Buddy Hield and the Sacramento Kings weren’t on the best terms in recent years, but that could be changing now as the Kings are reportedly keeping Hield as an important part of their core. They recently re-signed De’Aaron Fox to a 5-year, $163 million contract extension, securing their future point guard.
Moreover, they decided not to match the Atlanta Hawks’ offer for Bogdan Bogdanovic and let the Serbian player walk. What does this mean for Buddy? Well, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Kings are favoring their core of Fox, Hield and Marvin Bagley III.
The Kings’ front office had labored over the decision the past two days but kept coming back to new general manager Monte McNair’s plan to maintain roster flexibility. Keeping Bogdanovic would have severely limited the organization’s ability to continue reshaping the team around its young core of De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III and Buddy Hield.
And once Tyrese Haliburton dropped to the Kings at No. 12 in last Wednesday’s NBA draft, Sacramento suddenly had a deeper, more talented backcourt than it originally anticipated heading into free agency — another factor in Tuesday night’s decision.
Hield inked a 4-year, $94 million deal with the Kings last season but their broken relationship appeared to be unsolvable at some point. Now things are different for the Kings after they parted ways with Vlade Divac. He was ready to leave the thing this season but the team has told otherwise.
Buddy was caught liking a tweet revealing his stance on the Kings’ decision to keep him on the roster, and it looks like things are good between them.
— chase (@Chase_Everett_) November 25, 2020
It could also mean that he’s tired of being in Sacramento and wants out, so nobody is agreeing on what this means for Buddy and his team. He was linked with a couple of teams this offseason but nothing is happening now. He might be ready to give it another try with the Kings and see if they can reach those elusive playoffs.
