{"id":114855,"date":"2024-12-30T07:00:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=114855"},"modified":"2024-12-30T06:25:59","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T11:25:59","slug":"disappearing-act-of-warriors-buddy-hield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/12\/30\/disappearing-act-of-warriors-buddy-hield\/","title":{"rendered":"The Disappearing Act of Warriors\u2019 Most Significant Offseason Addition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite recently getting back in the win column by defeating the struggling Phoenix Suns, the Golden State Warriors have largely played uninspiring as of late. After looking like legitimate contenders throughout the first month and change of the season, the Warriors have unraveled ever since, looking much more like pretenders as of late. Even after taking a mini swing and acquiring Dennis Schroder<\/a>, little has changed. The Warriors are just 2-4 in the games Schroder has been active for.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stephen Curry<\/a> is still playing at or near his peak, doing absolutely mind-boggling things<\/a> on a regular basis. Jonathan Kuminga<\/a> seems to finally be coming into his own<\/a>. And Andrew Wiggins<\/a> and Draymond Green<\/a> continue to perform mostly up to their standards. Some of the other members of the Warriors\u2019 supporting cast however, have really taken substantial steps back since starting the campaign off strong. One supporting cast member in particular, who\u2019s play has seemingly fallen off a cliff following a strong first month of the season, is Buddy Hield<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Disappearing Act of Warriors\u2019 Most Significant Offseason Addition<\/b><\/h2>\n

Analysis of Buddy Hield\u2019s First 15 Games<\/b><\/h3>\n

Buddy Hield began his Warriors career on quite the heater. The former sixth overall pick routinely demonstrated his ignitability from long range, and even kept the Warriors afloat with his offensive exploits during Curry\u2019s multi-game injury absence earlier in the season. Mostly coming off the bench, Hield was an early favorite<\/a> to take home Sixth Man of the Year honors. Additionally, with his fiery three-point shooting, Hield made significant strides in easing the heartache of many Warriors fans still bemoaning the loss of Klay Thompson<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

During Hield\u2019s first 15 games with the Warriors, there seemed to be a real connection between him and his teammates, and with the coaching staff\u2014the chemistry was palpable. Hield understood the assignment, and was deployed accordingly. The fit from a team perspective, strategic perspective, and organization perspective all seemed like a match made in heaven. Hield himself even went as far as to say<\/a> that joining the Warriors really reignited his \u2018love for basketball\u2019. For a team in dire need of shooting and offensive support for Curry, the 16.2 points per game that Hield was providing\u2014while canning 44.2% of his triples no less\u2014was really a revelation during the early season for the Warriors.<\/span><\/p>\n

Analysis of Buddy Hield\u2019s Last 16 Games<\/b><\/h3>\n

For whatever reason, following Hield\u2019s dynamic first 15-game run, things took a dramatic turn for the worse. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what caused Hield\u2019s production to take a dip, but in no uncertain terms, Hield has been almost unplayable as of late due to his struggles. Pick a stat\u2014any stat\u2014and Hield has likely been struggling, and it’s beginning to weigh on his teammates.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the course of Hield\u2019s last 16 games, he\u2019s averaging just 9.8 points per game, and his three-point shooting is all the way down to 34.9%. Those numbers on their own may not seem reprehensible, but considering Hield is essentially a complete and total non-factor in most other areas, it’s understandable that coach Kerr has begun to slash his minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s impossible to tell when Hield will be able to get out of his slump, but if Saturday\u2019s win over the Suns is any sort of a reference point, it won’t be anytime soon. Hield\u2019s struggles reached a new nadir on Saturday, when he put up zero points on 0-7 shooting in 15 minutes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n

The massive drop off in play the Warriors have experienced over the last month or two goes far beyond just Buddy Hield\u2019s struggles. But with that being said, Hield failing to provide the off the bench spark that he did earlier in the season certainly isn’t helping. After starting out strong, Hield has continually shown an inability to be counted on by the Warriors. Unfortunately for Hield, his minutes have begun to shrink accordingly. Hield, who at one time looked like a strong candidate to be a mainstay in many of\u00a0 the Warriors\u2019 most featured lineups now no longer even feels deserving of guaranteed minutes. Hield\u2019s situation will be worth monitoring because there’s a chance if his play doesn\u2019t pick up, he won\u2019t even survive the trade deadline with the Warriors.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite recently getting back in the win column by defeating the struggling Phoenix Suns, the Golden State Warriors have largely played uninspiring as of late. After looking like legitimate contenders throughout the first month and change of the season, the Warriors have unraveled ever since, looking much more like pretenders as of late. Even after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5268,"featured_media":114929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,25,4721],"tags":[212,256,409,4297,70,48],"class_list":["post-114855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-warriors","category-trade-rumors","tag-andrew-wiggins","tag-buddy-hield","tag-draymond-green","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-klay-thompson","tag-stephen-curry"],"modified_by":"Kenny Kluska","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114855"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114930,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114855\/revisions\/114930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}