If a field access that always throws NPE, e.g. ((Foo)null).f, is compiled by HotSpot then NPE is thrown regardless of whether Foo.f can be resolved or not.
This differs from the behavior of the interpreter which always performs resolution before the null-check.

Example:
=======================
public class TestGet version 52:0 {
    public static Method main:"([Ljava/lang/String;)V" stack 5 locals 1 {
        aconst_null;
        getfield Field T.f:I; // T does not exist
        return;
    }
}
=======================
$ java -cp out/ TestGet
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: T
        at TestGet.main(TestGet.jasm)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: T
        at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.BuiltinClassLoader.loadClass(BuiltinClassLoader.java:532)
        at java.base/jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$AppClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoaders.java:186)
        at java.base/java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:473)
        ... 1 more

$ java -cp out/ -Xcomp TestGet
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at TestGet.main(TestGet.jasm)