Hill might be just what Sixers needed
In the most troubling, most absurd, most unacceptable moments of a longago 76ers rebuilding process, Brett Brown all but pleaded for what a different front office recently provided Doc
Rivers.
Deep into a process designed to yield success through the vandalism of professional dignity, after the Sixers had just spent a season using 11 guards, Brown said he never again wanted to coach such basketball nobodies. Actually, he used a noun that he’d later regret. OK, he called them gypsies. Yet that’s what they were. Guys. Bodies. Temp employees. Roster fillers. Malcolm Lee and Tony Wroten. Isaiah Canaan and Hollis Thompson. And what would an Alexy
Shved rookie card fetch these days?
There was Ish Smith, a sturdy pro. Michael CarterWilliams was the sitting Rookie of the Year. Tim Frazier could play a little. Jason Richardson once was good. But there was nothing in that relentless overturning of personnel with 127 games of NBA playoff experience, a veteran who could play both backcourt positions, a locker-room benefit.
That’s what George
Hill has come to mean to Brown’s replacement as the regular season turns serious and the postseason nears.
“It is,” Rivers said, “what we imagined.”
Hill was acquired March 25, Daryl Morey spraying a bunch of nothing into a three-way deal with the Knicks and Thunder for his rights and the year-plus left on his $29 million contract. He was 33 and recovering from complex thumb surgery and hadn’t played since January. The fan base, which had been teased with the floated rumors that Morey would secure presumptive Hall of Famer Kyle Lowry to complete the backcourt rotation, somehow resisted circling the Wells Fargo Center and honking horns in celebration.
Before this is over – and for the Sixers, the end has come too soon every year since 1983 – Morey and Rivers could regret not taking that extra floor-dive for Lowry. Until then, it shall be Hill as the trade-deadline boost Rivers needed for a backcourt rotation missing one piece.
“We’re very thankful,” Dwight Howard said, “that he’s here.”
Not that a two-game sweep of the Atlanta Hawks last week should be viewed as more than a ritual NBA brush-off of a barely interested opponent, but it did begin to highlight Rivers’ backcourt plan for June and July. Ben Simmons and Seth Curry are not to be budged from the starting lineup. But with his ability to both shoot and run an offense, Hill began to emerge as the ideal secondteam complement to the still-developing Shake Milton.
Without Hill, Rivers could have made it work with Tyrese Maxey, who is about to be squeezed from the postseason rotation.
But not only does Hill shoot better from distance than the 20-year-old rookie, he will be both a settling and a practical influence on a lineup with Milton and second-year pro Matisse Thybulle, a defensive savant able to guard big forwards as well as he pesters guards.
“We didn’t like when Shake was the primary ballhandler because he struggles against pressure a little bit,” Rivers said. “So when you bring George in, you can’t pressure Shake anymore. We thought that would be a good mix for us.”
Hill, who shot 46 percent from the arc with the Bucks last year, has always had a solid reputation as a shooter. For that, he could find late-game postseason minutes with the first unit should one particular starting guard prove unwilling to take an open jump shot, not to name any names. At times, too, he could even complement Simmons. Oops.
But his greater purpose to the Sixers is to pair with Howard to make an otherwise developing second team less shaky.
“He gives us another vet who can talk to the guards, explain certain plays, offensively
and defensively,” Howard said. “He can tell them how to defend, how to set the pick and rolls, how to get the offense going, stuff like that.”
Hill’s injury took longer than the Sixers expected to heal. And when he returned, he did not deny that he was struggling. But his value did show, and quickly, no matter how the boxscore read. He was able to get to the rim. He played on the ball and off. He wasn’t rattled.
“He’s easy to play with,” Simmons said. “He has a veteran’s experience.”
The Sixers needed a star at the trade deadline. They settled for a pro. That could work, too.
“I know that when this team is healthy it can be
The Sixers game in San Antonio ended to late for this edition. See more at DELCOTIMES. scary,” Hill said. “We have guys who can get to the basket. We have guys who can shoot. As a group, we can play better defensively and we have to play the right way.”
The Sixers played only the wrong way, back when they were settling for any guard looking for work.
By the way, who’d have guessed? That Alexy Shved rookie card? It’s going for 12 bucks.