SAN FRANCISCO – Through four preseason games, 11 different Warriors have started at least one game. Some have many years of experience, others only months, and none is the team’s second-best shooter.
The omission of Buddy Hield is by design. It’s also a loud clue.
Though Hield has not formally been announced as Golden State’s new Sixth Man, every barber shop, butcher shop and basketball shop can see that will be his role. It’s where he is more valuable to the Warriors.
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A career 40-percent 3-point shooter, Hield fits the profile of the dangerous NBA Sixth Man. Like Jamal Crawford and Lou Williams – the league’s only three-time winners of the award – Hield’s shooting ability puts opponents on alert from the moment he leaves the bench and walks to the scorer’s table to check in.
“He looks the part, doesn’t he?” coach Steve Kerr said Sunday night, after a 111-93 rout of the Detroit Pistons at Chase Center. “He comes off the bench and you can feel his impact immediately. He’s not shy. We need that. We need a scorer off the bench, and he’s been fantastic his first four games. I’m real excited about Buddy.
“And that role makes a lot of sense for him.”
It’s the only role that makes absolute sense for Hield, who turns 32 in December. He’ll have one basic job, to get open by any means necessary and put the ball through the hoop.
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And Hield, who has made 412 starts in 632 career games, seems ready for the role.
“It doesn’t matter at all whether I start or come off the bench,” Hield told NBC Sports Bay Area. “Whatever the team needs me to do, I just want to be effective in my role and play at the highest level I can.”
In four preseason games, Hield is putting up unsustainable numbers, averaging 12.2 points and 16.5 minutes. After scoring 12 points, on 4-of-8 shooting, including 4-of-6 from deep over 13 minutes on Sunday, he is averaging 12.2 points per game. He’s shooting 60 percent (18-of-30) from the field, including 59.1 percent (13-of-22) from distance.
On a per-36-minute basis, that comes to a highly efficient 27 points per game.
Once Kerr whittles the rotation to it norm, Hield can expect to play 25-30 minutes per night, with some slight variation based on his efficiency. This is what Kerr visualized last season when he moved longtime starter Klay Thompson into the Sixth Man role. Klay accepted it grudgingly, as it did not warm his heart.
The idea now is the same as it was then, to give the Warriors an elite scorer capable of playing with Stephen Curry and, moreover, without him. To be the primary scorer when Curry is on the bench, as he will be for 15 or so minutes per game.
“I anticipate Buddy will be on the floor when Steph’s not when we start the regular season,” Kerr said before tipoff. “For obvious reasons.”
The Hield-Thompson comparisons are valid. In Klay’s last three seasons with Golden State, he shot 39.7 percent beyond the arc. In Buddy’s last three seasons – with the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers – he shot 39.2 percent from deep.
Thompson was 683-of-1,719 from beyond the arc, while Hield was 769-of-1961. Only Curry, with 915 makes during that span, drained more triples than Buddy.
Hield already seems prepared for the mentality he will need in his role. Look to score, but do not fall into a shot-thirsty trap.
“You can’t rush it,” Hield told NBC Sports Bay Area. “You want it to be in the flow of the offense. If you force it, the whole team gets out of whack. You want to let things come to you, but still be aggressive. I feel I can do that.”
Even as Kerr experiments with starting lineups and rotations, it’s becoming evident that only two players know exactly how they will be used. Curry is the starting point guard and Hield is the Sixth Man. Everyone else is flexible by position or starters/reserve status.
Nine days before the season tips off, such clarity can beget a measure of serenity.
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