When the Milwaukee Bucks signed George Hill back this offseason, much of the discussion was about how he’ll come in, stabilize the backup point guard role, and play some minutes alongside Jrue Holiday to give them more versatility with their rotations.
Well, what we didn’t account for was that Hill has been more necessary than we could have possibly anticipated. Aside from the obvious lack of depth in the frontcourt, there was going to be a slight lack of ball-handling guards while Donte DiVincenzo rehabbed from his surgery. Now that Holiday has missed most of the first eight games, Hill has had to take on more responsibility and be an even bigger stabilizing presence.
Justin Robinson has been a big surprise so far, giving the Bucks over 17 minutes per game and treading water in those minutes. But it has been Hill who has had to become the starter and remain a leader. It was already important that Hill knew what the Bucks like to do on offense and defense, but having that familiarity has been even more invaluable.
If the Bucks were left with a backup like Jeff Teague or D.J. Augustin (no offense to those two) to fill in as starters, I’m not sure the Bucks are even sitting at 0.500 right now.
No. 1: George Hill continues to light it up from three for the Milwaukee Bucks
He may not be shooting the ridiculous 46 percent from behind the 3-point line as he did in his last season as a Buck in 2019-20, but George Hill has returned and is still shooting very well on threes.
The 35-year-old is shooting nearly 39 percent from deep on over two attempts per game, which is about three attempts per 36 minutes. Roughly 34 percent of his shot attempts have been threes and that will likely grow as more players return to the lineup and there isn’t as much of a scoring burden for Hill.
One interesting note to Hill’s 3-point shooting this season so far has been that he has almost exclusively taken catch-and-shoot attempts. Per NBA.com/stats, in 2019-20, Hill took nearly the same amount of pull-up threes per game (1.2) to catch and shoot (1.6). He shot over 43 percent on pullup 3s that season and exactly 50 percent on catch and shoot.
This season, almost all of his attempts have been catch-and-shoot looks (15) while only taking two pull-up attempts (he has missed both). It’s still an early sample and when Hill is leading the second unit, he may take a few more pull-up shots. However, this is a good sign for when Hill is playing more off-ball when he’s sharing the court with Holiday and there are other ball handlers on the floor.
His shooting from the midrange has been spotty as he’s only 3-of-16 (18.7 percent) on shots that aren’t either at the rim or from three. That’s a bit of a worry, but they aren’t shots he’ll need to take as often once players like Holiday, Khris Middleton, and Brook Lopez return, and Hill won’t need to take as many shots.