New Warriors sharpshooter Buddy Hield, who ranks twenty second all-time amongst NBA gamers in profession three-pointers, would be the de facto substitute for the participant who ranks sixth on that all-time listing (Klay Thompson). Requested this week if he feels strain to copy the manufacturing and the surface taking pictures that Thompson offered for years in Golden State, Hield downplayed that concept.
“There’s no strain,” Hield stated, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports activities Bay Space. “Simply come and do my job. What Klay has performed for this group has been large. I really like Klay rather a lot. I’ve watched him through the years. He’s particular. The best way he can get sizzling and the best way he can simply change the sport and be the two-way participant that he’s, and the champion that he’s. So, I don’t take a look at it as strain. I feel it’s enjoyable simply being in that function and seeing if I can get the identical seems he received.”
Hield has by no means been as efficient an all-around participant as Thompson was in his prime years, and he definitely can’t match the previous Warriors’ postseason accomplishments, having appeared in a playoff recreation for the primary time this spring. Nonetheless, the 2 gamers’ profession taking pictures numbers are fairly comparable — Thompson has made 3.1 of seven.6 three-pointers per recreation (41.3%) in 793 contests, whereas Hield has knocked down 3.0 of seven.6 per recreation (40.0%) in 632 outings.
Right here’s extra from across the Pacific:
- Dalton Knecht has been one of the best participant on the Lakers‘ Summer time League roster and already seems like a possible steal because the No. 17 choose on this 12 months’s draft, in line with Jovan Buha of The Athletic, who says the rookie ahead initiatives to be within the high 9 of L.A.’s rotation within the common season. Coming into Thursday’s contest, Knecht has averaged 22.0 PPG with a .412 3PT% in his first two video games in Vegas.
- Bones Hyland noticed extra enjoying time for the Clippers throughout the closing month-and-a-half of the 2023/24 season and gained’t have Russell Westbrook forward of him on the depth chart in ’24/25. Nonetheless, with Kris Dunn and Kevin Porter Jr. now within the combine in a Los Angeles backcourt that additionally options James Harden, Norman Powell, and Terance Mann, there’s nonetheless no clear path to common enjoying time for Hyland, who stays on the commerce block, in line with Regulation Murray of The Athletic (Twitter hyperlink).
- Though Drew Eubanks determined properly forward of his participant choice deadline to choose out of his deal and turn out to be a free agent, he wasn’t essentially set on leaving the Suns, as Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic relays. “The curiosity was all the time there for me to return (to Phoenix),” stated Eubanks, who in the end agreed to a deal with Utah. “The notion of it being a ‘mutual break up’ is simply factually false. There have been a whole lot of conversations about me coming again this subsequent 12 months from the second the season ended and into free company. On the finish of the day, there have been different alternatives and I needed to make one of the best choice for myself and my household. Beloved my 12 months in Phoenix.”
- The Suns will rent John Little as the pinnacle coach of their new NBA G League affiliate, the Valley Suns, sources inform Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter hyperlink). Little was beforehand a part of G League teaching staffs with Maine and Wisconsin.
