NBA: Bulls Flip Dillingham to Hornets for Hield

Two teams, two different bets

Rob Dillingham is heading to his third team in under two years. The Chicago Bulls are sending the 21-year-old guard to the Charlotte Hornets for Buddy Hield and cash, according to a Saturday report from ESPN. Two former lottery picks, two franchises deciding they need something else right now.

Dillingham never really got going in Chicago. The Kentucky product went eighth overall in the 2024 draft to San Antonio, who flipped him to Minnesota that same night. The Timberwolves kept him barely a season and a half before shipping him to the Bulls on Feb. 5. Across 114 career games, one start, he is averaging 5.5 points and 2.1 assists in 13 minutes a night. Last season in Chicago, in a bigger bench role, he put up 9.6 points and 2.8 assists over 30 games.

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Hield lands on his eighth roster

Hield’s path here has been just as busy. He split last season between Golden State and Atlanta and averaged a career-low 7.6 points a game. He only arrived in Charlotte earlier in the week, dealt from the Hawks along with Ryan Nembhard and cash for Dorian Finney-Smith. Days later, he is on the move again.

What he still offers is the shot. Hield has made 2,201 three-pointers, 15th in NBA history, and he is a 39.5% career shooter from deep. His best scoring season came in 2018-19 in Sacramento, when he averaged 20.7 points a game. Charlotte, meanwhile, is already thin on the wing after Kon Knueppel’s hamstring injury threatens to keep him out for the start of the season.

A low-cost swing for both sides

Neither team is giving up much. Dillingham’s rookie contract still has multiple seasons of team control attached, so Charlotte gets a former top-ten pick at a discount if he ever breaks through in a bigger role. Chicago gets a proven floor spacer it can use right away without committing beyond this season. It is the kind of deal that barely moves either team’s ceiling, but it clears a logjam for both.

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