Fox can't be Buddy Hield's crutch. It's just a cop out to use Fox as the excuse as I said in the prior post. What made Buddy good last year is a run & gun jack it up offense that reduces Buddy Hield to simply, "get ball, shoot ball." That's not feasible going forward. They can't and they shouldn't regress to a jack-it-up-run-at-all-cost offense of last year. They blew it when they gave him starter's money. Now they are eating it. They've got to cut their losses by reducing him to a sixth man or unloading him. Buddy Hield is now dealing with this fact as well. He acknowledged last year that playing fancy free with Fox running up the court unleashed his game. Well, that ain't happening. Period. And he knows it. And he knows that no matter what team he goes to he's not going to be running & gunning like last year, certainly not a winning/playoff team. He's dealing with the recognition that he just isn't as good as what he thought and "his game" as he's defined it doesn't work for a winning team. He has to reconstruct his game going forward, and with it, his image of himself as a basketball player.
I agree that Walton has to come down hard on Buddy Hield. He should have benched him for the remainder of the game with those plays, especially not passing to Fox. Of course then we'd have the mega-drama in the locker room afterwards.
We're seeing this negotiation with Hield and Walton on the floor where Hield does some of the good basketball that Walton wants, but only so he can do some of the bad basketball that he wants wants. We're at the half-way point of the season. It's not a mystery to Walton and Divac what is going on with Buddy Hield. Undoubtedly, they've discussed his lack of progress. There has to be some very firm straight talk and action going forward, or a deal, as unlikely as that might be. This is hurting the team.