Philadelphia 76ers: On paper, George Hill checks all the boxes

After being linked to seemingly every guard on the perceived trade market, the Philadelphia 76ers walked away from the NBA’s big day with arguably the least heralded name out of the bunch: George Hill.

To some, many even, this felt like a perfect opportunity for Daryl Morey to land the elusive fourth star to pair up with Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tobias Harris, as many players who technically fit that bill were available to be had, but instead of procuring another guard in their late 20s, the Sixers left the day with two fewer centers, a different reserve forward, and a 34-year-old guard fresh off a 2021 thumb surgery.

So what gives? Did the Sixers seriously mess up by not trading for Kyle Lowry, even if it cost Tyrese Maxey, Matisse Thybulle, and multiple first-rounders, especially since Hill was likely headed to the buyout market if he was eventually released post-deadline?

On paper, George Hill checks pretty much all of the boxes the Philadelphia 76ers were looking for in a mid-season acquisition, but in practice? That, my friends, is the $9.59 million question.

2019-20 George Hill would be an amazing get for the Philadelphia 76ers.

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Allow me to describe to you a hypothetical player, and you can tell me – either in the comments section or on Twitter – if you’d like to add him to the Philadelphia 76ers. This player is a 6-foot-4 combo guard who has played both on and off the ball, is a solid defender, an even better passer, and just led the league in 3 point shooting percentage last season.

That player sounds pretty darn good, right? Maybe even too good to be true?

Well, that is the exact player the Sixers just exchanged Tony Bradley, Vincent Poirier, Terrence Furgeson, and a pair of second-round picks to acquire in their lone trade of the 2021 calendar year.

George Hill has been in the NBA since 2008. He has appeared in 799 regular season games plus 127 more in the postseason, was famously traded to the Indiana Pacers in exchange for the pick utilized to draft Kawhi Leonard, and played alongside some of the best players in the NBA from LeBron James and Dwyane Wade to Giannis Antetokounmpo

, and, most recently, Al Horford

In 2019-20, his first full season with the Milwaukee Bucks after being acquired by the team midway through the previous season, Hill happily took a backseat to both Antetokounmpo and Eric Bledsoe when it came to shot-creating, instead taking roughly half of his shots from the field without taking more than two dribbles. Fresh off signing a very nice three-year contract extension worth $28.7 million in July of 2019, Hill led the NBA in 3 point shooting percentage at 46 percent – admittedly on a maddeningly small three attempts per game – racked up three rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, and happily served as Mike Budenholzer’s fifth scoring option as the team’s sixth man coming off the bench.

Should fans be a tad underwhelmed by the idea of landing a guard who hasn’t averaged double-digit points since 2017-18? Eh, maybe so, considering some of the other options on the board, but scoring buckets a la Lou Williams isn’t why a team like the Sixers would trade for George Hill, not the only reason, at least.

No, a major reason why the Sixers didn’t “blow it up” to chase a chip this season is because the team’s brass believes they are in the middle of a 2-4 year window and thus can’t hurt their long-term future to bolster their short-term odds. That surely explains why players like Tyrese Maxey weren’t cashed in on a day where many a fan expected it to happen – Tony Bradley excluded – but that Daryl Morey quote runs two ways. While the Sixers don’t want to hurt their 2023-24 odds to win in 2021, they also don’t want to hurt their current team, a team both Morey and Doc Rivers “love“, to attempt to get better with new blood.

Outside of Bradley, who is playing now in games without Joel Embiid but will surely be relegated to DNPs once the playoffs roll around, the Sixers didn’t trade away a single player who has been a fixture of Rivers’ rotation at any point this season. Assuming Hill doesn’t walk into the locker room, throw on his new number 23 jersey and immediately demand to start right out the gate – a foolish hypothetical that would be totally out of character for the grizzled vet – the soon-to-be-35-year-old should be able to work his way into Rivers’ rotation by taking a few minutes from Tyrese Maxey here and a few from Furkan Korkmaz there, and eventually, become a 26 minutes a night performer by the time the playoffs roll around; assuming, of course, Hill can recapture his 2019-20 form.

You see, after initially thinking he’d be a fixture of the Bucks’ playoff rotation for the duration of his three-year extension, Hill was dumped in Oklahoma City by Milwaukee in a four-team trade to acquire former Sixers starter Jrue Holiday. Though being traded wasn’t new for Hill, as he’d already played for six teams up to that point, the Thunder were just starting a ground-up rebuild to start the post-Russell Westbrook/Paul George-era of Sooner State basketball and giving minutes to a 34-year-old floor general flew out the window rather fast.

Hill only appeared in 14 games while rocking a blue and orange Thunder jersey and hasn’t appeared in a game since late January on account of a thumb sprain that eventually required surgery.

While, in theory, Hill should have been able to return to the court by now, as it’s been seven weeks since his surgery, the writing was on the wall that Hill would either be traded or bought out on March 25th, so the two sides opted to remain separated to avoid any further injury.

Could Hill make his Sixers debut as soon as Saturday on night three of a four-game West Coast road trip and immediately make an impact as a combo reserve coming off the bench, or will it take him a little while to get his shooting form back as he continues to rehab from an injury on his shooting hand?

That, my friends, could help to define how this trade is looked at both in the short and long term.

With Hill locked into a $10.04 million team-option for the 2021-22 season with only $1.275 million still guaranteed, he could very well remain with the team for much longer than the 30-odd games left to play in 2021. Granted, he could also be traded, either as a legitimate piece or as a salary cap match for another player making eight-digits, but ideally, I doubt Morey traded a trio of expiring contracts to secure a player he’s looking to unload without giving him a fair shake.

And believe you me, if things do “shake out” in the team’s favor, you’d best believe this could turn out very, very well for your friendly neighborhood 76ers.

Just imagine how much better Shake Milton will be if he has a veteran point guard to play off of. After having to fish for his own shot and get the team into its offense as a reserve one, he will instead become the beneficiary of playmaking in a way he only really gets when paired up with Ben Simmons.

The same, too, can be said for Ben Simmons, as he too hasn’t been paired up with a point guard of Hill’s caliber this far in his career.

Whether paired in the same backcourt or split up to opposite ends of the lineup with Hill running the show and Simmons playing either the four or the five, the duo project as a very interesting two-man game that could be incredibly effective regardless of how Rivers opts to deploy them.

And don’t forget about Joel Embiid, who hasn’t had a pick and pop partner of Hill’s caliber since J.J. Redick still lived on the East Coast – during the regular season, at least. Hill is a better ball handler than Seth Curry, is a more confident lead guard than Doc’s son-in-law, and can run the pick-and-roll in a way that Seth’s younger brother has yet to take advantage of with regularity.

If he can do all of that, playing a sort of blue-collar Kyle Lowry role without the hefty price tag, I imagine Hill will be a welcomed member of the Sixers’ rotation for years to come.

Next. Goodbye and farewell Tony Bradley. dark

So George Hill, welcome to the Philadelphia 76ers. Though you may not have been many a fan’s first choice, and very well could have been had on the buyout market had the Sixers looked to use their assets on another option, securing your very team-friendly contract for not only this year but next as well is the sort of shrewd deal Daryl Morey has made a career out of and thus can’t be judged too harshly before we actually see how it turns out on the court. Should be fun.