Timberwolves Free Agency: Utah Jazz Edition
By Ben Beecken
George Hill
Hill spent the first four years of his career in a San Antonio Spurs uniform before being traded to the Indiana Pacers in the infamous 2011 draft night trade that brought Kawhi Leonard to the state of Texas. After five years in Indianapolis, Hill was shipped west to Utah in a three-team trade that sent Jeff Teague to the Pacers.
Hill was, in many ways, a missing piece for the Jazz, who stumbled to just 40 wins the year prior with a combination of Raul Neto and Shelvin Mack starting at point guard. With the addition of the veteran Hill, Indiana win 11 more games with an otherwise similar roster to the year before.
The fifth-overall selection from the 2014 NBA Draft, Dante Exum, returned to the rotation last season after missing all of 2015-16 due to injury. While he’s theoretically at full speed and could be the starting point guard of the future for the Jazz, Exum has provided mixed results at the NBA level and only played 18.6 minutes per game over 66 contests in 2016-17.
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Therefore, Hill is an asset that the Jazz will strongly consider bringing back; front office boss Dennis Lindsay alluded to this in his end-of-season press conference.
While Hill had arguably the best season of his eight-year career, he only played in 49 games due to injury and will be playing his age-31 season in 2017-18. He’s one of the better point guards to have never made an All-Star team and will surely receive plenty of interest from contending teams throughout the league.
It would be a surprise if the Wolves are one of them, however, as some combination of Ricky Rubio and Kris Dunn appear to the point guard(s) of the future in Minneapolis. Plus, Hill has never been known as more than an average defensive point guard and it’s tough to see him being the style of player that Thibs would want to deploy.
Verdict: Hill is a great player and would make the Timberwolves better if he were added via free agency. But the cost it will take to acquire a 31-year-old at a position that isn’t a major need won’t be worth it for Minnesota.