Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Hill to Climb
Hoping for Hill was deadline tradeoff Sixers didn’t need
Half the trick of the NBA trade deadline is to survive the thing without being barbecued by a fan base. For that, the Sixers recently provided a tutorial on the proper technique.
Aware as the deadline approached, as was the rest of the league, that Kyle Lowry was to remain a Toronto Raptor, Daryl Morey faced two choices.
One: Brace for weeks of kvetching that he failed to land the perfect player for the situation, a Hall of Fame-bound competitor from North Philadelphia who would have kept the Sixers up with Brooklyn in the star-piling race. Two: Run the back-door. So Morey jabbed two fingers in the air called the play. He threw a bundle of lousy players and useless draft choices into a three-way trade with the Thunder and Knicks to acquire injured, 34-year-old no-time All-Star George Hill.
As per the international atleast-they-did-something tradedeadline covenant, that reduced the complaining about Lowry by 50 percent. Bravo? Hill can shoot. His teams generally advance in the postseason. He’s another veteran body for the postseason mix.
There’s one issue, though, one that just might concern: He doesn’t play.
Continuing to recover from complicated thumb surgery, Hill hasn’t appeared in an NBA game since January. Upon acquiring him, the Sixers gently hinted that he could be available by the next weekend. Later, Doc Rivers mentioned that the veteran guard was shooting in Camden, a hint that he was close to a return. More recently, though, Rivers has claimed to know nothing about a timetable for Hill’s on-court arrival. And last week, Hill began to make noises that, well, at least he would be ready for the playoffs.
If the idea, as Brett Brown often offered, is the “land the plane” in the playoffs with every player at full health, then the Hill initiative can work. He’ll likely to bump rookie Tyrese Maxey and flawed Furkan Korkmaz from the nineman postseason rotation. Maybe he helps win an early series with his three-point shooting.
But three years ago, the Sixers had their best chance to win something with Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris and Ben Simmons. Then, a leading explanation for a second-round failure was that Brown didn’t have his full team available often enough toward the end of the season to be fully prepared for the playoffs.
So there the Sixers are, heading in that direction again, planning to wait until too late to ready a full team for a postseason.
Lowry would have been ideal.
Instead, they settled for Hill and for some temporary silence from the upper decks.
But that’s all it is: Temporary.
Through their 5-1 start, impressive and meaningful, the Phillies did reveal at least one need: A centerfielder who can boost their just-above-acceptable power supply.
Joe Girardi has made it clear that Roman Quinn is a valuable, switch-hitting backup whose impressive speed and big arm can matter in certain lateinning spots. There is no reason to expect anything more from the 28-yearold, five years into his bigleague career.
Adam Haseley, a former first-round pick, has every necessary baseball tool. But some accumulation of injuries apparently has robbed him of the power required of an everyday centerfielder on a contending team. And how obvious can it be that Girardi is reluctant to start him against left-handers?
With that, there will be the temptation: Odubel Herrera?
Since they’ll be compensating him $10 million this season, the Phillies might like to realize a dozen-home-run return on their investment. Herrera was accused of domestic violence two years ago, but is reported to have satisfied all requirements for a return under the players’ association agreement with ownership. And as long as he is stashed at the Lehigh Valley site, he will intrigue.
Yet there was something else, too, about that 5-1 start: A certain display of team spirit. Relief pitchers with defined roles. Girardi giving his bench players just enough opportunities to feel useful. The regulars comfortable in their lineup spots. Every batted ball being run out. The defense improved.
To inject Herrera into that situation, and thus to hijack every conversation for at least two weeks, is a risk the Phillies can’t take, no matter how tempting.
Since 2020, according to the NFL arrest database as compiled by USA Today, pro football players have been charged with, among other offenses, domestic violence, fleeing police, stolen gun possession, drunk driving, disorderly conduct, hit-and-run, assault, battery, drugs, burglary and vandalism. And that’s just skimming off the top of a multi-page list.
Yet Aaron Rodgers is being verbally sacked for his desire to host “Jeopardy!” even before he is retired from the Green Bay Packers.
Just thinking out loud, but by comparison, saying, “Here are today’s categories,” seems a rather acceptable way for an NFL player to spend his personal time.
Nice job, Ivy League, sitting out the entire Division I college basketball season.
You sure showed ‘em.