This offseason, everyone's hot topic is about how the Los Angeles Lakers will handle guard Westbrook and his huge contract this summer, with Pacers guard Buddy Hield being a widely rumored trade candidate, but in the end the two teams did not reach an agreement.
The key to Buddy Hiard's rumored candidate on the books is his outside ability, and the following will explain his strengths and weaknesses through actual cases.
1. Buddy Hield shot a career-worst 36.2 percent from three-point range in 26 games for the Pacers last season.
2. In 20 of those games, he made more three-pointers than the entire Pacers.
3. Averaged 8.5 three-pointers per game from 72.8 touches per game, meaning that 88% of offense came from mid- to long-range shots farther from the basket.
For these reasons, despite his reputation as a shooter, he feels more like a nerve knife when it comes to shot choices. (He can punish a retreating longman with consecutive three-pointers in a game, but he can also shoot a dismal 1-9 three-point shooting percentage in a game.)
But more important is his value as a shooter, both for the Pacers and Lakers and the rest of the league. Rather than saying his shooting percentage dropped on the court, explore what he did and what impact it had on the team when he wasn't shooting.
Defensive insight
According to statistics, Buddy Hield scored 3-pointers with the Kings and Pacers last season, from 282 three-pointers in his fifth year to 262 in his sixth year. It also means that he still poses a big threat to opponents on the defensive end, and look at how he used his running position to pose a threat in his first game with the Pacers.
With Tyrith Halliburton's ball cover, did you see how Dean Wade tried to move his body out near the free throw ring, as close to Buddy Hield as possible?
Now see another clip, when the two elders help cover and watch closely how Kuzma keeps one foot in the position of the paint, although this will risk letting Miles Turner on the periphery, but the risk of letting Miles Turner take a shot is definitely much less than Buddy Hiard in front.
Even though Buddy Hield shot a career-worst 36.2 percent from three-point range last season, his shooting options of more than 56 percent were extremely close to defenders, compared to Miles Turner's 25 percent. For better or worse, he doesn't shoot at all because of these poor shooting choices, and instead, he makes a whopping six shots per game from 25-29 feet from the basket, the eighth highest in the league.
Therefore, the longer the shooting distance must take more time to contain the defense, so Tourdian Wade will choose between staring at Buddy Hield outside the three-point line and staying in the box to assist the ball holder, and Buddy Hield had more exaggerated similar cases last season staying further away waiting to shoot.
The influence of the decoy
Of course, in addition to being a set shooter, Buddy Hield will also play an important role in breaking through defense, such as swapping positions with Tyrith Haliburton after a block change to run outside the three-point line.
Given that Boston immediately took transposition measures to deal with it after seeing the off-ball cover below, the Pacers' wave of tactics could use Buddy Hield as bait, indirectly liberating Tyrith Haliburton's ability to respond.
In this way, rather than exerting too much stamina to get the opportunity to get a big gap, Tyrese Haliburton cracked the opponent's defense in the process of changing defenses. Robert Williams had to come out of alignment as soon as he saw the ball holder cut in, thanks in part to the attention Buddy Hield received as a running shooter.
Taking it a step further, Marcus Smart, who was just selected as the best defensive player this year, is still keeping his back to the basket in this round. And even seeing Buddy Hield almost standing in the midcourt logo, Marcus Smart still chose to take a few steps outside the three-point line.
Reignition Screens
However, despite being in a team that ended last season with the fifth-worst record in the league and lost 10 consecutive games at the end of the season, what is more important to Buddy Hield is that he does not just stand in place when executing tactics. Instead, he frees up space by constantly running and keeping himself moving, especially when the ball stops flowing.
In the following Ghost screen, for example, the blocker first makes a fake block and then immediately runs into the gap, which is a tactic that the Pacers often devise on dead balls, but what makes Buddy Hield different is that he has a good way of reacting to unexpected situations.
The Spurs basically opened a good avenue for Duane Washington Jr. because of the wrong defensive communication, allowing him to easily dunk and score recently, but if it were not for Buddy Hield's empty cut to serve as a bridge for this tactic, there would not have been this shift communication error.
As a reference, you can see that there is a huge difference between whether there is a good space or not, especially when you see Terry Taylor coming out of the left bottom corner after cutting in, and facing the dilemma of huddling together after cutting in with Duane Washington Jr.
The execution of this wave of offense, Duane Washington Jr., is not a beneficiary, but also has to reluctantly shoot under the opponent's physical collision, while Trae Young did not follow Terry Taylor to move to the bottom corner, but chose to stand in the blocking path to interfere with the opponent.
Create gaping credibility
Although Buddy Hield's Reignition screens below did not achieve the desired change of defense, as shown, Buddy Hield's defenders followed him desperately, although this is a seemingly unchanged movement, but considering Tyrith Haliburton's path of attacking with the ball, if there is a long man stuck in the basket, if he can cut into the middle, he can be freed up.
Such a small movement will not cause the defender to hesitate or react immediately, but it will need to take into account the distance between O'Shea Brissett in the left bottom corner and Buddy Hield on the right.
In addition to doubling the size of the gap compared to Buddy Hield's retention in key positions, Cole Anthony is also seen as unable to leave the perimeter shooter to interfere with players in the path.
Although Tyrith Haliburton's final choice is to cut into the middle range and turn over a jumper to finish, not to divide the ball to the sides of the shooter, but at least such a shooting option is already an acceptable range, and for point guards who cultivate star potential, Buddy Hield's continuous running demonstration has provided a very good example.
Neutral changes
In addition to providing more entry paths, Buddy Hield can also force the defensive end to make changes when running without the ball, giving players a better chance to play against opponents' weaker defensive players.
Either way, whether planned or accidental, Buddy Hield can strategically analyze the space on the field, and the ability to open up the team space through the running position after drawing up the route trajectory is definitely not to be underestimated.
Buddy Hield doesn't just shoot, not to mention his career-high assist rate, and there's no doubt that having him will definitely help Tyrith Haliburton get free shots with more shifts.
Most importantly, Buddy Hield went from the original role of a fixed-point shooter, allowing defenders to stand directly in place and wait for him to take the ball and shoot, to later as a no-ball running shooter, but to create more gaps through spatial awareness to manipulate the defender's position, Buddy Hield not only has the influence of a stable shooter, but also can bring a stable output to the team without shooting.
For the Pacers, Buddy Hield scored 117 points per 100 offenses in the 745 minutes he played with Tyrith Haliburton last season, and the backcourt duo pretty much laid the floor for the current team, but it's unclear whether they can work together for long. But regardless, Buddy Hield is certainly one of the league's top off-ball space creators right now.