Kings coach Luke Walton says Buddy Hield ‘still has my trust and we need him’
Kings coach Luke Walton didn’t rely much on Buddy Hield in Thursday’s victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, but he said he still has faith in the struggling sharpshooter.
Hield logged a season-low 11 minutes and matched his season low with three points on 1-of-5 shooting in a 140-125 victory over the Pelicans at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando. Walton said he was “sticking with the hot hand” as Bogdan Bogdanovic poured in a career-high 35 points against the Pelicans, but he was asked before Friday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets if he had lost confidence in Hield due to defensive lapses, turnovers and his recent shooting woes.
“Buddy still has my trust and we need him,” Walton said. “We’re going to need him to come off (the bench) and provide that scoring punch that he’s done for us for most of the season. So it was hopefully just a one-game thing there as far as where those minutes were, but he’s a big part of our team.”
Hield is the team’s second-leading scorer at 19.3 points per game and one of the game’s most elite 3-point shooters. He is a career 40.9% 3-point shooter and the reigning NBA 3-Point Contest champion. In February, Hield made his 800th 3-pointer in his 296th game to become the fastest player in NBA history to reach that mark, surpassing Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, who did it in 305 games.
Hield struggled over the first four games in the NBA bubble. He averaged 10.5 points on 16-of-51 (.314) shooting from the field and 9-of-33 (.273) shooting from 3-point range. He had 10 turnovers in the first three games.
Hield’s move to a backup role coincided with a midseason surge that helped the Kings get back into the playoff race. He came off the bench to score a career-high 42 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 27, three days after Walton moved him to the bench.
“Ever since we made the swap, the way Buddy’s been scoring for us in that second unit has been such a huge factor in us having some success,” Walton said. “We have to find out as a coaching staff and as a team how to get him going again, because we need that scoring punch and we need the energy that comes when he’s out there knocking down shots. So that’s one of our top priorities is to figure out how to get that going again because he’s such a great shooter that once they come, they’re going to come.”
This story was originally published August 7, 2020 at 2:21 PM.
