http://blogs.chron.com/nba/2010/12/battier_imitates_kobe_martin_b.html If only some of the people complaining understood this... there would be a lot better conversations going on when the Rockets lose a game
I won't lie....J Hill has really suprised me of late.... beginning of the season he was looking like a less athletic stromile swift
yea digging yourself into a 6-12 is what this team needed instead of winning a couple extra games with hill on the court, thats BS. Hill is doing what I thought he could do every time he has played hes been productive and with that his confidence grows. RA was stubborn early on for not playing him.
well....jordan hill did play like total and complete crap in the summer league...prolly didn't show too much in training camp or in the preseason....if rick adelman not playing him in the reg season lit a fire under j.hill's ass then so be it..
I remember when AB had a horrible summer league after his first year and this board went into a frenzy. We know what happened after that. What I saw was a developing player that needed experience. Jhill has been consistent in the passion department IMO. I havent seen a case where he has been lazy on the court maybe lost though.
You totally missed the point... he's earning playing time by doing the correct things when he gets time on the court. Adelman couldn't care less if Jordan can dunk the ball one out of ten times down the court if he's giving up a layup 8 out of 10 times on the defensive end. It's about him growing and learning... just like in this game. In the first half, his defense was matador like. Then during halftime they showed him video of what he was doing wrong and he responded.
i was very impressed with his defense tonight. his strength is hayes-like. and he continued his double digit scoring streak. he definitely needs 25+ minutes consistently, if not more. he hasn't have star potential, but he has starter material.
Hes not giving up layups at a 80% rate I understand that Hill isn't perfect and hes going to miss some assignments right now. It wasnt so bad to the point he shouldn't be playing at all when the end result could have resulted in a win. Game this season he had 5 boards in 5 minutes and didn't play again and we lost. What happened that game to where he couldn't play any more, they couldn't show him video at half time and have him try to make adjustments. I think RA realized he was making a mistake for not playing Jhill his impact for this team is what we need.
I'm curious what Knick fans thought of putting him in that trade in the first place. Also curious what those who have continued to watch him think now. Not saying it was right or wrong either way, just curious what they'd think.
I always thought he had the talent since we got him from New York, he does have some work to do, but he's legit, there is no doubt about that. I don't every expect him to be the first option on a team, but he can be a starting PF/C in this league for a long time.
And I didn't. I thought he was a scrub throw in. A bench player at best. But I was wrong. He showed me flashes last year. Nothing sensational but moments of what he might do if he tried. Then in summer league when people were down on him I saw more moment were I saw some promise of things he could work on to improve and contribute with time but I thought would at least another season away. Now he is showing more than I ever thought possible and that is his great defensive effort. He played Gasol straight up and stopped him. Wow, that impressed me big time. yes, more than all his fancy layups are awesome dunks is the way he played defense last night that now has me so optimistic about him. The thing I thought the Rockets needed was defensive length. The thing I thought we were missing the most from Yao's absence was defensive length. Hill had length but I had my doubts if he could ever transfer that length a defensive force on a consistent basis. He was a matador at times. Looked lost out there at other times and I saw him as a long term project. But recently he showed more promise. And last night he really showed up. He baffled and frustrated the hell out of Gasol. You can not imagine how that will help us down the road and especially against the Lakers if we meet them in the playoffs. I wouldn't jump the gun yet and crown Hill a rising star. It certainly helped that his guy was worn down from playing so many minutes previously and the night before. And what Adelman said is probably true. Hill performs better when his defensive role is limited to just guarding one guy and nothing having to swing back and forth to help out in the lane. But last night his assignment was huge and he accomplished it amazingly. he still is raw in some areas. But more minutes should help and already we are a better defensive team with him on the court. I imagine him playing along side Yao and invision a greater wall and a better defensive unit than ever.
