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Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr was full of praise after his team’s Jan. 3 win over the Utah Jazz. He praised Steph Curry for his 31 points. He praised his group’s spirit in the second half while breaking down Draymond Green’s latest ejection. But when asked about his team’s morale, Kerr praised a player who didn’t see the floor for a single second.
“I have to say,” Kerr said. “Buddy Hield didn’t play tonight, but his energy on the bench, just his communication with players. Staying engaged. Buddy was incredible.”
It raised an obvious question: How does a guy who didn’t play at all still help his team win?
“I think Draymond said it a few weeks ago,” Kerr continued. “Buddy’s one of his top-five teammates of all time. He’s one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached for this reason. He’s found himself out of the rotation right now and he stays upbeat, stays positive, telling jokes on the bench, keeping guys loose. Buddy is an incredible human being and I know his time’s going to come back around, but this is what it takes to be a really good team is to have everybody bought-in.”
Hield, the No. 6 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft out of the University of Oklahoma, has averaged nearly 15 points a game over his NBA career. This season, however, has tested him. After cementing his place on the Warriors last spring — when he scored 33 points on 12-of-15 shooting during Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals — Hield’s streak of 199 consecutive games played ended with a DNP-Coach’s Decision this year. He is shooting a career-worst 32.4 percent from beyond the arc and averaging a career-low in minutes at just 17.8 a game.
With the NBA trade deadline approaching — and Hield struggling to consistently find his rhythm in his second season in Golden State — the 33-year-old could surface as salary-filler in a potential deal for the Warriors, who are hard-capped and limited with flexibility. It’s a bottom-line business and Hield hasn’t shot it well enough this season. But if he were to be moved, the Warriors would lose more than a contract. They’d lose one of their most popular teammates, an easy-going presence in the locker room and someone who isn’t afraid to be the center of a joke if it lightens the mood.
That role has played out in small moments this season.
It’s Oct. 30 and the Warriors have just wrapped shootaround in advance of a game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Hield stood in the hallway inside Fiserv Forum conducting an interview as some of his teammates started to head back to the bus.
“Don’t believe a word he says!” Curry exclaimed.
Hield, as he has so often done in his year and a half with the Warriors, took the exchange in stride. He understands that his teammates joke with him because they care. There’s an art to fitting into an NBA locker room, especially when things aren’t going your way, and it’s one the Warriors shooting guard has mastered.
“If you can’t take a joke, don’t dish it out,” Hield told The Athletic. “Because if you have insecurities, it will speak louder when the joke is put back on you. Everybody has their insecurities, you get to know how to push people’s buttons, but me, I try to be insecurity-free and move onto the next.”
On this particular afternoon, Hield sat at his locker before the game reading the same five verses from Psalms, while engaging in good-natured conversations with anyone who passed by. He’s quick to offer advice to his teammates or serve as a sounding board when needed.
“He’s been in the NBA for a long time and he’s experienced it all,” said Warriors rookie Will Richard, who has found a role this season. “He’s been through good times, bad times, and I’d probably say for me just watching him every day he’s the same person. So that’s something I try to take something from him just always coming in with the same focus, same mindset, same joy. Just knowing that you’re in the NBA, you’re living your dream out so just keep that perspective.”
That steadiness hasn’t gone unnoticed, even when things have gotten tough. On the night Kerr pulled Hield from the rotation last month, the Warriors coach said he felt “terrible,” about the decision, but believed it was the right thing to do for the team.
“One of the things I love about Buddy, he’s there for you every single night,” Kerr said. “And he’s the greatest teammate ever and just an amazing spirit and a key part of our team.”
The spirit that Kerr praised, the one that Hield’s teammates love him for, was on full display earlier that month at the Warriors open practice inside Chase Center. Hield cartwheeled onto center court in front of thousands of fans after being introduced. His teammate and comedic partner, Jimmy Butler, followed with cartwheels of his own.
After Hield gave his jersey to a young fan to wear on the floor, Butler and Curry convinced the fan to throw the jersey back at Hield as they laughed. Moments later, Green ripped the beanie off Hield’s head and threw it into the courtside seats. In a tradition that began shortly after Hield’s arrival to the organization, many teammates love to pick on the man who always seems to have a smile plastered across his face.
“They all bully me,” Hield said after a training camp practice. “But it’s fun because it comes from a good place. And it’s good for the team, team spirit, team camaraderie we got going on … it’s all love between me and all them. I’m happy to be their teammate.”
