SAN FRANCISCO – Buddy Hield still remembers the odd advice he once received from an NBA general manager, advising him to view himself as someone who can always bounce around the league.
There are two sides to that thinking. The GM’s point was that playing for multiple teams means that you’re wanted. But it also means your current team is content with letting you go. Everybody wants to feel wanted one way or another.
Hield, who’s in his ninth season overall and first with the Warriors, has seen both sides of the coin throughout his NBA career.
"Just know that this whole NBA thing is a roller coaster,” Hield said to NBC Sports Bay Area on the latest episode of Dubs Talk. “One man's trash is another man's treasure. That's how I look at it.”
The New Orleans Pelicans made Hield feel like the Big Easy’s newest prized possession when they selected him with the sixth pick in the 2016 draft. Those feelings didn’t last long. Just eight months after being the Pelicans’ top pick, and four months after making his NBA debut, Hield was on the move.
As part of a five-player trade, Hield was the Pelicans’ biggest selling point in acquiring DeMarcus Cousins from the Sacramento Kings in February of 2017. Hield's six seasons in Sacramento was the longest stop thus far on his map around the NBA landscape, but like he learned months into his career, permanence is much more idealistic than reality.
His first full month with the Kings, Hield was named the Western Conference Rookie of the Month and wound up making the All-Rookie First Team. He averaged 20 points a game for the only time as a pro during his Kings tenure and finished second in 3-pointers made in four straight seasons, but was sent to yet another team, the Indiana Pacers, during that streak.
Three multi-year contracts and four different times being traded. Hield has learned to do his best at putting personal emotions to the side.
“The process I've had where I've had a long-term contract and I've been traded a few times, sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but it's the business of basketball,” he said. “You just got to deal with it.
"Yeah, sometimes it stings but you can't dwell on it. I'm just happy that I still have a job. I always look at it like that. There's so many people that are looking to get into the league. There's only 450 of us out of the whole world. It's hard first of all to get into this league, and it's hard to stick in the league. And it's hard to get back into the league. I'm just blessed to be part of this league and still be able to play for a team that needs me.”
Hield doesn’t feel hostility looking at the past. Pride triumphs any anger. Rare is the occasion Hield’s smile doesn’t shine as bright as the Bahamas sun.
Peeling back the curtains of draft night more than eight years ago, Hield knows exactly what he’d tell his younger, wide-eyed self full of hopes and dreams now having the wisdom of someone who has spent nearly a decade in the NBA.
"Way to stay the course,” Hield says. “Way to be disciplined to your work. Hard work has got me here and hard work is going to get me through my journey through this league. It's always about the journey, man. The journey's just so fun.”
The journey can always come with more change. Another move, another new coach, another set of new teammates.
"I can be traded again,” Hield acknowledges. “But if that happens again, what do I do? Do I stop working, or just keep on competing with this thing called life with basketball? That's what I like about it so much. It brings a new challenge every day.
“Like I said, another man's trash is another man's treasure, but the challenge it brings is just so much fun. That's what the NBA brings."
Embracing the unknown is now one of Hield’s greatest strengths, akin to his 3-point shot. The ups, the downs, hardly ever will his abundance of experiences bring a Hield frown.
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