At the beginning of the century, the Sacramento Kings were the traditional powerhouse of the league, when they staged a series of classic duels against the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks. However, the Kings' downward trend has been very obvious since the 05-06 season, and the Kings have not played the playoffs since the 05-06 season. Things seem to have improved a bit this season, with the Kings starting out on the road to lick veteran powerhouse Portland Trail Blazers, and despite losing a good game against the Utah Jazz and being reversed by their opponents in the final quarter, the Kings' performance was impressive in being able to force last season's strong opponents who were at the top of the Western Conference to such a point.
Against the Jazz, the Kings still blossomed a little, with Buddy Hield coming off the bench, hitting six three-pointers and hitting 24 points and seven rebounds, the fly in the ointment may be that Hield made four mistakes. In the first game of the new season, Hield also had a fairly good performance, he hit 4 three-pointers at the same time, but also cut 17 points and 6 rebounds with super efficiency. In the first two games of the season, Hield scored a total of 41 points and 13 rebounds, which was also quite good as a substitute player.
As the league's No. 6 pick, Hield played at the Pelicans early in his career, but before his rookie season was over, he was sent to the Kings before the deadline. Of course, from a personal development point of view, this move is also a blessing for Hield, because the Pelicans will not use him at all, on the contrary, after joining the Kings, Hield was entrusted with a heavy responsibility, and in the second half of the season, his average of points per game, rebounds, assists, steals, shooting percentage and three-point shooting rate have improved significantly, and the score has almost doubled compared with the first half.
Hield has continued to improve since then, he is one of the league's best outside pitchers, and in the history of the Kings, as long as the number of three-pointers, Hield is basically at the top of the table. In the 18-19 season, Hield ushered in the peak of his career, playing all 82 games and averaging more than 20 points per game for the first time. However, during the offseason, Hield and the Kings were deadlocked in the negotiations on the renewal of the contract, and although they eventually reached an agreement, this episode undoubtedly caused a gap between the two sides.
So Buddy Hield's drama and stats have declined over the past two seasons, and he's been caught up in rumors more than once. Especially last season, the Kings side made up their minds to focus on developing Darlon Fox and rookie Teres Halliburton, so don't look at Hield is still a member of the starting lineup, but most of the time he plays as a small forward, this arrangement he himself is not adapted to, the Kings starting lineup is overall short, the defensive end is easy to be targeted by opponents, and the record is naturally very bad.
In this case, during the offseason, the Kings had been seeking to peddle Hilde and had almost become a reality. At that time, the Kings and the Lakers had reached a preliminary intention to cooperate, and Buddy Hield was about to become a member of the Purple and Gold Army. Afterwards, the Lakers, who have now switched to the Washington Wizards, said that he was ready to pack his bags and go to Sacramento, but he did not expect that after Westbrook heard the news, he asked the Wizards to send him away, and after learning that he had the opportunity to get Westbrook, the Lakers decisively terminated the cooperation with the Kings, and they packed Up Kyle Kuzma, Kentavis-Codwell-Pop and Monterrez Harrell to send the Wizards, bringing Westbrook back to Los Angeles.
Buddy Hield, who remained in the Kings, seemed very professional, and the team must have communicated with him, so Hield played as a substitute in the first two games of the new season, and the Kings' starting point was composed of Daron Fox, Terres Halliburton, Morris Harkris, Harrison Barnes and Holmes, the intention of this move was two, the first was to set two serious fronts, let them do a good job of defense and protect rebounds, make up for the height disadvantage of Fox and Halliburton, and make the starting lineup more balanced. The other is to have Buddy Hield at the heart of the second squad, and it seems that his job is doing well so far, and the Kings bench also has the former Marvin Bagley and a series of supernovae, which is full of vitality.
The Lakers side is very troublesome, originally Hield is very suitable for the Purple and Gold Legion tactical system, he does not occupy the ball, has a strong outside projection ability, and James and the Lakers are a match of heaven, with him, James and Anthony Davis pressure will undoubtedly be much less, not to mention if the original insist on choosing Hield, the Lakers do not need to pay so much chips. But now the heavy money exchanged for Westbrook is incompatible with the lineup system, the Lakers are difficult to win, I don't know if the management will regret the original decision.