Yeah if we had hindsight I would definitely have played him more in the losses. But with one of the worst +/- on the team it's safe to say Jordan Hill definitely contributed to some of those losses and more time might have prevented even less wins. He is finally showing consistent play and deserves more minutes. That was not the case earlier. I know people love his fancy dunks that never impressed me much. His defense impressed me last night and that is something he looks like he can improve. it's like he gets it more. He understands defense is effort and thinking. If he doesn't give that effort and doesn't think and reverts back to just depending on his athletic ability than he has to be benched. But personally I see someone who got it last night, loves contributing on the court and wants to do whatever it takes to earn more minutes. It appears Adelman has taken New Yorks trash that couldn't get off the bench and made him into a top lottery pick right on schedule. Amazing accolades to Adelman.
It makes sense, but man I really think we would've rocked the lakers in game one if he had gotten some minutes. They killed us on the glass that game. If we had won that one, who knows how the season would've gone.
Considering that big men usually progress later in their careers I think his progression has been positive so far. He also started playing basketball quite late, so you've got consider that as well. I don't see why you arn't giving him credit for last year, there are a number of positives he showed. A shooting touch from 8-15 feet, soft hands around the basket, and decent rebounding abilities. Those are some attributes ANY big guy in the league would want. I'm a Raptor fan as well and I've had to wait years for Andrea Bargnani to show anything other than flashes of talent. Just look at what Andrea is doing this year, his achilles heel has always been rebounding, but the guy has become a legit offenseive threat....all this after years of being potentially a bust. Just saying that it will take time for Hill to prove he's going to be something, can't expect him to develop into a starter overnight, big men take time. He showed basic skills (last year) that can potentially make him a starting PF/C, nice to see that's he's working on getting there.
The problem here is you automatically assume that Rick Adelman is some tactical genius playing 3-d chess while the entire board is playing checkers (kinda' like Obama. But I digress). This article (and you I guess) makes it seem like Rick is on top of things, that Hill's pt each game was carefully planned and monitored, that Hill's resurgence the past few games was all due to the controlled PT. OBVIOUSLY Rick was limiting his minutes to light a fire in his ass, and we're seeing the results of the moves RA has made unfold right before our very eyes. Its just that, mere mortals that we are, the average fan simply can't comphrehend the complexities and depth of RA's strategy. Unfortunately a closer look at Hill's PT paints a very different picture: http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/h/hilljo01/gamelog/2011/ If RA was really using PT to develop Hill we should have seen it in his minutes played per game...i.e. better performance=more PT. However we see nothing of the sort in his player log. 14 pts and 6 rebs in 24 minutes? This is followed by only 9 minutes of PT. An anemic 4 pts and 2 reb in 10 mins? Well this is rewarded by 16 mins of PT the next game. In fact, after notching his first career game of 14 pts and 10 rebs, Jordan Hill was rewarded for his breakout performance with total 4 minutes the next game (something which I called btw). Bottom line is, Rick Adelman isn't focusing on developing his rookies via playing time so I call BS on this puff piece. Maybe he works on Hill a lot off the court, maybe he watches tape with Hill and points out his problems there. We don't know for sure (although considering how sloppy the execution of the team is I'm extremely dubious at the amount of tape the team goes over together). However what's not in doubt is that Rick Adelman certainly didn't deliver Hill a message via his PT distribution. Please go over it and then tell me what kind of "learnings" you got if you were in Hill's place.
great observation! post this on chron.com. I also called out Jonathan for defending RA and sort of dissing the fans in this article.
Hill put in effective work against the best big man in the league. Against Shaq, Duncan, Garnett, Bosh, and whatever else, not so much praise but "the Pau Gasol". Only other big guy that Hill should but not be able to stop is Dirk for obvious reasons. If Yao can do well against a guy like Hill in practice with Hill putting 110% effort, then Yao is ready to play some real NBA ball.
That's because the Warriors were going small. Biedrins was the only big that got over 20 minutes. Gadzuric only played 6 minutes. The other games after his break out performance, Hill has played 16-27 minutes in 4 straight games for the first time all season.
