This offseason, the hot topics that everyone is paying attention to are about how the Los Angeles Lakers will deal with defender Westbrook and his huge contract this summer. Among them, Pacers defender Buddy Hilder is a trader in many rumors, but in the end the two teams did not reach an agreement.
The reason why Buddy Hilde is the rumored candidate on the books is his ability on the outside, and the following will explain his advantages and disadvantages through actual cases.
1. Buddy Hield delivered a career-worst three-point shooting percentage of 36.2% in 26 games last season for the Pacers.
2. In 20 of these games, his three-point shots were higher than the Pacers.
3. Average of 8.5 three-point shots comes from 72.8 touches per game, which means 88% of the offense comes from mid- and long-distance shooting farther from the basket.
For these reasons, although he has won the reputation of a shooter, he feels more like a nerve knife in terms of shooting choices. (He can punish the retreating long men with consecutive three-pointers in a game, but he can also shoot a bleak three-point shooting percentage of 1-9 in a game)
However, more importantly, his value as a shooter, both for the Pacers and the Lakers and other teams in the league. Rather than saying that his shooting percentage drops on the court, it’s better to explore what he did and what impact he had on the team when he doesn’t shoot.
Defensive insight
According to statistics, Buddy Hilder scored three-point goals in the Kings and Pacers last season, from 282 three-pointers in the fifth year of his career to 262 in the sixth year, only 20 three-pointers were missing. This also means that he still poses a great threat to his opponent on the defensive end. Let's see how he used his running position to threaten his opponent in the first game of the Pacers.
and Tyris Halliburton's ball-holding screen cooperated, did you see how Dean Wade tried to move his body outside away from the free throw circle and as close to Buddy Hilder as possible?
Now see another clip. After two long men helped cover it, carefully observe how Kuzma retains one foot where the paint goes. Although this will risk emptiing the outer Myers Turner , the risk that Miles Turner takes is absolutely much smaller than Buddy Hilder in front.
Although Buddy Hilder delivered a career-worst three-point shooting percentage of 36.2% last season, his shooting choices of more than 56% are extremely close to the defenders, compared to Miles Turner only 25%. For better or worse, he won't be completely out of the way because of these bad shooting choices. On the contrary, he made as many as six shots per game 25-29 feet away from the basket, which is the eighth result in the league.
Therefore, a longer shooting distance must spend more time blocking and assisting defense, so Dean Wade in the picture above will choose between marking Buddy Heard outside the three-point line and leaving the penalty area to assist and assisting the ball holder in the ball. Last season, Buddy Heard had more exaggerated similar cases and staying farther and waiting for the shot.
The influence of bait
Of course, in addition to being a fixed-point shooter, Buddy Hilder will also play an important role in breaking through defense, such as exchanging positions with Tyris Halliburton after the pick-and-roll switch to run outside the three-point line to open up space.
Considering that Boston immediately took the position change measures after seeing the unball screen below, the Pacers' tactics can use Buddy Hilde as bait to indirectly liberate Tyris Halliburton's ability to support.
in this way, instead of over-consuming physical strength, you can get a big gap. Tyris Halliburton cracked the opponent's defense during the process of changing defense movement. Robert Williams must come out to face off immediately after seeing the ball-holder’s cut, partly thanks to the attention Buddy Hilder received as a running shooter.
Going further, , Marcus Smart , who was just selected as the best defensive player this year, still marks the shooter with his back to the basket in this round.And even though he saw Buddy Hilde almost standing at the midfield logo, Marcus Smart still chose to take a few steps outside the three-point line.
Reignition Screens
However, although he is a team that ended with the fifth-worst record last season and lost 10 consecutive games at the end of the season, what is more important for Buddy Hilder is that he is not just resting when executing the tactics. Instead, he will keep himself moving to free up space through constant running, especially when the ball stops flowing. As an example, the pick-and-roller first makes a fake gear and then runs to the gap immediately. This is a tactic designed by the Pacers when they die, but what makes Buddy Hilder unique is that he has a good way to deal with the reaction when facing an emergency on the spot.
sp basically opened a smooth road for Duane Washington Jr. for his recent slam dunk, but if Buddy Hilder's empty cut was not used as a bridge for this tactic, there wouldn't be such a communication error in the switch to prevent the communication. As a reference, you can find out whether there is a great difference between good space, especially when you see Terry Taylor coming out of the left bottom corner after cutting in, and then cutting in with Duane Washington Jr.
The execution of this wave of attack Duane Washington Jr. is not the beneficiary, but he has to barely take action under the collision of his opponent's limbs. At the same time, Trey Yang did not follow Terry Taylor to the bottom corner, but chose to stand in the cut-in path and interfere with the opponent.
creates gap credibility
Although Buddy Hilde's Reignition screens below did not achieve the expected change of defense effect, as shown in the figure, Buddy Hilde's defender followed him tightly. Although this seems to be a running position, considering the path of Tyris Halliburton's ball-holding attack, if there is a long man at the basket, if the space in the middle can be released, it can be released.
Such a tiny moving run will not cause the defense to hesitate or immediately switch defense, but it will need to consider the distance between Osheim Brysett and the right wing Buddy Hilder.
In addition to double the gap size compared to Buddy Hilde's situation in key positions, it can be seen that Cole Anthony cannot leave the outside shooter and interfere with the players on the path.
Although Tyris Halliburton's final choice was to cut into the middle distance and end the jump shot, not to divide the ball to the shooter on both sides, at least such a shooting choice is already an acceptable range. For point guards who cultivate star potential level, Buddy Hilder's continuous running demonstration has provided a very good example.
gap change
In addition to providing more cutting paths, Buddy Hilde can also force the defensive end to switch defenses when running without the ball, giving players a better chance to play players with weaker defenses.
No matter which method is used, whether it is planned or accidental, Buddy Hilder can strategically analyze the space on the field, and after formulating the route trajectory, the ability to open the team's space through the running position is definitely not to be underestimated.
Buddy Hilde is not just shooting, not to mention that he also delivered a career-high assist rate. There is no doubt that having him will definitely help Tyris Halliburton gets open shots in more defense changes.
The most important thing is that Buddy Hilde has gone from the original role of a fixed-point shooter, allowing the defender to stand in place and wait for him to take the ball. Afterwards, as a shooting player without the ball, he can use space consciousness to create more gaps and manipulate the defender's position. Buddy Hilde not only has the influence of a stable shooter, but also can bring stable output to the team without taking action.
For the Pacers, Buddy Hilde played with Tyris Halliburton last season and scored 117 points per 100 attacks. This pair of backcourt combinations almost laid the floor of the current team, but it is unknown whether they can continue to work together for a long time. But anyway, Buddy Hilder is definitely one of the best creators of the unball space in the league now.
