Despite Jordan Hill’s struggles during his short stint with the Knicks, Jordan Hill came to Houston and played better with the increased amount of minutes.  While he didn’t set the world on fire, Hill’s averages of 6.4 points and 5 rebounds a game was a vast improvement over what he did in New York, and Hill is looking to build off that improvement this upcoming season, however, he might not get the minutes to do so.  Yao Ming looking to return for training camp and Patrick Patterson (who with Scola returning has a chance at being the first big off of the bench) being drafted Hill is going to have to earn his minutes, and if Summer League is any indication, he might not be seeing the court too much this year.

Jordan Hill’s biggest problem offensively seems to be his inability to get a good look after he receives the ball in the post with his back to the basket.  He was so raw offensively coming out of college, and it seems (at least to me) that he still hasn’t done any back to the basket work.  Hill doesn’t know how to use his combination of size and strength in the post to his advantage just yet:

Here, Jordan Hill makes the catch in a pretty good spot.  Defending him is the Suns’ second round pick, Gani Lawal.  Lawal probably is equal to Hill in terms of strength, but when it comes to quickness/athletic ability, that favors Hill.  Hill doesn’t exploit this advantage, and instead he tries to improve his position by muscling Lawal with two shots to the body.  He doesn’t get anywhere, and instead of trying a spin move to the baseline (which is there, and with Hill’s quickness advantage it would work) he settles for a fall-away hook over his left shoulder.  Not a high percentage shot.

Read more…