Yea, I'm probably one of his biggest fans and I don't want this new version of Hill back. Doesn't do the dirty work anymore. Much rather go Kosta at this point.
I think we were working to see if it was a sign and trade or not and we ended up not going for the sign and trade after all. Works for me.
Loved you when you first came and was that hustle hard working player, hated when you became a mid range shooter. See ya.
^Good one... Hill will fit their defensive schemes with his mobility if he goes back to what he did before...all grit and work. Side note: I have the serious Jones for Audrina Patridge.
I sold on Hill last season. He stopped working and just went with the outside shot. Barely fought for rebounds, barely attacked the rim. Last season I was done with both him and Nick. I appreciate the way they played in hindsight (got #2) but if those two especially played to their potential we at least battle for an 8th spot.
Good luck to Hill, I did like him here until parts of last season. Hopefully he gets his hustle back for the Pacers and remembers what got him into the league, the East needs more teams to at least give the Cavs some challenging games.
I loved Hill BEFORE he fell in love with the 20 footer... the current Hill is pretty much useless to me. Too far away from the rim to eat the glass and doesn't D up...he used to be a hustle player around the rim. Now he takes low percentage contested shots with no regard to human life.
Man...I loved Hill since he joined. I was pissed we traded D-Fish but we got some serious O-REB help. I think D'Antoni ruined him and encouraged him to take jumpers. I don't know what the hell Byron did, but as everyone said Hill stopped being a beast on the boards. I know part of that was because he kept getting injured but man, when you're a scrapper you gotta do what you get paid to do. I hope he succeeds in Indy because I like the dude. He never complained, he sat on the bench for us, he started, he took a contract that didn't favor his security, he seemed like a good locker room guy...all of it.
^^^Not to make excuses for Hill at all, but I think you make a good point about getting injured. I didn't like that he went away from the hustle guy we loved, but I had this feeling a lot of last season that he was being more cautious with the way he played because we'd given him so much more money, a bigger role, and were depending so much more on him. He went from a hustle bench guy for cheap, to our starting C that we I believe gave the most expensive contract to last offseason (Kobe was during the season). I kinda felt like he understood he needed to be on the court and maybe I'm reaching, but not disappoint fans by getting hurt and sitting on the bench making 9 mil to not play. That argument takes a hit in that he played 72 games in '13/'14, and 70 in '14/'15, but he also started almost twice as many games last season compared to the one before that. His minutes also went from 16 in '12/'13 to 21 in '13/'14, to 27 last season. All factors IMO, it was a role he'd never really played, and consistently high minutes he'd never played. Again, not trying to make excuses, but maybe he couldn't go all out and crash the boards with no regard for human life at 27 minutes per game. Not sure many all-hustle guys do play that much, it's usually an energy guy off the bench.
Hill said last year part of his hustle left him because he was tired from playing more minutes/games than he was used to. I did not like the excuse.
Agreed definitely. And I think we will see a more reserved Hill moving forward. He was definitely on the floor a LOT more the last two seasons. I think another factor was his contract. He got the nice $9M this past season, but he was on a team option. If he played aggressive like we wanted, he increased his chance for injury. We ended up waiving the option and he probably knew that was going to happen....so he didn't want to risk his next contact. I get it. We weren't going anywhere last season.
