On Tuesday afternoon, the Charlotte Hornets agreed to a trade with the Atlanta Hawks. On the surface, this is a deal that does little for either team. The Hornets add Buddy Hield, a shooter, to fit their roster already full of them, for the price of cutting guard Ryan Nembhard (yes, he's the brother of Indiana Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard)
The Hawks, for their part, continue to free up necessary roster spots as they work to get into compliance with the NBA's 15-player maximum. Before this trade, they were at 17. Now, they will either have to make another deal or waive Dorian Finney-Smith's partially guaranteed deal, opening him up to sign with a team of his choice as an unrestricted free agent.
For now, the focus should be on the Hornets. After adding Hield, they now have six shooting specialists (by my count, at least).
Between Hield, Royce O'Neale, Grayson Allen, Tidjane Salaun, and Kon Knueppel, not to mention Brandon Miller and Naz Reid, who can do more than just shoot, they have cornered the market on players who would've been perfect next to LaMelo Ball just months after trading him away.
The obvious hope of the Hornets is to sell at the deadline and to be the team that people are negotiating with for three-and-D wings, and there's a team that could make use of that.
The Indiana Pacers still lack a true shooting specialist off the bench. For a system that requires spacing in transition and the half-court and a willingness of players to sprint through screens, Indiana really only has Aaron Nesmith as a capable fit for that role.
If there's a hole at that position and a notable void for the fourth forward spot behind Nembhard, Nesmith, and new signee Kelly Oubre Jr., why not bring in a player who has a ton of familiarity with Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers?
Here's how it could work.
A sad ending to a great Pacers tenure, and the return Buddy could get
Indiana was expected to deal Buddy Hield for most of his tenure in a Pacers jersey. After coming over as part of the Tyrese Haliburton - Domantas Sabonis swap, Hield was matching salary as much as he was a valuable, if overpaid, shooter to pair with Haliburton.
Hield was one-dimensional, sure, but he was awesome at that dimension in stretches. NBA Twitter enjoyers will remember the ever-relevant "Buddy Hield cycle" – seriously, look it up – but he took an average of over eight threes per game while here and made nearly 40% of them.
Hield made only 36% of his shots from distance last year as part of a surprising Hawks team, but even a depreciated version of Buddy is helpful to this team. He doesn't need to be awesome. He needs to be good enough to be playable and to add a different dimension to the rotation when needed.
At just over nine million dollars a year, making a deal for Hield is infinitely easy, requiring just Jarace Walker's expiring deal or some combination of minimums like soon-to-be free agents Jay Huff and Ben Sheppard.
Shooting comes at a premium, as does familiarity. Finding both for cheap is a steal.
Add us as a preferred source on Google