ATLANTA – The rare NBA lottery pick who played four years in college, Buddy Hield built a basketball resume that is much thicker and more extensive than virtually every other 2016 draftee, highlighted by multiple national Player of the Year awards. The shooting guard is also older than the vast majority of first-year pros – he’ll celebrate his 23rd birthday exactly two months from today.
But he’s still a rookie.
Hield seemed to experience one of those games brand-new NBA players dread Wednesday in Beijing, China, when the Bahamas native went scoreless vs. Houston. After two very good preseason performances and a third decent outing, the 6-foot-4, 214-pounder had his first off night, going 0/4 from the field.