But to last a decade in the NBA, as Hield has, you need to have a combination of talent and the right attitude to make your presence felt in a locker room each night. While Hield’s relationship with his teammates is centered around humor and keeping things light, there’s one teammate that seems to call Hield out more than any other — Butler.
The pair’s running routine has become such a staple that the Warriors’ social media account made a six-minute highlight reel of their exchanges and created a “Best Buddies” bobblehead featuring the two. Butler even wore a face mask of Hield while on tour in China to poke fun of his Warriors teammate.
Butler and Hield’s bond began, Hield says, with a shared love of his home country.
“We have the Bahamas connection,” Hield said. “He’s always there, he understands it, and he plays dominoes.”
For Butler, the familiarity has led to something the future Hall of Famer doesn’t give lightly: Respect.
“I know so many people from the Caribbean,” Butler said. “They’re some of the most humble and grateful people to be where they are and to have what they have.
“That’s Buddy’s background, that’s who Buddy is.”
Butler knows what Hield brings to the table each night whether he’s playing or not. He trusts him. And while Butler may not admit it outright, those around him can see the unspoken truth: He actually likes him.
"They want to speak with you?"
Buddy Hield crashed Jimmy Butler III's postgame interview after GSW's victory 😆 pic.twitter.com/S608NKbHzx
— NBA (@NBA) October 29, 2025
That relationship shows up in small moments. On the same morning Curry playfully made fun of Hield in Milwaukee, Hield made sure he said hello to Butler’s family as Butler finished up a FaceTime call.
“Hey Rylee,” Hield said cheerfully to Butler’s daughter. “How you doing?”
That same bond carries over to the court. Hield has long admired Butler’s competitiveness and edge, but getting to know him as a teammate has made it personal.
“We can get each other’s back and it translates to the court,” Hield said. “If I see something I don’t like on the court, if I see a matchup, I say, ‘Yo Jimmy, this is a matchup you got to exploit.’ Or (he’ll say) ‘Buddy, be right there. Stay right there, you’ve got a wide open shot.’ We figured out that we’re all on the same page and the ultimate goal is to get that gold trophy.”
Hield’s hope at the beginning of the year was to bring Butler back to the Bahamas if the Warriors won a championship this season. It’s a hope the Warriors are still clinging to despite an up-and-down start to the season.
“We’re having him there for a parade if we win,” Hield said.
It’s Nov. 7, after a shootaround in advance of a game against the Denver Nuggets, Kerr was asked how tough it is for a player like Hield to handle being the guy that other teammates pick on and still maintain a meaningful role. He laughed before answering.
“It’s not hard for Buddy,” Kerr told The Athletic. “He is who he is and that’s why everybody loves him. He loves life, he loves the game, loves being in the locker room, loves being on the bus, loves being the center of all the laughter. Beautiful teammate.”
To paint Hield as solely the center of everybody’s jokes doesn’t do his career justice. He knows when to turn it off, too.
“I know how to switch everything on and off,” Hield said. “When it comes to an organization like this and the seriousness with Draymond, Steph, what’s at stake, I don’t f— around out there. I know how to balance it.”
What Hield has shown during a season when his shot hasn’t fallen is another elite NBA skill: The ability to read his teammates and know what they need in order to succeed on — and just as importantly — off the floor. It’s a skill Hield feels like he has honed through his years of basketball.
“Knowing people, you just got to know how to come at me, and how to come in the right way,” Hield said. “When I say come in the right way, I mean in a joking manner where they can be like ‘This is Buddy.’ And they know who to come at too and then when to come at them, time and place. And you got to know people’s feelings and just know the vibe. Just reading the room. And that’s how you do it.”
For Hield, it’s a consistency that he prides himself on — especially in situations like he’s currently in, where things aren’t going his way on the floor. Hield knows this season hasn’t gone the way he had hoped. The shots haven’t fallen. The minutes haven’t always been there. He could be on a different team in a few weeks. But he also knows what he can control — the moments he and his teammates will remember long after the final buzzer has sounded.
“We all go through stuff, man. And I go through stuff,” Hield said in Milwaukee. “Whether it’s family, whether it’s playing time, whether it’s things not going well, or you’re not playing as well as you want to, we all go through stuff on the court, off the court. Just bringing light and positive energy is always great.”
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Nick Friedell is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the Golden State Warriors and the NBA. Nick spent 14 years at ESPN covering the NBA, most notably as a reporter as well as a TV and radio commentator. He is a graduate of The Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Follow Nick on X @NickFriedell.
