Buddy Hield: Pass
Now this just does not make any sense. Again, on paper, Buddy Hield makes a lot of sense for the Los Angeles Lakers. He is a talented young guard that can shoot the three fairly well and unlike the other potential targets, Hield is under contract for quite some time.
The young guard is under contract for another four years as part of an extension with the Sacramento Kings. It is that extension that makes this deal impossible.
First off, if the Kings are shopping Hield it would be to get rid of the contract that they just signed him to in order to open up cap space. If that is not a red flag right away then I do not know what is.
Hield is set to make an average of $23.5 million over the next four seasons. While that might seem relatively doable in today’s NBA, Hield is not worth that kind of money and it is not worth potentially restricting the team in the future to get a guard that does not offer much more than what the team already has.
Sure, he is a great scorer and a great three-point shooter but there is just no way that the Lakers would be willing to take on this contract, part ways with Danny Green and more assets and then essentially guarantee that the team has no chance of signing another big star, such as Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Plus we have not even mentioned the fact that the Lakers and Kings are bitter rivals and the chance of them pulling off a trade in 2020 is slim to none.
To put it into perspective, the Lakers would have to trade Danny Green, Kyle Kuzma, Quinn Cook and Alex Caruso just to make this work money-wise. The team would not be much better with Hield over valuable minutes from Green, Kuzma and Caruso and would be strapped for cash moving forward.