Report: Executives say Buddy Hield a top-five pick in 2016 NBA Draft
NBA executives for lottery-bound teams reportedly view Buddy Hield as a top-five pick in the 2016 NBA Draft
Buddy Hield could have been a first-round pick had he left the Oklahoma Sooners after his junior season last year (though the appraisal he submitted suggested he could’ve fallen to the second round), but he instead elected to return to school for one more year and enter the 2016 NBA Draft after four years in Norman. After the senior season that the star has had, that seems unquestionably like it was the right choice by Hield.
As one of the leading candidates to win National Player of the Year honors and as one of the most exciting players in all of college basketball, Buddy Hield’s stock as a 2016 NBA Draft prospect has only been on the rise since the first game of the year. Where he was a mid first-round pick early in the season, he was a firm lottery pick by the time March Madness rolled around. With what he’s done through the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament, though, Hield could be going even higher than that in the draft.
According to a report from Chris Mannix of Yahoo!, NBA executives of teams that will be picking in the lottery of the 2016 NBA Draft believe that Buddy Hield is going to be a top-five pick. Mannix added that he already had fans in the NBA, but those fans have become more numerous and more firmly in his corner after seeing what he’s done in March:
It's early, but hearing from execs from lottery-bound teams that Buddy Hield is a top-five pick. Fans of him becoming superfans this month.
— Chris Mannix (@SIChrisMannix) March 26, 2016
Obviously the knock on Hield as an NBA prospect would be his age in a league that loves the upside of one-and-done players coming out of college. However, Hield has shown throughout this senior season that he has more than enough talent to affect games on both ends of the floor and has the mental makeup of a star at any level of basketball.
Given that and what fans have watched him do all year and in March Madness, it really shouldn’t be all that much of a surprise that his stock has risen to these heights.
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