Jordan Hill has a promising future in the NBA. Many teams would have been happy to acquire his services this offseason after his Lakers contract expired but Hill stayed around with Los Angeles due to one big reason. The departure of former Head Coach Mike D’Antoni.
Hill said the following to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
“If Mike was here, I wouldn’t be back,” Hill said. “That’s the way it was. No disrespect to Mike, but apparently I didn’t fit his system. Why would I come back?”
“Last year, I was thinking too much about playing,” Hill said. “If I messed up, I wondered if I would see the floor again. Right now, Byron is relying on me and I’m one of his guys. That really builds more confidence in me to come out this year and play my game.”
Hill said he has stopped drinking alcohol, admitting it hurt his efforts on becoming the Lakers’ renewable energy source. Hill said the lifestyle change helped him drop from 253 pounds to 240.
You can’t blame Hill here for his obvious frustrations. Last season Hill tied a career high with 72 games played and set career highs with 32 starts and 20.8 minutes per game and that garnered a $9 million dollar guaranteed contract with a $9 million dollar team option for next year.
Hill is slated to be the starting center for the Lakers this season and can really hold his own down in the post. He’ll never be a scoring machine but he sure will play hard, give quality minutes and perform at a high level for the Lakers.
