Philadelphia 76ers: Does Buddy Hield still fit like a glove?

The Philadelphia 76ers have been linked to Buddy Hield for what feels like forever.

Measuring in at 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, Hield is an elite outside shooter with limitless range who could perfectly space the field for the dynamic duo of Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid while providing a little extra offensive mojo to an offense in desperate need of additional firepower.

In 2020-21, Hield was one of only three players in the NBA to average 10 or more 3 point attempts per game, and he hit them at a 39.6 percent clip, which is slightly below average for his career average but not by much. Paired up with some combination of Seth Curry, Danny Green, and Tobias Harris, depending on who was still on the team after a trade, Hield would give the team plenty of options to generate halfcourt offense around their two interior scoring options, with an ability to hide his defensive liabilities on an opposing team’s third perimeter option.

Fortunately, or not, depending on your perspective, the Philadelphia 76ers are no longer that team. If the team were to land Buddy Hield via trade, it would all but surely be in a package headlined by Ben Simmons, with other pieces thrown in for good measure. In a world where Tyrese Maxey is Doc Rivers’ starting point guard, would landing another one-way sharpshooter with two and a half years left on his contract actually tip the scales in Philly’s favor?

How would a Maxey-Hield backcourt work for the Philadelphia 76ers?

It’s hard to get a real feel for the Philadelphia 76ers through the first 18 games of the 2021-22 NBA season.

When fully healthy, the Sixers have looked incredible. They have great spacing, a deep bench, and a variety of different ways to attack the cup regardless of the situation and who is on the court at any given time, but ever since Joel Embiid contracted COVID earlier this month, that consistency has fallen by the wayside. Doc Rivers has been forced to play a new starting lineup in seemingly every game, and the team has lost six of their last eight games, even if all but one have come by single digits.

Still, when you look at the Sixers’ team statistics, there are some alarming trends that need to be corrected once the team returns to full strength.

You see, over that 18 game tenure, the Sixers rank 15th in points allowed, 24th in defensive rating, and dead last in pace at 95.5. Granted, some of that is understandable, as Embiid, Danny Green,  and Matisse Thybulle have each missed between seven and nine games so far this season, but still, when a team drops 22 spots in defensive rating from one season to the next, it’s hard not to feel a little concerned.

Want to know what else is concerning? That the Sixers currently only take the 24th most 3 point attempts of any team in the NBA, which hasn’t been a huge deal, since they collectively make them at the fourth-highest clip in the association, but that could turn around considerably with a few off shooting nights.

Now granted, things aren’t all doom and gloom. The Sixers currently rank third in offensive rating, 14th in points scored and have both a positive net rating and points differential, but when the offense oftentimes boils down to Tyrese Maxey or Tobias Harris with some supplemental options like Georges Niang, Furkan Korkmaz, and Shake Milton thrown in for good measure, it’s hard to win consistently.

With all of that in mind, does Buddy Hield fix any of the team’s issues? Yes, some but not all of them.

While folding Hield into the fray won’t magically add 16.8 points per game to the team’s average points per game or magically vault the Sixers’ offense from third to first overall league-wide, his 3 point efficiency and volume would surely help to elevate Philly’s average attempts per game and keep their efficiency among the best in the league. Furthermore, Hield’s presence on the roster would give the Sixers two elite outside options who could help to space the field for Maxey and Embiid in the two-man game at the end of quarters and, more importantly, at the end of games alongside Curry, where the offense slows down, and Rivers becomes hard-pressed to consistently put points on the board.

Between Curry and Hield, surely the Sixers would be able to find someone open on the wings for a catch-and-shoot opportunity, especially when opposing teams have to crowd the paint to slow down Embiid and Maxey.

And yet, the idea of Hield headlining a potential trade, or even being the 1B in a potential trade alongside a player like Tyrese Haliburton – who the Kings are still reportedly reluctant to trade, per Jake Fischer – gives me pause because of his 1. redundancy with Curry and 2. overall limitations.

In a way, Hield is like bizarro world Seth Curry. He attempts twice as many 3s as Curry in any given game, but half as many twos, and provides little in the way of supplemental playmaking or drives to the basket. While that is indeed valuable and could be incredibly lethal with players like Embiid and Andre Drummond setting screens for him, it doesn’t help the Sixers’ lack of a high-level offensive option who can attack opposing defenses from anywhere on the court and provide the team with points in isolation.

Hield also lacks the sort of athleticism needed to improve the team’s pacing issues and is, at best, an average defender, to put it charitably. Even if Maxey is a bit better on the defensive end of the court than some give him credit for, his two-man lineups with Curry have a defensive net rating of 109.4, which isn’t necessarily bad but isn’t particularly good either. If Maxey, Curry, and Hield had to share the court for an extended period of time, it would put a ton of pressure on the team’s 21-year-old point guard – not to mention Embiid in the middle – and likely lead to underwhelming results.

Factor in Hield’s average speed for a modern-day winger, and you’re left with a player who would surely be useful in some situations and could even steal a win or two, depending on the situation, but isn’t going to magically take the Sixers up a notch in the NBA power rankings, let alone add an additional layer to their offensive identity.

If Bradley Beal and Damian Lillard aren’t on the table and Daryl Morey has to settle for a package headlined by an All-Star-level player plus picks, fit has to be taken into consideration. Fit along Joel Embiid first, fit alongside Tyrese Maxey second, and fit in the Philadelphia 76ers’ long-term plans a close third. At best, Hield is still a very good fit with the former, a marginal fit with the latter, and a question mark in the third category, as the team would surely need to execute at least one more trade to further provide parody to the roster. Best instead to look for an athletic small forward who never saw a shot he didn’t like than another catch-and-shoot specialist, even if Buddy Hield is, was, and will remain one of the best players in the NBA at that particular aspect of the game. In the new Maxey-Embiid world, pass.