JULY 21st: The deal is official, the team announced via press release.
JULY 1st: The Pelicans have agreed to a deal with Solomon Hill, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The pact will be for $48MM over four seasons, reports Scott Kushner of The Advocate (Twitter links). Kushner adds that the deal will be guaranteed and it will contain incentives. Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical tweets that the deal will be for $52MM over four seasons, so perhaps that figure represents his maximum earnings.
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GM Dell Demps was very high on the combo forward and had been targeting him since the beginning of free agency, Kushner adds. Sources tell Kushner that the team feels Hill is a high-IQ, team player and a good passer, comparing the forward to DeMarre Carroll (Twitter link). New Orleans wants Hill to be the team’s new “two-way” small forward, Stein tweets.
Hill was set to make roughly $2.3MM next season for the Pacers, but Indiana decided not to exercise its team option for the final year of his rookie deal. Hill had an up-and-down career for the Pacers before breaking out in the playoffs this past year.
I said that Indiana was crazy for turning down his option…I still dont get why he didnt play more. In today’s NBA, typical 3/4 that can defend multiple positions and give you versatility on the offensive end as well
I forgot to add that I thought he was perfect next to Paul George…I also think this means Lance Thomas gets like $45 million,
Agreed. As a Pacers fan I was upset when they said his option was being declined. At that bargain rate, there really wasn’t any reason to not pick it up. Worst case scenario was that he becomes a slightly expensive (but cheap for this market) bench warmer. It’s not like he was terrible on the floor either. He could hit open 3s and could play/defend multiple positions. Maybe its Bird’s way of getting Glenn Robinson more minutes since he was raving about him last season.
the Pacers have confused me a lot over the last year. I cant tell what style they’re trying to play. It keeps going back and forth, kind of in between. Reminds me of the Bulls and Wizards last year…If they wanted to open up the floor, him not playing last year made no sense. Same moving forward this year. They added Teague, which was awesome, and then they grabbed Thaddeus Young (a long time favorite of mine), who is a questionable fit on that team, and Big Al, who is also a longtime favorite of mine, but another somewhat confusing fit (though admittedly less confusing than Thad).
I would agree that it could lead to more playing time for Glenn Robinson. He has intrigued me from the small amounts I’ve seen of him
Big Al is a questionable fit, but allows them to play big ball if they need/want to. Plus it doesn’t hurt to have a low post presence. I don’t think Thad Young’s fit is as questionable. He’s obviously not the best fit, but he can play the 4 for both big and small ball which can allow the Pacers to keep PG at the 3.
That Teague)Paul George 1-4 pick&roll was so enticing though….lol
Good move by New Orleans. Hill is a great defender who needs to be more consistent offensively, but if he can play like he did in the playoffs, he could make a huge impact for this team. Hopefully, this also means they move Evans to SG (not a fan of him playing SF) and let go of Gordon, but this could mean they bring Hield off the bench to start the year. A Holiday-Evans(or Hield)-Hill-AD-and-Asik starting lineup sounds pretty good, but whether it takes them to the playoffs remains to be seen.