Hield began his rookie year last season as a member of the Pelicans, garnering 20.4 minutes per game, before being dealt to Sacramento as part of the trade that sent DeMarcus Cousins to New Orleans. After joining the Kings, Hield saw his time on the floor make a significant jump, rising to 29.1 minutes per contest. While he was a fringe Fantasy option on the Pelicans, his move to the Kings not only came with increased playing time, but increased efficiency and production overall. He saw his effective field-goal percentage bounce from 48.7 up to 57.9 and his points rise from 8.6 to 15.1 per game. His 2.4 made threes per game on the Kings also turned him into a legitimate Fantasy threat in formats that account for the stat. The 6-foot-4 guard didn’t provide much value as far as supplementary statistics, posting just 4.1 boards and 1.8 assists per game, but his quick trigger finger ensured he was always in the running for a 20-plus point outburst. Though the Kings added some backcourt depth over the offseason, the Kings are notably high on Hield’s potential, nearly ensuring he’ll see a similar workload during the 2017-18 campaign as he did last season with the team.

With the expectation that they wouldn’t be able to retain top marksmen Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon in free agency, the Pelicans addressed their need for three-point shooting by scooping up Hield with the sixth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. The Oklahoma standout took home the Wooden Award in 2015-16, averaging 25.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game while posting otherworldly shooting marks of 50.1 percent from the field, 45.7 percent from three-point land and 88 percent from the charity stripe. The mark from distance was arguably the most impressive of them all, considering Hield put up a whopping 8.7 attempts per game. As a four-year player who often looked unchallenged at the collegiate level, Hield is viewed as one of the more pro-ready prospects in his draft class. The problem is that he didn’t really show as much in five summer league contests for the Pelicans, averaging 16.8 points per game, but turning the ball over 2.8 times per game and hitting only 32.7 and 22.9 percent of his attempts from the field and from downtown, respectively. That small sample shouldn’t be taken as evidence that Hield’s game won’t translate to the next level, though it does illustrate the difficulties prospects of any caliber face with the transition to the NBA. With the projected backcourt starters Jrue Holiday (personal) and Tyreke Evans (knee) expected to miss the first several weeks of the season, Hield will have the opportunity to challenge for the Pelicans’ starting gig at shooting guard, but he’ll need to perform far better in training camp than he did in summer league to claim those duties. If that proves too much to ask, Hield could find himself on the fringe of the rotation to start the season, with Tim Frazier, E’Twaun Moore, Langston Galloway and Lance Stephenson all threats to take minutes from him. Hield’s upside still probably remains higher than all four of those players, but before investing, it’s imperative to track his production during the preseason in order to suss out what his role be to open the year.