Is Jordan Hill the problem, or was he just used incorrectly by Adelman? Does he have potential or do we write him off as a bust? Will he succeed this season or regress and fail? I ask these questions because I love my team, and Jordan seems like a decent kind of guy ( with a mean hair style ) and all the physical tools to be a contributor to the Rockets. I was reading nba.com and came across this article: http://www.nba.com/news/features/john_schuhmann/statscube-preview-2011-HOU/index.html It says about Hill: "Stumbling over a few hills Of course, if you failed to make the playoffs with several effective players in your starting lineup, you must have had some ineffective players coming off your bench. For the Rockets, Jordan Hill was the lineup killer. Hill was a minus-149 in 1,124 minutes, with the Rockets scoring just 103.1 points per 100 possessions and allowing 109.8 when he was on the floor. The two teammates Hill played the most minutes with were Chase Budinger and Courtney Lee. The three-man combo of Budinger, Lee and Hill were a minus-65 in 447 minutes together, but Budinger and Lee were a plus-129 in 589 minutes without Hill." So is this the year Hill becomes a man mountain or a mole hill?
I think the main problem Hill had in Adelmans system was playing in the high post. He doesnt have a high enough basketball IQ to make the passes and see the cuts that are required to be in the high post. But I think Mchale will make him a completely better player and put him in the best position to succeed.
Jordan Hill is not a half-court player. Give him the ball in fast breaks and he will excel. Drive and kicks also work because he's a good mid-range shooter.
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He is deceptively not athletic. People see his numbers from pre-draft workouts and assume he is a great athlete but he isn't. Much like Trevor Ariza, he has length, a nice vertical and some speed in the open court but he is missing decent hands, coordination and anything resembling lower body strength. So he can't catch a pass down low, put the ball on the floor even once to get himself a better shot and is unable to gain and maintain post position. He is a bust.
The problem is his poor defense due to his weak frame. He can drop his ass low all they want but it's not gonna make up his lack of strength. Some games he looks good and some he gets manhandled depending who he guards.
he's got the athleticism to dominate but he doesn't appear to have the temperment and mental makeup to own the paint. I remember reading a new york sports writer who said that "he had a fundamental akwardness to his game" and i think that is an excellent way to state it. He lacks court awareness, he's always out of position, and i don't see the agressiveness one would like to see out of a guy his size. I'm skeptical it's going to come together for Hill, but again, he does have the talent and i think working with McHale is probably the best situation he could have landed in for salvaging his career.
Everyone always says that big men make their biggest leap from their 2nd to 3rd year...let's see what the kid has learned. He isn't a center but has all the tools to be a rotation big.
I'm a bit concerned that his foul rate didn't see much improvement from 2010-2011, but I'm still excited about him. This is a big year though.
I disagree with your assesment, even you disagree with yourself. What does hands have to do with athleticism? Greg Smith must be the best athlete in the league for having the biggest hands, by your standard George Constanza was a world class athlete, pleaaaase. I think Jordan has the talent to develop into a 20/10 big man, I think he just needs a little bit of mileage to become a very good man to man defender. He needs his team to be patient with him and I don't know if we can afford or are willing to give that to him; and if you need him to be the anchor of your defense than you're ****ed, I think this is the major reason his +/- are atrocious.
Adelmen notoriously doesn't like young players, players especially with attitudes like Jordan and T-Will. I think McHale is a little more compromising to their attitudes and will give these players more time. No doubt they are talented players, but neither have had a chance to actually prove anything. I'm pretty optimistic about this season. We got a young group and a lot of depth to handle the back to back to backs. I think we make the playoffs as a 7th or 8th seed.
