NEW YORK — Along with his years of playoff experience and a wealth of knowledge on the ins and outs of running an NBA team, George Hill brought along something else from Indiana that’s helping the Jazz these days: his deck of cards.
Hill is the main dealer on the team plane rides — just as he’s been dealing everybody in on the floor as the Jazz’s new leader.
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“Sometimes just playing cards gets to get the team binding,” Hill told Sporting News. “We laugh. We joke. We tell stories. So it makes us a little closer. We’ve even got Gordon to start playing cards.”
Gordon is Gordon Hayward, Hill’s old friend from back home in Indiana. The Jazz small forward wants to be dealt in on more than cards. He’s looking to get back to the playoffs after a four-year absence, the longest this franchise has seen since its first four seasons in Utah (1980-83), a few years before John Stockton ever found Karl Malone cutting to the basket.
Hayward is a free agent this summer, and there’s been speculation that he’s unhappy with the Jazz’s lottery finishes and is ready to reunite with his Butler coach, Brad Stevens of the Celtics. That’s where Hill comes in.
The Jazz traded for the 30-year-old playmaker this summer knowing full well that he has a strong relationship with Hayward. Almost four years Hayward’s senior, Hill first started watching the swingman play while he was at IUPUI and Hayward was leading Brownsburg High to the Indiana Class 4A state title. They never met on the college court, but Hill was keeping tabs on Hayward’s progress when he helped the Pacers get to back-to-back Eastern Conference finals in 2013 and 2014.
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Now Hill wants to help the Jazz return to the postseason, and he appears to be the perfect man for the job. In their annual preseason poll, NBA general managers voted Hill the most underrated player acquisition of the past off-season. Taking the court for his season debut in New York after missing the first six games with a finger injury, Hayward agreed with the idea that Hill is exactly what they needed.
“Instantly, the chemistry is great,” he said. “I know the way he can play and how he can help our team. He’s always going at his pace. He’s always controlling the game. We’re still a young team. Just having that late-game knowledge, knowing how to close out games, has been big for us.”
Hill has helped the Jazz close out some nail-biters, which was one of their glaring weaknesses last season when they faltered down the stretch and lost out to the Rockets for the final playoff spot in the West. They dropped four of the last five games, including three home games, with the four losses coming by two, three, five and nine points.
But let’s face it, since Deron Williams’ best days manning the position and leading Utah to the Western Conference Finals in 2007, the playmaking position has been the team’s No. 1 problem. Since the trade of Williams to the Nets in 2011, the Jazz have used eight players as regular starting point guards: Earl Watson, Devin Harris, Mo Williams, Jamaal Tinsley, Trey Burke, Dante Exum, Raul Neto and Shelvin Mack. In that time the Jazz posted only one winning season. They have had a combined record over the last four of 146-182 (.445).
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So this past June, the Jazz wisely reshuffled the deck. They acquired Hill in a three-team trade with Atlanta, when the Pacers decided they needed to speed up their offense and dealt for Jeff Teague. Hill’s spot in Utah was solidified when the Jazz later traded Burke to Washington. He never worked out after Utah acquired his rights in the 2013 draft for Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, now both promising rotation players for the Timberwolves.
Hill’s value will come to the team if he can help get them to the playoffs, where he has 75 games of experience between the Spurs, his first team, and the Pacers. The Jazz also imported playoff warhorses Joe Johnson and Boris Diaw to bring a much-needed veteran presence to their lineup.
Hayward and only one other Jazz starter, Derrick Favors, have playoff experience, albeit just four games apiece from their cameo appearances in a four-game sweep by Diaw’s Spurs in 2012. The two other starters, Rudy Gobert, 24 and in his fourth season, and Rodney Hood, 24 and in his third season, have never been to the postseason.
“George has been in big games and he knows what it takes to win, consistently,” Jazz coach Quinn Snyder said. “He’s just steady and that’s a huge asset over the course of an NBA season because there is volatility, constantly. That ability to communicate it is the biggest thing he brings. George has evolved as a player. He’ll play differently with us than he did in Indiana.
“He has an ability to find what a team needs. That, to me, is leadership. We knew we were getting that, but you never know to what extent, until someone is there, day to day. He can lead in a lot of different contexts. The end of the game is better with him. The defense is better with him. The card game is better with him — at least when he’s winning.”
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Hill hasn’t won to the degree he wants. He missed out in San Antonio in his three playoff seasons when the Lakers and Mavs won the West and three titles. He was crushed when the Spurs traded him back home in 2011 for the draft rights to Kawhi Leonard. More than Leonard’s emergence as an MVP-caliber player, Hill laments the fact that the Pacers never could get past the LeBron James-led Miami Heat teams in three consecutive playoff seasons. The last two came when Miami won back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014.
Now his goal is to get to the playoffs and continue to guide his younger charges. With Gobert, the Jazz’s supremely athletic 7-1 center, he reminds him that while dunks will get him on ESPN highlights, “It’s about being a force and our anchor on defense.” With Hood, an emerging offensive talent, he’s found himself telling him, “You need to be a force and take over the game, even with Gordon back.”
That’s enough to pre-occupy his time. He’s not looking ahead to the summer when he could easily double his current $8 million-per-season salary in the off-season. It’s the greatest collection of point guards headed to free agency, led by Stephen Curry and Chris Paul. After those two, Hill stacks up nicely with Kyle Lowry, who is expected to stay in Toronto; Teague, Derrick Rose and Rajon Rondo.
The Jazz haven't approached Hill about an extension, a person with knowledge of the situation told Sporting News, so they have not indicated what kind of money they have in mind to keep him in Salt Lake City. While he has expressed an interest in remaining, he also has to look at their offer and do what’s best for him. An extension might not be his best route, as it could cost him a lot of money, as opposed to hitting the market during this unprecedented boon for players and playing what has become the premium position in the NBA.
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“I’m not focused on what’s going to happen this summer, contract-wise,” he said. “I’m just focusing on trying to get to the playoffs.”
The way he’s impacted the Jazz so far, that’s probably in the cards.
