[orlando sentinel]Hill: McGrady calls him often

That's what I'm talkin about Tracey! This confidence is infectious. Tmac starts to feel unstoppable, then Yao starts to feel unstoppable, than Scotty the Body starts feeling unstoppable....

 

isnt Hill a free agent at the end of the season.. hmmm.... lol jk... well he could be but with the player option and all that money he could get for taking the option i doubt he leaves orl.

 

Actually, this might be far more intriguing than anybody thinks. Grant has made a TON of money over the last 4 years... but he has very few viable years left to actually go for a championship.

Also, Orlando doesn't want him to take that option, and could negotiate a buyout... a lot will depend on how the Magic finish the season and what direction they want to go next year (completely rebuild by trading Francis, et. al, or signing some veterans to complement francis-hill-howard and going for the playoffs again next year).

Either way, if Hill could be pursuaded to come here cheap, I wouldn't complain... and nobody else here would either.

 

Francis is a cancer and Grant Hill is the glue that keeps the Magic together. He waited four years to get a chance to play with Tracy, but he never did that because of his injuries. He's a great chemistry guy and has the sweetest midrange jumper. Maybe T-Mac could convince him to buy out his contract for a chance to play for a championship with the Rockets next season (for a midlevel exception).

 

Yeah, I always like Hill. He's a classy guy, came from a good school, and I'd say he's a tad below Pippen to be the best SF during the 90s.

I used to have a collection of Hill's best moves (spin, crossover, up and under, passing etc.). Sadly, my hard disk crashed and I can't find them anymore.

 

You kidding me? A good character guy like Grant Hill in a Rockets unifrom? Who would complain?

Of course, all that depends on whether Hill will actually take a few bucks to play for a contender.

But make no mistake about it, T-Mac is out in full force to recuit Hill.

Think about it:

1) In that Orlando Sentinal article, Grant Hill mentioned that T-Mac never talked to him nearly as often as he does now when they both played together.

2) When the Orlando-Houston blockbuster trade happened in the offseason, T-Mac was asked on SportsCenter as to what he regrets (if any) about leaving Orlando. His answer: That he never got to play and build something special with Grant Hill.

3) Grant Hill is not in denial, he fully understand that his career is at the very end, due to injuries more than age. If he recovers from the latest shin-injury or whatever he had the past few games, and his legs hold 'til the end of the year, I think for the right price the Rockets have to seriously consider a guy like GH.

But again, may be it is T-Mac's desire to play again with Hill rather than Hill wanting to play with Rockets. Still, if he is wise, and he has an offer from the Rockets, he must consider it.

The biggest problem? Well, he doesn't really fit into our current structure as a team. We have four good guards that share two positions on the court, and then you have T-Mac at the three swallowing all the minutes there pretty much. So where would Hill play? This is probably the biggest reason why GH would be unrealistic, he doesn't fill our needs and the Rockets will surely have more concerns come off season (PF position for one) than signing an over-the-hill forward, even if he is affordable.

 

I can't say that I would complain about having that problem. Personally, I would move TMac to the 2, put Hill in at the 3, then switch TMac to the 3 while Hill rests (time that should be considerable given his age and injuries).

We would be contenders then even if we washed out of the playoffs in the first round this year. I wonder what FA PFs would be willing to sign for the vet minimum to play with that team.

 

Maybe Grant Hill can play backup for Tracy so Tracy can play less than 40 minutes? Then we are really deep in 1, 2 and 3 position.

 

Obviously, our first priority this offseason has to be at 4. But with so many old guys in our guard rotation, having more depth (even old depth) with Hill would be nice at the right price.

 

Do you think Hill will accept playing back-up to T-Mac for 8 minutes a night? Even if T-Mac plays some at the 2, then you will be cutting into Barry/Wesley/Sura/James minutes, and I DEFINITELY don't want to do that, I think it is more important to keep our current guard rotation intact for a couple more seasons before we mess things up again. Let these guys play a couple more years together, see what happens.

That is my opinion

 

If he ever wants to win a ring he might. Hill is getting up in age and might consider it, imo.

 

Which of those four guys would you honestly play over Grant freaking Hill? Hill is (even with age and injuries) better than any two of those guys put together.

 

Hmm, if Hill comes, can we maybe trade one of the "four good guards" together with Howard for a really good PF? That would give us 3 stars and 2 really good role players as starters, plus 2 very good perimeter players and a very good center from the bench. Wow!

 

I think it's a matter of weighing: do you want Grant Hill playing those minutes, or David Wesley and Jon Barry? As great as the rotation has been, Hill has always been a great teammate, and I would definitely take him to replace one of the two.

 

Hill is not opting out of his contract. I don't care how good of a guy he is, he is not leaving 10 million a year on the table. He has kids to feed.

 

So did Malone and Payton, but both of them felt like it was worth taking a pay cut to make a run for a ring.

 

Hill on the Rockets....boy, you couldn't ask for a harder working, classier ball player with such a wide array of skills. Only problem is, lets say we had a shot at him, should we really pursue him? Do you remember the last few times we got big-name star envy? I don't want to walk down that Barkley, Pippen, Francis, and Griffin road anymore; it really does hurt our future, and to some extent, it goes against the grain of what we've been trying to build here. No one can blame us for making those transactions, but I just don't want to walk down that road anymore.


I thought the general concensus was getting a tough young 4....Hill ain't a 4, he's semi-tough, and he that ankle certainly isn't young.

So I'll pass.

 

Those guys didn't opt out of their contracts. Their big contracts ended and they were looking at new deals. No one was going to pay Malone or Payton max money.

In this case Hill is still relatively young with guaranteed money that he has to give up. It ain't happening. Maybe after his contract expires but not before then.

 

Nobody is talking about overpaying or trading big names... I was under the impression that if McGrady just convinced Hill to come here for a year or two to try and win a championship, for a cheap MLE or something, I'd be for it.

I agree that there are more important needs to actually go out there and try to fill.