"I See It Like An Insult" - Buddy Hield Is Not Happy About The Kings $90M Extension Offer And They Could Have A Real Problem On Their Hands
(Sacramento Bee) – Hield’s voice quivered at times during an emotional postgame interview following a 124-110 victory over Melbourne United on Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center. After addressing a larger group of reporters, Hield told The Sacramento Bee he was insulted by the team’s four-year, $90-million offer, the terms of which were first reported Wednesday by Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.
“I see it like an insult,” Hield told The Bee . “I feel like I’m worth more than that. If you say I’m your guy and you want to build around me, I just need you to show it. Actions speak louder than words. If you’re just talking and not showing nothing, I’m not going to respect it. I love playing here. I want to be here. This is my home. I’m trying to buy a house here, but everything is on stall mode because I don’t know if they’ll really commit to me.”
I think it’s fair to say the Jamal Murray 4/170M extension really messed things up for the 2016 draft class when it comes to rookie extensions. Everyone feels like they deserve that max money and frankly that’s just not true. When it comes to Buddy Hield, he’s been pretty vocal that the Kings needed to take care of this before Monday’s deadline when he was still waiting for their initial offer and essentially threatened that things could go south pretty quickly if he didn’t get it.
Well then yesterday we learned that the in fact were interested in making an offer, and came to the table with a 4/90M extension, a cool $22.5M a year, but far less than the max. That’s what sparked the reaction from Hield after last night’s game and honestly they aren’t even that far apart since his team is now saying he wants 4/110M or $27.5M a year. Maybe that’s a slight overpay for a player who is already 27, but if he hits the market this summer in RFA I imagine there will be a team out there willing to go that high to bring him in since it’s a shallow free agent pool. As a result, we have a good old fashioned contract standoff with his team and Vlade Divac.
The problem here is that Hield doesn’t have much leverage. Since he’s restricted the Kings can afford to wait this whole thing out and see what the market dictates. The only thing he can do is accept his qualifying offer this summer of $6.4M and then be unrestricted in 2021, but he’ll be that much older and will be entering a free agent class that is going to have wayyyyyyyyy more talent so chances are he won’t be getting that payday he’s looking for. It’s a tough spot no doubt, and it’s not surprising that we’re hearing Hield chirp like this through the media because that’s really his only option.
If it’s me and I’m the Kings, I wait. They can still show their interested in Hield by matching any offer he gets, and I think you roll the dice with him being unhappy because he’s probably going to be extremely motivated this year on the court to get that big payday level interest from another team this summer. It’s not like the Kings are expected to make the playoffs anyways, so I would roll the dice with any potential chemistry issue. It’s better basketball business to allow the market to dictate his price. If things get so bad it’s starts messing up your team, you can always trade him in February if you absolutely have to.
It’s true that Hield has been a big part of the turnaround in SAC, mostly by doing things like this
but when you’re a small market team like the Kings you have to be smart when it comes to handing out big contracts. You also have to factor in Bogdanovic who gives them a lot of what Hield does for potentially fraction of the cost (he’ll also be a RFA this summer). The Kings should be very entertaining and definitely worth being in your League Pass rotation, and their front office has actually been making very smart moves over the last few years which is weird to see in SAC. In years past they probably would have overpaid for Hield up front and it eventually would have bit them in the ass, so I commend them for actually being patient and smart about this whole thing.
Clearly Buddy Hield does not feel the same way.