from the Sacramento Kings to the New Orleans Pelicans. At the time, co-owner and chairman of the Kings Vivek Ranadive was mocked for his fascination with Hield, suggesting he had “Stephen Curry potential” as a justification for the controversial deal.

It seemed like a preposterous claim about an unproven young player, an unjustifiable belief that would live on to haunt the Kings and their owner long into the future. But now, two years removed from the deal, we have seen vindication.

Now of course, there’s only one Steph Curry, but Ranadive may prove to be more savant than sucker when it comes to Hield’s potential after all. A mere raw prospect in New Orleans, Hield has quickly developed into a deadly weapon under Kings head coach Dave Joerger, displaying abilities the organization only could have hoped for when they pulled the trigger and sent their All Star center to the Pelicans.

Hield’s sharpshooting has long been dangerous, but this season he’s taken the next step in lethality. As of the All-Star break, he’s hitting a career-high 44.9 percent of his three-point attempts, second in the league among all players shooting over five threes per game. Ironically enough, his three-point percentage is just a touch higher than Steph Curry’s 44.4 percent.

He’s doing this while taking 7.6 3s per game, the eighth-most attempts in the league and also a career high by a wide margin.

While many players are effective in high-value opportunities,  Hield is especially effective from the corners where he’s hitting 48.7 percent. That’s certainly the most efficient spot to take the highest value shot, and it’s way above the league average of 39.0 percent.

He is also in the 99th percentile in unguarded catch-and-shoot jumpers, scoring a blistering 1.672 points per possession.

While his shooting prowess is a known commodity, perhaps the greatest improvement in Hield’s game over the last couple of seasons has been his transition decision-making and finishing. A season ago he was in the 49th percentile in transition, scoring a respectable but not spectacular 1.081 points per possession.

This season his production and efficiency in transition have both spiked. He has more transition possessions this season than he had all of last season, and he’s scoring 1.239 points per possession which is in the 76th percentile.

A big factor in Hield’s elevated efficiency is that his decision-making, both in transition and overall, has taken a leap this season. Whether we chalk this up to coaching or simply the natural progressive growth that comes from experience in the NBA, he makes fewer mistakes than ever before with the ball in his hands.

Indeed, his turnover percentage in transition is down from last season’s 12.5 percent to this season’s 7.8 percent, and overall his turnover rate is down from last season’s 11.3 to this year’s 10 percent. And all of this on slightly higher usage than a year ago, with 24.7 percent usage this season and 24.3 percent last season.

Mind you, not every part of Hield’s game has taken a leap this season. He struggles mightily as the pick-and-roll ball-handler with a high turnover percentage, much as he did last season. His turnover rate of 19.1 percent is in the bottom 20 of players who have 100 or more possessions in the pick-and-roll.

Of course, Steph Curry is rarely the bar you want to measure yourself by, but since Vivek opened the door, it’s worth noting that Curry is one of the best scorers in the NBA as the pick-and-roll ball-handler in the 89th percentile. This is one area in which Hield surely has some work to do.

Buddy Hield will probably never live up to the lofty comparison bestowed upon him, but it’s ok if he doesn’t fully match up with one of the best to ever shoot a basketball. He’s moved beyond being a punchline and answer to a trivia question, and he’s transformed himself into an excellent player and potent weapon on an up-and-coming team with his best days in front of him.