{"id":66328,"date":"2024-03-06T19:11:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-07T00:11:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=66328"},"modified":"2024-03-06T19:11:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T00:11:30","slug":"pacers-buddy-hield-opens-up-requesting-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/06\/pacers-buddy-hield-opens-up-requesting-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Buddy Hield Opens Up About Requesting Pacers Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

It never did seem like 31-year-old Buddy Hield<\/a> fit the timeline of the Indiana Pacers core.<\/p>\n

On the outer edges of his prime, the eight-year NBA veteran offered the Pacers a skillset that they lacked in their perimeter group: elite marksmanship. A career 40.1 percent 3-point shooter, Hield has knocked down 1,880 career 3-pointers. This number has only been surpassed by 21 players all-time and nine active players, making Hield one of the best 3-point threats in NBA history.<\/p>\n

However, even that superlative didn\u2019t make the Pacers want to keep him. According to Hield, he wanted to sign a contract extension with Indiana. The Pacers had different plans.<\/p>\n

Buddy Hield Opens Up About Pacers Departure<\/h2>\n

According to Yahoo Sports insider Jake Fischer, \u201cTalks between [Buddy Hield\u2019s] representation and the Pacers\u2019 front office on an extension didn\u2019t garner much momentum this fall.\u201d His agent, the Icona Agency\u2019s Diana Day, then \u201crequested Indiana trade Hield before his eighth season<\/a> even began.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Hield puts it, \u201cIf a team doesn\u2019t want to re-sign you\u2026 you know how it is. It\u2019s the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say they want to sign you and then after it doesn\u2019t happen, the conversations don\u2019t really keep going,\u201d Hield continues \u201c\u2026 It\u2019s like talking to a wall, and nobody\u2019s responding back. But after that, you\u2019re under contract, and you have to, like, honor your contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

Discussing the atmosphere after being shunned by the Pacers\u2019 brass, Hield described it as \u201cone of those deals where you just gotta come in every day and be professional.\u201d Yet, \u201cthe whole vibe was so different.\u201d Thus began the beginning of the end for Hield\u2019s time in Indiana.<\/p>\n

Just before the Feb. 8 trade deadline, the Pacers sent Hield to the Philadelphia 76ers. It was officially a three-team trade<\/a> that also involved the San Antonio Spurs. However, the deal was headlined by Hield, who would be joining an even more successful East team.<\/p>\n

Now having played 11 games with the Sixers, 11 of them starts, Hield has gotten comfortable in his new digs.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s averaging 15.5 points, 5.4 assists, and 1.1 steals per game on 42.2 percent shooting from 3 since joining Philly. Establishing himself as one of their most important players, he may have found his final destination. After all, for all the criticisms<\/a> of Sixers president Daryl Morey, he\u2019s notoriously fond of analytics. Consequently, Hield\u2019s 3-point prowess would seem to jive well with Morey\u2019s basketball philosophy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sticking Around for the Long Haul<\/h3>\n

There are few guarantees with Daryl Morey. That may be the case with any business executive, but Morey\u2019s integrity has come into question<\/a> multiple times over the years. Nonetheless, Buddy Hield knows the advantages he provides are exactly what the Sixers want and need.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou want to go to a team that wants you,\u201d Hield says. \u201cYou don\u2019t want to go to a team where you’re a piece and it\u2019s like, \u2018We\u2019re gonna try this out.\u2019 \u201cOther teams are trapping [Joel] Embiid<\/a>, so having a 3-point shooter to keep guys honest, I know the reason why I was traded here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a far cry from what he experienced in Indiana.<\/p>\n

Though Hield was fond of his time and teammates there, the Indiana Pacers were contending with a traffic jam in their backcourt rotation. Too much talent for too few minutes. As a result, Hield was never certain about his role on the team.<\/p>\n

The only question with the Sixers seems to be what decision they\u2019ll make this offseason. Hield will be a free agent, as he\u2019s on the final season of his four-year, $94 million contract. Philadelphia now has his Bird Rights and the ability to retain him, no matter their cap situation.<\/p>\n

All that said, Hield\u2019s showing up to and through the 2024 NBA Playoffs will be the primary factor in whether he\u2019s re-signed.<\/span><\/p>\n

To that end, the postseason is now a little more than a month away. Soon, his future in Philadelphia will become clearer. <\/span>The veteran sniper just has to keep his eye on the target for a little while longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It never did seem like 31-year-old Buddy Hield fit the timeline of the Indiana Pacers core. On the outer edges of his prime, the eight-year NBA veteran offered the Pacers a skillset that they lacked in their perimeter group: elite marksmanship. A career 40.1 percent 3-point shooter, Hield has knocked down 1,880 career 3-pointers. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":66346,"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":[3,1608,11,62,13],"tags":[256,297,1382],"class_list":["post-66328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-basketball","category-pacers","category-nba","category-76ers","tag-buddy-hield","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Zach Kircher","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66328","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}