Does Buddy Hield only get 23 minutes per game because he’s already so well-developed that his minutes have been reduced in favor of the raw, under-developed players on the Kings’ roster?That’s the only logical explanation I can come up with for why a skilled scorer like Hield plays so little on a team that has nothing to lose. He’s not good enough to lead the team to wins by himself, so I don’t think this is a tanking strategy on the part of the Kings. I think they’ve just decided at an organizational level that Hield doesn’t need minutes for development so he’s not going to get any.
I can sort of see why things have to be this way but that doesn’t mean I like it. I want Buddy to replicate what he did at the end of last season, which was score fifteen points per game. If you can score fifteen PPG over a meaningful set of games, that means you should at least be looked at as being a possible main scoring threat in the future. Hield’s not being treated like the main scoring threat that he is, but I expect that to change next season when the Kings inadvisedly acquire a bunch of veterans to make a premature playoff push. As long as none of the veterans play shooting guard.
Also, why is the Kings’ broadcast so obsessed with showing people in the crowd awkwardly cheering?