At the end of the Sacramento Kings loss to Golden State, Dave Joerger could be seen talking animatedly at Buddy Hield during a TO—with many speculating this caused Hield to avoid attempting a deep three at the end of regulation.
After Buddy drilled a deep three from just in front of the logo to bring the Sacramento Kings within four with 18 seconds to play, the Kings fouled on the inbounds—and then Joerger and Hield got into a discussion on the sideline.
Now, there’s three ideas about what caused Joeger to get after Buddy and none of them lend themselves to this being anything more than a one-off thing that happened as things got tense in a close game. But, let’s go through the possible reasons for this, just to get some background.
First, there’s the obvious connection between Hield taking a shot from Steph Curry-range and then getting yelled at after. Many people pointed to Hield taking a (generally speaking) low percentage shot in favor of a better, despite making it, as what sparked the sideline talk. This idea was reinforced by Buddy deciding against taking the same shot as time expired, opting instead for a fade-away, turnaround jumper that didn’t even hit rim. Add that in with Buddy’s postgame comments and you’ve got a controversy that led to another NBA star chiming in.
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After 24 hours of reflection, this seems like the least likely scenario.
Despite the incident happening before the final possession for the Sacramento Kings, Joerger still drew up a play for Buddy Hield to take the last shot. Joeger knows Buddy has that range, and it seems unlikely he’d do anything to try to rattle the confidence of one of the leagues three best shooters.
Another possibility was shared by Bryan Oringher, a former NBA scout, on Twitter where he suggested that Joerger was mad Buddy didn’t run a play he called and instead freelanced on the deep three. The play in question ‘335’, involves De’Aaron Fox driving to the rim while Buddy Hield utilizes a pick and runs to the corner for a three or an easy two should the defender jump too early.
In the video he shared on Twitter, you can hear Joerger yelling ‘335’ while Fox was seemingly calling for the ball while running up the floor before Buddy hoisted a 30-footer to bring the Kings within four.
The last possibility, which was shared by Sactown Royalty’s Kevin Fippin, was that Joerger was mad about an earlier defensive lapse on the play before Buddy took the deep shot. Both scenarios are equally plausible, but the problem here isn’t that Joerger and Buddy had a spirited discussion in the sideline, in fact, there’s no problem here at all.
At the end of a close game against a soon-to-be rival Warriors squad, Joerger and Hield had a discussion. There was no blowup, there was no public shaming to reporters post game and this certainly won’t be an issue going forward. In the video you can even see Joerger and Buddy laughing together as they walked down the court during the stoppage in play.
Buddy’s postgame reflection, Dame Lillard’s comment on Twitter and a tough loss provided all the opportunity for us to make something out of nothing—because that’s just what it is, nothing.