The Chicago Bulls decided to maximize their flexibility when they pulled the trigger on a trade that sent Rob Dillingham to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for veteran sharpshooter Buddy Hield.
In terms of long-term upside, the deal didn't make much sense on the surface. Hield was borderline unplayable after he was traded from the Golden State Warriors last season, and Dillingham, at the very least, presents some upside as a playmaker and a guard within an NBA rotation. But Chicago clearly felt there wasn't a future for Dillingham in this rebuild, and getting a (hopefully) tradeable contract in Hield was worth the price of moving on from the primary asset they gained in the Ayo Dosunmu trade.
At this point, though, that's neither here nor there. Hield is a member of this team, and if he's going to maximize his value—both to Chicago's rotation and to the league as a whole on the trade market—he's going to need to regain some of the form we saw in his stint in 2024-25 with the Golden State Warriors.
Hield's performance on Sunday night against the Denver Nuggets, in that light, was encouraging. Not only was he hitting his perimeter shots, but he wasn't overcomplicating things with the ball in his hands. That style of play will be the key to a successful season in Chicago for the veteran sharpshooter.
Buddy Hield simply needs to shoot—and he needs to do it consistently if he's going to revive his value
Hield's always been a relatively streaky shooter, and the value from him simply isn't there if he isn't hitting his shots. He doesn't provide anything on the defensive end of the floor, and the margins of his game are questionable, at best.
But when he's playing to his fullest form, he can certainly help space the floor and provide a team with an additional ounce of offensive infrastructure. That's what the Bulls brought him in for, and they're going to want to see a much better mark than the 34.9% of his 3-point shots he hit last season between the Warriors and Atlanta Hawks.
With Hield, though, it's more than a matter of simply making (or not making) his shots.
Last season, Hield hit 39.2% of his catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts—putting him in a respectable range amongst players with three or more of those looks on a per-game basis. On pull-up jump shots from beyond the arc, though, Hield shot just 24.6%. He shot 22.2% on his attempts from inside the arc with that same qualifier.
These same numbers stretch out, roughly, back to the start of his time with Golden State in 2024-25. Simply, when Hield puts the ball on the floor and tries to make a move against the defense, his efficiency drops remarkably. When he's willing to simply space the floor and take his opportunities as they come to him, he's a much more efficient and effective player.
Without breaking down every shot attempt he's taken during Chicago's preseason, that phenomenon has born itself out through his three appearances. But Hield knocked down four of his six 3-point attempts against Denver on Sunday, and (believe it or not) all four of his made shots were catch-and-shoot attempts. One of his two misses was a pull-up jumper.
This will be something for Tiago Splitter to emphasize as Chicago wraps up the preseason, and perhaps there's room for Hield to play more of a multi-dimensional role as the season goes on. But for now, his trade value and his value to the rotation rest purely on his ability to hit his perimeter shots, and that is best maximized when he's operating in the flow of the offense rather than creating for himself.
His role, then, is to shoot—nothing more, nothing less.
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