Death, taxes, and Buddy Hield. Opinions vary on all three but they remain constant. In the case of Buddy, you can set your watch to a few eternal truths:

  • He's going to play
  • He's going to make a lot of threes
  • He's going to live in the gym

For a team in the midst of a rebuild those are valuable qualities for a veteran to possess. His work ethic makes him an ideal role model for the Pacers' young players – an example of how to preparation leads to consistency. On top of that, his shooting allows the team to play with pace and space, its preferred style.

Nevertheless, trying to determine his importance to the team is not a simple task. President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said in his season ending press conference that the team is "obsessed with finding a core" and there are legitimate questions regarding Buddy's fit. Does his offense outweigh his defense? Is he simply too old? Does he provide more value as a trade chip?

Let's look back at Buddy's '22-'23 campaign and see why he may or may not have a future with the Pacers.

Culture

Listen to any interview about the Pacers this season and you're bound to hear superlatives about the team's chemistry and Buddy Hield's role in creating that environment. This came as a minor surprise considering a vocal contingent of Sacramento fans believed it was worth trading Tyrese Haliburton just to get Buddy Hield off of the team.

Whatever issues Buddy had in Sacramento, he did not bring them to Indianapolis. Kevin Pritchard describes Buddy as "an incredible human" and admits to becoming emotional when they didn't make the playoffs because he felt they owed it to Buddy to get him there for the first time in his career.  

Hield is the hardest worker on the team, known for spending hours in the gym shooting by himself. He loves to practice so much that he had a court installed in his home, which the Pacers used to host a shoot-around before a game in Dallas.

Consistency

Buddy is obsessed with consistency. According to Assistant Coach Lloyd Pierce, he's "like a baseball player," in his game preparation. Shooting is about rhythm and Buddy works tirelessly to make sure he's always hot. After bad nights, he's known to work out up to five times the next day.

And the results pay off, Buddy shot nearly 43% from deep this year on 8.5 attempts per game. In 80 games played, Buddy failed to make a three only once. This steady production led to him flirting with breaking the 300 made threes milestone, something only three players have ever done. While he fell short, he set a personal and franchise record, making 288.

His consistency in preparation also allows him to play every night. A true ironman, Hield played in all but two games this year. His first absence was especially tough for him to swallow, as it broke a streak of 174 consecutive games played.  

Offense vs Defense

As noted, Hield is an elite floor spacer, which is crucial to how the Pacers want to play. He was a part of four of the team's five lineups with a positive points per possession differential. As a result, the team was 6.6 points better with him on the court than with him off of it over the course of 100 possessions. That was the best differential on the team among regular rotation players (0.5 better than Haliburton).

While it won't surprise anyone that the offense fared better with Hield on the court, his offensive contribution only accounted for a +4. That's right, the team gave 2.6 less points with Hield on the court than when he was on it.

On/Off stats and lineup data are finicky and shouldn't be used to say that Hield is a good defender. He's not. In fact the team has said that they've challenged Hield to be a better defender and if he can't rise to the challenge it will be tough for him to have a role going forward.

At the same time, Hield is far from the worst defender in the league. At the very least he competes. I believe there's an argument to be made that with the right forwards, the team can get enough stops to win with Buddy on the floor even if he doesn't improve as an individual defender. His presence allows the team to play faster and more freely, which speeds up the pace of the game and tires out opponents. With Carlisle at the helm, the concept that "offense is the best defense" is at least worthy of a deeper look.

Keep, trade, or extend?

Buddy is under contract for one more year, which means the Pacers have a decision to make. Do you keep him and let him hit free agency, trade him, or extend him?

When asked this question, Pritchard said that they love Buddy and would like to keep him around but, ultimately, it would depend on whether he accepts a different role. While Pritchard didn't specify the role, it's clear that he was talking about moving Hield to the bench.

As a player who was essentially a throw in to the Haliburton trade and may or may not fit the Pacers timeline, Hield has been the frequent subject of trade rumors. His shooting makes him valuable to every team in the league and his $19.3M contract makes him useful for salary matching purposes.

Many people will argue that Hield is taking up minutes that could be spent on younger, more important players and therefore he should be traded. However, considering the importance of his shooting to the team, they would be wise to ensure his production is replaceable before letting him go.

Season Highlights

  • Hield recorded the fastest 3-pointer in league history when he sank a shot against the Cavs just three seconds into the game. Interestingly, the previous fastest 3-pointer in an NBA game was by Pacers Hall of Famer Reggie Miller, who made one four seconds into a game against Golden State on March 5, 2000.
  • He also showed out over All-Star weekend, finishing 2nd in the 3-point contest.

Let me know what you think the Pacers should do with Buddy in the comments.

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