Warriors guard reaches new low in increasingly disastrous situation

There were very few players across the NBA as hot as Buddy Hield through the first seven games of the season, with the Golden State Warriors guard having tallied 33 3-pointers and six outings of at least 20 points.

If that was Hield feasting, then the veteran sharpshooter is most certainly going through a famine right now. The 31-year-old was the hero of Golden State's early season form, but now his minutes are starting to be impacted by his recent poor form.

Buddy Hield is becoming an increasing concern for the Warriors

Since the first eight games of the season, Hield has recorded more than 12 points in just three of his last 14 games. During that span he's averaged just 9.8 points per game, having shot 37.9% from the field and 35.2% from 3-point range.

Hield did play over 27 minutes in Thursday's 99-93 victory over the Houston Rockets, but that was more out of necessity given his shooting threat was needed in the absence of Stephen Curry. He had just five points on 1-of-8 shooting and 1-of-6 from beyond the arc, leaving Jonathan Kuminga and Andrew Wiggins to pick up the slack in the six-point win.

With Curry back in action against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, Hield was pushed back to the bench and didn't enter the game until the final possession of the first-quarter. He ended up playing a season-low 13 minutes and 22 seconds, failing to have any impact with four points, three rebounds and three turnovers while missing both of his 3-point attempts.

Minutes were up for grabs as Andrew Wiggins and Moses Moody were both ruled out of the game by early in the second-half, but Steve Kerr went to the likes of Lindy Waters III and Gary Payton II who both saw more minutes than Hield.

If things couldn't get any worse for Hield, his minutes were actually inflated by the fact he played the last few minutes of garbage time in the fourth-quarter. That's a new low for the Bahamian this season, suggesting that Kerr was desperate to try and get him some sort of rhythm.

Hield was brought in to be a spark plug scorer off the bench, and he provided that and then some in the opening fortnight of the season. But if he's not nailing threes consistently then its becoming increasingly obvious that his impact is severely limited, with his defense often a liability, not to mention he's averaged nearly 1.5 turnovers to every assist over the last 14 games.