NEW YORK — The Buddy Hield era for the Philadelphia 76ers started well. The sharpshooter, acquired at the deadline from the Indiana Pacers, was averaging 19.3 points and 6.2 assists while shooting 49.4% from the floor and 45.5% from deep in his first six games.
In the five games since, he’s averaging 10.8 points and 4.4 assists while shooting 34.6% from the floor and 37.1% from deep. Those are still solid numbers, but the Sixers have to find a way to keep the Hield from the first six games.
In Tuesday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Hield shot 2-for-3 from deep, but he was 3-for-9 from the floor overall as he struggled to finish at the rim.
“I’d probably use the same thing I’ve used with other guys: There’s got to be some patience and you’ve get to let some stuff come to you, right?” Nurse said of Hield. “He is a semi-high-volume 3-point shooter for sure — semi-high-volume shooter in general. I think sometimes you’ve just got to wait and settle, and wait until drive-and-kicks and all those things come to you.”
As a high-volume shooter, Hield is averaging 8.2 attempts from deep for the Sixers since the trade. That total is a shade over the 7.7 3-point attempts he averages for his career.
“I thought he got a little impatient and was chasing the ball a little bit,” Nurse added. “He looked really anxious to score to me a little bit. But we run a number of plays for him. We’ve got to execute those a little more cleanly and keep trying to find ways to get him going.”
Hield had some opportunities at the rim, but missed. He knocked down two triples, which is obviously a great sign, but the missed easy attempts came back to haunt the Sixers.
“I missed layups,” he said. “If you miss a layup, it’s different. Layups are easy. Sometimes you miss layups. … Just got to make layups.”
Hield knows he has to be better and has to correct that going forward.
“I missed two wide-open ones,” he finished. “There’s nothing you can do about that. Just got to move on to the next one.”
The Sixers will play host to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday looking to get back on track.
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