When Oleh and I joined Mike Prada to discuss the Pelicans on the Limited Upside podcast, I was a little surprised at how shocked Mike and some commenters were at my prediction that Buddy Hield would average 12-14 points per game as a rookie. They all seemed to think that this was much too high of an expectation in his rookie campaign.
My initial thoughts were that shooting is a skill that translates well. Hield was the center of attention his senior year which lead to a lot of double teams. Despite tight defenses focused purely on him, he still shot an incredible 45.