lipoli390 wrote:Good to hear from you again Drew. I seems like it's been a while since you last posted. Not hearing Hill or Payne mentioned is telling. I hope Thibs goes with an 11-man rotation since it would help keep the playes fresh and possibly avoid injuries to our key players. Jordan Hill has a lot of talent, but I think he's a bit too much into the weed. He has work ethic and concentration issues that have tended to put him in the dog houses of his former head coaches. I suspect he'll wear out his welcome with Thibs pretty quickly unless he undergoes an surprising attitude adjustment. The talent is certainly there.
I agree with your take about Hill, Payne (and Butler and Lucas, if they make the team) being out of the rotation assuming a healthy roster, but I'm wondering about your comment about Jordan Hill's work ethic. I know he has a reputation for being an enthusiastic pot smoker and has a pleasant, perhaps overly relaxed personality off-court (hmm...I wonder why :)), but I have always viewed him as a Bazz-like animal on the court. I know Mitch Kupchak would always rave about his work ethic and motor when he was with the Lakers. The only attitude issues I have seen with Jordan (and this one doesn't bother me) is he was clearly unhappy with his playing time in Indy...I think (and hope, actually) we may see the same thing here. Hill is a pick and roll monster and terrific low post scorer, but only an average defender and rebounder, and has always been plagued with the "tweener" label. He is clearly on the roster mostly for depth, but having a talent like Hill as "depth" tells me how deep this roster is.
lipoli390 wrote:Good to hear from you again Drew. I seems like it's been a while since you last posted. Not hearing Hill or Payne mentioned is telling. I hope Thibs goes with an 11-man rotation since it would help keep the playes fresh and possibly avoid injuries to our key players. Jordan Hill has a lot of talent, but I think he's a bit too much into the weed. He has work ethic and concentration issues that have tended to put him in the dog houses of his former head coaches. I suspect he'll wear out his welcome with Thibs pretty quickly unless he undergoes an surprising attitude adjustment. The talent is certainly there.
I agree with your take about Hill, Payne (and Butler and Lucas, if they make the team) being out of the rotation assuming a healthy roster, but I'm wondering about your comment about Jordan Hill's work ethic. I know he has a reputation for being an enthusiastic pot smoker and has a pleasant, perhaps overly relaxed personality off-court (hmm...I wonder why :)), but I have always viewed him as a Bazz-like animal on the court. I know Mitch Kupchak would always rave about his work ethic and motor when he was with the Lakers. The only attitude issues I have seen with Jordan (and this one doesn't bother me) is he was clearly unhappy with his playing time in Indy...I think (and hope, actually) we may see the same thing here. Hill is a pick and roll monster and terrific low post scorer, but only an average defender and rebounder, and has always been plagued with the "tweener" label. He is clearly on the roster mostly for depth, but having a talent like Hill as "depth" tells me how deep this roster is.
It did jump out at me a little bit that he didn't mention either Aldrich or Hill when he mentioned guys that can play PF. The fact that he didn't mention Hill at all when talking about the bench or whatever may be a bit telling but I also don't expect him to mention everyone on the team when talking about depth. Having said that is Hill to some extent on the outside looking in when it comes to minutes? Probably. Why?
1. Towns and Dieng are likely to play plenty of minutes. That might leave maybe around 30 mins average of playing time for everyone else. That's not a lot.
2. If Belly plays well he is gonna pretty much play all the backup PF minutes most nights.
3. Hill is the oldest guy and is basically on a 1 year contract. Everyone else is either younger or signed to a longer deal or both. Bazz getting some time at PF over Hill may happen because well you want to play that young guy etc.
Now I expect there will be times Hill gets out on the floor when the Wolves are facing some bigger teams and are getting beat up on the boards. If he is basically the bench warming big wow we are gonna feel pretty good about ourselves. There will be at least one injury and he will be able to step into whatever minutes will be there. He could also be traded at some point as well. I'm not suggesting they will ever looking to trade him but I would think some team may have interest in him if they need a vet guy that can play and won't affect the cap space going forward or keep him for another year at what is a pretty reasonable 4.180 million. It's not that we will get much from him if that's the case but I could see it happening.
