Where Does Buddy Hield Rank Among All-Time Sooner NBA Draft Picks?
By Chip Rouse
When Buddy Hield was selected by the New Orleans Pelicans with the sixth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft, he became the sixth highest drafted Oklahoma Sooner in the 70-year history of the draft.
As a first-round selection, the two-time Big 12 Player of the Year joins a list of nine former Oklahoma players to be selected in the first round of the draft. A total of 48 OU players have been selected in the draft all-time, and this year’s draft marked the 12th time that Oklahoma has had more than one player selected in the NBA Draft in the same year.
Hield’s Sooner teammate and former roommate, Isaiah Cousins, was the next to last player picked (the 59th overall selection) in this year’s draft.
Hield’s career numbers at Oklahoma, which spanned a four-year collegiate career capped off by a record-setting senior season, are among the best in OU program history. But where does the best player in college basketball this past season rank among the best of the best in all-time Sooner NBA Draft picks?
Oklahoma had the benefit of Hield’s services for four seasons, something that stands out from most of the other Oklahoma draft picks that were among the top-10 players selected in their respective draft years. His 2015-16 senior season was one for the record books.
Hield was the only player in the nation this past season to average at least 25.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. He also led the nation with a dozen 30-point games and 19 25-point games, including a total of 147 made three-point shots, tops in the country.
“Buddy is a guy (who) has worked so hard to keep making progress with his game,” said Sooner head coach Lon Kruger on Thursday, the night of the NBA Draft. “He’s meant so much to the OU program, and now to see him take that next step to the NBA – all Sooners are elated and extremely proud of him.
“Buddy will no doubt keep improving, just as he has the past four years,” Kruger said. “He has the ability to focus on areas that need improvement and then the sincerity to work on them every day.”
As fantastic a final season and career that the player they call “Buddy Buckets” had at Oklahoma, I would not rate him as the best NBA Draft pick to come from Oklahoma.
“Buddy will no doubt keep improving, just as he has the past four years. He has the ability to focus on areas that need improvement and then the sincerity to work on them every day.” —Lon Kruger, Sooner head coach
That honors goes to the late Wayman Tisdale, the Sooners only three-time consensus First-Team All-American (1983-85). Tisdale averaged for three seasons what Hield did in his best scoring season at Oklahoma, and also shot close to 60 percent from the field, almost eight percent better than Hield did this past season.
Tisdale was drafted No. 2 overall in the 1985 NBA Draft by the Indiana Pacers and went on to a 12-year career in the NBA with three different teams (Indiana, Sacramento and Phoenix).
Here is how I rank the top five Oklahoma NBA Draft picks of all-time:
1. Wayman Tisdale (1983-85)
2. Blake Griffin (2007-09)
3. Buddy Hield (2012-16)
4. Alvan Adams (1972-75)
5. Stacey King (1985-89)
Like Hield, Blake Griffin was the best player in college basketball his final season at Oklahoma, winning both the coveted Naismith Trophy and the John R. Wooden Award. Griffin was the Sooners’ only No. 1 overall draft pick, going with the top pick in the 2009 NBA Draft to the Los Angeles Clippers. He missed all of his debut season in the NBA after breaking his knee cap in the final preseason game. The following season, he was named Rookie of the Year and was named to the West Squad for the NBA All-Star game.
His final season at Oklahoma, Griffin averaged almost 23 points a game and a Big 12-leading 14.4 rebounds per game. He just completed his sixth season in the NBA, all with the Clippers.
Alvan Adams was the fourth pick in the first round in the 1975 NBA Draft. The 6-foot, 9-inch center/power forward was born in Lawrence, Kan., home of the Kansas Jayhawks, but grew up in Oklahoma and was a prized recruit when he committed to play college basketball at OU. Adams never averaged less than 20 points a game in three seasons at Oklahoma, finishing his career with a 23.4 scoring average.
Adams spent 13 seasons in the NBA, all with the Phoenix Suns, the team that drafted him. His best season as a professional was his rookie season, in 1978-79, when he averaged 17.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game.
Stacey King was a consensus All-American in the 1988-89 season at Oklahoma and was selected by the Chicago Bulls with the sixth pick overall in the 1989 NBA Draft. His junior season at OU, he helped lead to Sooners to the NCAA Final Four and the national championship game, where the heavily favored Sooners lost to Danny Manning and the Kansas Jayhawks.
His final two seasons at Oklahoma, King averaged 24 points and over nine rebounds per game. He had an eight-year NBA career, playing for five different teams.
The jerseys of Tisdale, Adams, King and Griffin are all retired, and it is a pretty sure bet that Buddy Hield’s No. 24 will joining them in the not-too-distant future.