Buddy Hield, Pacers planning to part ways?

According to reports, the Pacers and their sharp-shooter can't work out a future together.

Buddy Hield was in the gym on Wednesday, as usual. Photo: @Pacers

In two weeks, the Pacers will be fully engaged in preseason practices to begin the 2023-24 NBA season. However, what has been a rather blah offseason may end with a flourish after The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that the team and Buddy Hield were unable to agree on a contract extension and will instead work to move Hield to another team.

Hield is open to a trade elsewhere, according to rival team sources, but no deal is imminent and there aren’t any current substantive talks with any other team. The Pacers did offer Hield an extension in recent weeks, but it’s believed their proposal did not make the seven-year guard feel desired, league sources said.

With “rival team sources” fueling the trade speculation, the Pacers have plenty of cover to frame the situation as they want with no rush to make a deal. In fact, the Pacers posted a tweet which included Buddy at the ASV Center, around the same time as Shams’ report. Make no mistake, this is big news for the Pacers. Hield is an ELITE shooter, which makes moving him a step back for the current team.

But this team is building for a better future, so freeing the Hield minutes would indicate the team is doubling down on Bennedict Mathurin. The second-year guard mentioned earlier in the summer that he expected to start, so if that is the plan then the glut of guards with Bruce Brown also in the mix, would push Hield to the bench. If Buddy is coming off the bench, he likely would rather do so on a title contender.

Buddy’s value is also elite when you combine that three-point shooting ability with a $19 million salary this season. I hate to see that shooting leave the Fieldhouse and always hoped the Pacers could extend Hield with modest bump in salary.

The situation is similar to what Myles Turner went through last season when we all assumed Myles and Buddy would be dealt at some point. The market wasn’t to the Pacers’ liking and eventually they used some extra cap space to give Turner a big bonus along with a modest raise in an extension.

The same thing could happen with Hield if the Pacers don’t like the offers they receive. The Pacers could throw $7 million on his current salary and then work on a longer extension. But that all depends on the market for Hield which should be intriguing for any contending team. It will certainly be interesting to see what Hield’s next contract checks in at if he does hit the open market.

Again, how this plays out will drastically impact the Pacers season. Heading into the offseason, the team indicated they were all in to win as much as possible and make the playoffs. This would be the natural progression for their star Tyrese Haliburton, leading his team to the playoffs. Now Hali won’t have his running partner in Hield (if he’s moved) to apply pressure on opponents whether in transition or the half court. The Pacers were at their best last season when this dynamic duo was healthy and attacking.

Makes sense that if the Pacers were planning to win as much as possible this season (without any further moves) then Hield and Daniel Theis would need to play a role in keeping this team rolling for 48 minutes. So if they do move Hield, will Theis be involved or moved separately? Theis had a solid summer, last seen sipping bubbly beverages from the FIBA World Cup. He’s a very useful player, even on a team that runs and I’m sure he won’t want to watch most of the action as he did last season.

So what will the Pacers really be about this year? Are they all in for every W or do they want continue using minutes in developing young players.

I understand they want it all. Big steps from Hali and Mathurin, continuing to develop the young bigs while adding Obi Toppin and Bruce Brown to the mix and solidifying a playoff spot. But it is hard to see the team moving vets Hield and Theis and still taking a big jump. The young depth will continue to have growing pains which will make a play-in playoff spot a challenging goal.