George Hill is an accomplished, veteran point guard available in NBA free agency. Could he take the Milwaukee Bucks to a higher level?
There are some very interesting guards hitting the market in NBA free agency in 2017. George Hill, who just finished his first season with the Utah Jazz, is among the most interesting, especially for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Hill had a really nice year with the Jazz, who would certainly love to keep him around. Unfortunately for Utah, the team didn’t love Hill enough to give him the money he wanted in a contract extension during last season, hence him hitting free agency now.
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That’s not really on the Jazz though. Utah’s front office is, understandably, much more concerned with Gordon Hayward‘s free agency than they are with Hill’s. George Hill is a good point guard, but Hayward is Utah’s offense, especially when Hill isn’t on the floor.
That might just leave a window for another team to sneak in and steal Hill from Utah. His playing time certainly gave teams reason to be interested, and lots of NBA squads need a strong floor general right now. Hill is in demand.
Would he make sense running point for the Milwaukee Bucks? To find out, we’ll go through his strengths, weaknesses, potential salary and with with the Bucks, in that order.
Strengths
George Hill is a consistent, capable producer. In his season with Utah, he averaged 16.9 points, 3.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.0 steals per game. Hill saw more opportunity to shoot than he did with the Indiana Pacers, and he made the most of those chances.
For the second straight season Hill made 40 percent of his triples, knocking down 40.3 percent of them this past season, to be specific. Along with his 52.3 percent conversion rate from two-point range and his free throw percentage of 80.1, it’s safe to say Hill is an efficient scorer.
He’s an efficient passer, too. Putting up 4.1 assists per game isn’t a ton, but with just 1.7 turnovers per game as well Hill kept that assist-to-turnover ratio over 2. It makes sense that he’d not put up tons of assists, with Hayward using a significant chunk of offensive possessions as well.
Unlike many of the other free agents we’ve profiled so far here at the site, Hill is also a capable defender. He didn’t anchor Utah’s fantastic defense–that honor goes to Rudy Gobert–but he’s a savvy defender who is going to do a good job at holding his man night in and night out.
Weaknesses
George Hill is on the wrong side of 30 as far as NBA teams are concerned, as he just turned 31 in May. He just posted what was arguably his best-ever season, but it’s fair to wonder for how much longer he’ll play at such a high level.
That might not affect teams thinking about his next contract, but his injury history will. The Jazz benefitted from having Hill on the floor, but they suffered in the 33 games he missed with various injuries. In addition to the regular season, a toe injury held him out of three of Utah’s 11 postseason games as well.
This isn’t the first time he’s missed time. In two of the past three seasons, Hill has logged less than 50 games played. Injury problems plus aging make any long-term deal feel very risky right away–more times than often, those are the deals that end up looking worse later on.
Speaking of deals, the cost to obtain George Hill in NBA free agency this summer might be considered a weakness in itself.
Salary
Hill’s injury history and age might spook some teams, but it won’t spook every team. This man is going to get paid by somebody, and probably substantially so. Looking at the number of potential suitors can help to give an idea of why.
First and foremost, the Jazz want their man back. Hayward is the biggest priority, but Hill is 1b. The reason is that Utah won’t be able to pay another point guard since they likely won’t have cap space, so the only ways they could upgrade from Hill are through trades or the draft.
No rookie will be as good as George Hill, especially where Utah is picking, and the best Jazz trade chip that they’d actually move is Derrick Favors, who isn’t bringing back a point guard of Hill’s caliber.
Beyond Utah, there are plenty of teams that could use a point guard. The Philadelphia 76ers comes to mind, as do better teams like the San Antonio Spurs, who could bring back Hill years after moving him for Kawhi Leonard.
He isn’t going to get a max deal (probably), but Hill isn’t getting underpaid either, unless he choses to take less than he could get, which is always an option.
Fit With Bucks
Although he might not be one of the Young Bucks, George Hill would probably fit really well in Milwaukee. He’s so used to dealing with point forwards at this point it would be no problem to play with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
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Hill found a good lane in Utah, scoring more while still letting Hayward control the ball. Even before his Jazz tenure, Hill had a similar arrangement when he played with Paul George on the Indiana Pacers.
Hill’s marksmanship from deep and ability to hit shots close to the rim make him a strong offensive threat, one that would make the offense in Milwaukee flow far more cleanly than it did last season. With a powerhouse like Giannis around, the Bucks should be able to be an elite team on that end.
Unfortunately, despite the fit on the court, Hill is not a realistic option right now. Barring some massive roster moves in the coming weeks, there’s just not enough space to add him. The Bucks would need to have Greg Monroe decline his player option, deal John Henson and probably make yet another move to add Hill.
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The fit would be great and Hill would be a valuable veteran to the Bucks, but the team would have to move mountains to make adding him even possible.