Daryl Morey takes blame for 76ers’ Buddy Hield trade not working out

CAMDEN, N.J. — Daryl Morey believed that Buddy Hield was the best player traded at the trade deadline. The Philadelphia 76ers hoped his shooting — a skill that Morey said “put the fear of God” into opposing teams — would open up things for their stars and make him a valuable contributor in the playoffs. That didn’t end up being the case. Now, Philly has to consider whether to make Hield a priority to re-sign.

In his 32 regular-season games with the Sixers, Hield averaged 12.2 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game on 42.6/38.9/92.3 shooting splits. He tallied a career-best 10 assists in his fourth game with Philly but became less and less productive as the season went on, coming off the bench for all but one of his final 23 games (regular season and playoffs) of 2023-24.

Getting a shooter like Hield to put around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey made sense even with his shortcomings as a defender and creator. But the move didn’t work out as Morey hoped. Although Hield’s impact compared to other players moved at the deadline ranks decently well, it was mostly because this past deadline saw only a few players make high-level impacts.

“At no fault to Buddy, I think the fit was less good than I thought,” Morey said. “Obviously, most of his time was without Joel. But I thought when Joel was back that his impact and his shooting that he’d get more open shots. He didn’t — and that’s on me that it didn’t work out as well as we hoped.”

While Hield immediately meshed with the team because of his easy-going, upbeat personality — which proved to be extra important when he gave Tyrese Maxey a pep talk that helped spark his epic clutch sequence in Game 5 — his on-court value cratered after a hot start to his Philly stint, which he opened up with four straight 20-point games. It was a feat that he hadn’t done in almost three years.

Hield did, at least, make the most of his last chance with the Sixers. In Game 6, after playing just three minutes in Game 3 and zero in the next two, Nick Nurse put him back in the rotation. He went off for 20 points, scoring most of them in a second-quarter run that allowed Philly to shake off an awful start. The question now is whether Philly should bring him back.

Should 76ers re-sign Buddy Hield this offseason?

Hield said after the season that he would like to come back to the 76ers. After playing in the playoffs for the first time in his eight-year career, he’s surely eager to remain in contention. But after ending the season outside of the rotation, will Philly believe again that he can make a difference in the playoffs?

“There was no one more disappointed than him that he fell out of the rotation because I think Nick correctly saw, based on how they were guarding us, that it was hard for him to impact the game,” Morey said. “And then when they changed up how they’re guarding us, he did show what he can do.”

Hield found it much harder to get his shot off when defenders were following him more tightly around off-ball screens and were quicker to recover back out to him after doubling. His spot-up and relocation shooting skills become less valuable when the windows shrink, especially because he’s not extremely fast or forceful with the ball in his hands. Unable to make up the difference elsewhere, Hield proved to be ineffective and was benched.

Nurse turned to him in the hopes of getting someone with fresh legs after five grueling games, including an overtime win in Game 5. Shooting 6-9 from behind the arc almost helped the Sixers stretch the series out to seven games but shooting 1-7 from the field across Games 1 through 3 while also having more fouls (three) than assists and rebounds combined (one of each) put Philly in a hole to begin with.

The success Hield found previously with the Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers came as a result of playing with star point guards De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton. They each pushed the pace well and were great passers for Hield. Maxey’s pace-pushing prowess was not complemented by the type of top-tier playmaking that allowed Hield to remain an effective player. Even if Maxey does grow in that area and Embiid doesn’t go down for months at a time, Hield’s playability in the playoffs doesn’t seem great.

Buddy Hield’s durability — he played in 85 of a possible 86 games during the regular season, which was stretched by a run to the In-Season Tournament Final and a trade  — and ability to shoot still make him a viable rotation player outside of the playoffs. How much is that worth for Philly? Whether Hield re-signs or joins a new team, we’ll have our answer.