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.

Another thing that I noticed when watching Jordan Hill in the post is he tends to settle for jumpers a little too much. Here, Hill makes the catch and faces up.  The face up works for a player like Hill because he can turn, survey the situation, and decide what to do next.  After the face up, Hill turns his back to his man as if he is going to make a move, then quickly turns around and takes a forced jump shot.  If you are going to face up and take the jumper, that is fine, but that little spin doesn’t really give Hill an advantage, and it makes the shot attempt harder.  Especially when he has a guy he can bully defending him.

Something that I noticed with Jordan Hill is that he always turns to the middle of the court when he makes a move with his back to the basket.  It doesn’t matter which side of the court he is on, but he always turns to the middle and either tries to get to the rim or attempts a hook with either one of his shoulders.  Here, Hill makes the catch, fakes baseline, and turns middle.  The double team was a little late, and Hill gets bailed out with a touch foul call, but this is something I wanted to show you because this is something you might see defense do when Hill makes the catch.

When you turn to the middle, you are basically turning into the defense.  If you mix it up as a post player (going baseline sometimes then going middle), teams aren’t going to be able to effectively defend it.  However, if you turn to the middle every time (like Hill does), teams are going to pick up on it and sit on it, waiting for the turn and then sending the double.  Against better quality defenders, this move is a stolen ball and not a trip to the foul line for Hill.