Buddy Hield’s run since leaving the Warriors has taken another turn, and this one sends him to Charlotte.
According to ESPN’s Shams Charania, the Atlanta Hawks traded Hield and young guard Ryan Nembhard to the Hornets in exchange for veteran wing Dorian Finney-Smith. It’s the latest move in a stretch that has not gone especially well for Hield since his time with Golden State ended.
At first glance, the deal at least gives Hield a new landing spot after he had already slipped out of Atlanta’s plans. He was out of Quin Synder’s rotation after February’s trade that brought veteran center Kristaps Porzingis to the Warriors, and while Atlanta fully guaranteed Hield’s contract before free agency, that guarantee was always seen as a trade mechanism. That’s exactly how it played out.
The problem for Hield is that Charlotte doesn’t look like a clear path back into regular minutes either. The Hornets already have Kon Knueppel and Brandon Miller as part of their wing future, and they also added Grayson Allen in a deal with the Phoenix Suns earlier in the offseason. With those three in the mix, plus Charlotte’s broader youth movement after trading LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges, it’s hard to picture Hield carving out much of a role in Charles Lee’s rotation.
That’s a sharp fall from where things stood when he first arrived in Golden State. Hield averaged nearly 23 minutes in his first season with the Warriors and delivered a memorable Game 7 performance against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs.
Since then, the trend line has gone the wrong way. His minutes dipped to under 18 per game at the start of last season, and he shot a career-low 34.4% from 3-point range before appearing in only seven games for the Hawks after the trade.
The move also changes the way the larger trade package looks. Atlanta did well to turn a player outside its rotation into someone it could actually use if Finney-Smith gets healthy, and it’s notable that Charlotte didn’t extract a second-round pick or two in the process. The Hornets are also reportedly waiving Nembhard.
That makes Atlanta’s original move for Hield and Jonathan Kuminga look a little better, especially if Finney-Smith can return to form and give the Hawks 20 to 25 minutes a night. It also reflects well on the Warriors, who managed to move off Hield’s contract, while Porzingis is now the only one of the three players involved in the deal still with the team that acquired him.
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