Don't Take Hill for Granted

I always loved those NBA tapes back in day, although I didn’t have a lot. But I did have a Grant Hill video, and between all those highlights was one of his first plays in his career: an alley-oop which was almost impossible to finish. The pass was way off, but he still caught it with his left hand, his body was turning in the air but somehow he still managed to flush it through.

When I look back, I always wonder: if it weren’t for the injuries, would Grant Hill have been the best player in the NBA? Looking back on his final season with Detroit, he was scoring almost 26 a game, grabbing more than 6 boards and handing out over 5 assists. All that while shooting 49% from the field, and 80% from the line. Okay, he wasn’t a good three-point shooter, but who cares? He did every other thing right, and during that season, he might have been the best player not named Shaquille O’Neal. At the end of the season the Pistons’ record was a mediocre 42-40, but it didn’t help that other than the high-scoring Jerry Stackhouse, the rest of the team didn’t do much. And for the next years to come, Hill didn’t do much either, besides rehabbing his ankle he fucked up during his last games as a Piston.

So after the abysmal years with the Orlando Magic, trying to come back after ankle-injuries, a sports hernia and other freak injuries, one of the classiest players of the League went on to sign with the Suns, a team who could use some veteran leadership (besides Nash, of course). But the thing what’s been hampering the Suns the last couple of years, is still holding them back this season too: A lack of defense, and a pretty thin bench. Although Boris Diaw is still trying to find out where it all went wrong, because most of the season he’s nowhere near the player he was two years ago. That leaves the Suns with only one decent backup, and that’s Leandro Barbosa.
Kurt Thomas is grabbing a whole lotta boards in Seattle, and the Suns could’ve used his inside defense. People always talk about how Stoudemire played so dominant against Tim Duncan a few years in back in the playoffs. But who’s gonna stop Duncan getting buckets? And who will give the 35-year old Hill a breather? Barbosa? Okay, but who’s gonna back up Nash? Banks is alright, but not a guard I will put my money on in the playoffs. If I had any money, that is.

While Hill probably doesn’t do too much dunking nowadays (although he did have a nice “poster” on Diop in December), he is essential to the success of the Phoenix Suns. Call me crazy, but for all the faults the Suns have, the lack of depth, chemistry issues, no defense, I’m still positive they will go deep into the playoffs. I’m pretty sure that no team wants to face them either. And Grant Hill? He wants to face them all.