Grant Hill, welcome to Phoenix

[Dro]

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/ar ... nline.html

Suns get Hill
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 5, 2007 09:22 AM

Grant Hill will be a Sun.

Hill's agent, Lon Babby, told The Arizona Republic that Hill told Phoenix today that he would join the Suns in his quest or a championship. There is a moratorium on free agent signings until Wednesday.

Hill was offered the Suns' biennial exception, which will pay him $1.83 million in the coming season and give him a player option to return at $1.97 million for 2008-09. Coming off a seven-year, $92 million contract with Orlando, money was not his biggest lure to Phoenix.

Nice! Veteran savvy is exactly what the Suns need. He'll probably start at SF, and he'll probably also be used to keep things running smoothly while Nash sits. Plus he'll be a great mentor to Alando Tucker. Great move and a steal for the vet's min.

[Jing]

Not bad.. another building block to the Suns.. provided he doesn't get injured again.

[Anthony15]

Good move from Kerr. Hill is probably gonna start at SF, like Jing said, if he doesn't get hurt, he is a building block to them.

[JT_55]

Great move for Phoenix. Now maybe the Suns will win a championship. Amare and Diaw, stay in your seat!

[NovU]

phx's gun and run style of basketball is way too fast for grant hill's ankle
expect him to be out for season in summer camp or early in season...

anyways, nice addition... diaw must be frustrated tho...

[Sauru]

its a good move i think by the suns but not enough. they need to package some players and make another move imo. i dont know if i like hill starting, i would rather see him come off the bench and them try and get another energy player to start at the 3. then again, hill could help them alot in the half court which is where they tend to have some problems.

[c0nr4d]

dangit...i was hopin he'd come back to Detroit

Suns are my fav. Western team tho, so it's cool...hopefully he'll get a ring, he was one of my first fav. players back in his hey-day

[[Q]]

hmm well he isn't the greatest jump shooter, so maybe he'll be more of a creator on offense? or will they use hiim at all or make him Jalen Rose #2?

[Axel]

Great pickup by the Suns! I'm excited already.

[Sauru]

hmm well he isn't the greatest jump shooter, so maybe he'll be more of a creator on offense? or will they use hiim at all or make him Jalen Rose #2?

i dont understand the rose situation at all. sure he is not the best played in the nba but why never use him? why do the suns insist on such a small rotation of players that they get worn out and cant win a 7 game series?

i am amazed that rose is even willing to be on this team. how do you go from a go to guy to a nothing and be ok with it?

[cyanide]

i am amazed that rose is even willing to be on this team. how do you go from a go to guy to a nothing and be ok with it?

He gets paid millions to watch every Suns NBA game with the best seats in the building and he gets to practice and travel with the team. I'd love to do that.

[maes]

Grant will play as much as Jalen Rose.

Phoenix is so not Grant Hill's style (not Jalen's either), not sure what they're doing here.

[el badman]

Grant will play as much as Jalen Rose.

Phoenix is so not Grant Hill's style (not Jalen's either), not sure what they're doing here.

Yeah, I'm really not sure Hill will play that much, even if he (miraculously) stays healthy. Sounds like a great addition, but the way Phoe has dealt with Rose and other decent players, I dunno if Hill will get a different treatment...

[c0nr4d]

Grant will play as much as Jalen Rose.

Phoenix is so not Grant Hill's style (not Jalen's either), not sure what they're doing here.

yeah thats why i thought he should have come to detroit, where its slower-paced and he could "create" with his high bball IQ (much like CWebb does at the PF). He could have been Tay's backup...

[Fitzy]

thats a good pick up from them, but do you really think hed be a starter?

[Dro]

thats a good pick up from them, but do you really think hed be a starter?

Unless the Suns plan on starting Marion at the 3, Diaw at the 4 and Amare at the 5, Grant Hill will start. I don't see the Suns starting Diaw. Diaw is practically useless when he and Amare are on the floor at the same time. Unless they improve on their on-court chemistry A LOT this offseason and the coaches are comfortable with both of them on the floor, then I see Grant Hill starting. Hopefully he doesn't play more than 25 mpg.

[Andrew]

Grant will play as much as Jalen Rose.

Phoenix is so not Grant Hill's style (not Jalen's either), not sure what they're doing here.

It would be a shame if it turned out that way. As long as he's healthy Hill has demonstrated he can still be productive and he'd add some depth to Phoenix, which they desperately need. As Sauru said, the Suns are shooting themselves in the foot with their insistence on using such a short rotation against teams like San Antonio that can go eight or nine (or in a pinch, ten) players deep in the postseason without much of a worry. It's not worth paying the talent the Suns have on the bench if they're only going to use six or seven players from start to finish.

Aside from that, Hill has put together a couple of decent years including a surprising one in 2004/2005 after everyone had written him off after all the injury woes. It would be a shame to see yet another former star fade away, ending his career riding the bench.

[SVSM/CC-23]

the run n gun style is not good enough to win a championshipring. but if you have that kind of players like stoudemire,marion,nash,diaw,bell,barbosa, hill in your team you get a chance to win a title - running the fastbreak.

[Sauru]

i am amazed that rose is even willing to be on this team. how do you go from a go to guy to a nothing and be ok with it?

He gets paid millions to watch every Suns NBA game with the best seats in the building and he gets to practice and travel with the team. I'd love to do that.

you and me both however we were never a go to guy on a nba team. its gotta be hard if you have any love for the game or pride in your body to take such a big step back as he has.

if hill turns into another rose for the suns then the suns deserve to lose. they need guys in there that can play the half court game. all they wanna do is run endlessly then they get worn out and lose the game. they do know its ok to play more than 7 a game right?

[BigKaboom2]

I don't understand this signing at all. They're just pushing Raja Bell to the fringe of the rotation to bring in the most unreliable player of the entire decade who isn't even worth it when he is healthy. I can't figure out why people think he's eventually going to be as amazing as he was in the 90's. I'd much rather have Bell in my starting lineup than Hill.

[cyanide]

Well, Hill brings that veteran experience to the locker room, and he didn't do too shabby last season when he played. I'd rather if he came off the bench, but I'm sure he can still contribute.

[NovU]

u guys r crazy... u guys dont know how much warm bench is important to players especially during cold winter season. hill can provide that at easy 1.83 mil dollar.

[Dro]

I don't understand this signing at all. They're just pushing Raja Bell to the fringe of the rotation to bring in the most unreliable player of the entire decade who isn't even worth it when he is healthy. I can't figure out why people think he's eventually going to be as amazing as he was in the 90's. I'd much rather have Bell in my starting lineup than Hill.

Bell won't be pushed to the fringe of anything. Bell will start at 2, Hill at 3, Marion at 4 and Amare at 5.

I don't understand why so many people don't like this move. Think about it this way...imagine if the Suns had Hill in game 5 of the series against the Spurs. Down to a rotation of 6 players, they gave away the lead because the just ran out of gas. They lost by 3. You put Grant Hill on that team and the series goes to 7.

[Sauru]

the real question is, will hill actually get playing time or will the suns run endlessly style push him outa the rotation?

[Andrew]

I don't understand this signing at all. They're just pushing Raja Bell to the fringe of the rotation to bring in the most unreliable player of the entire decade who isn't even worth it when he is healthy. I can't figure out why people think he's eventually going to be as amazing as he was in the 90's. I'd much rather have Bell in my starting lineup than Hill.

I don't think many people outside of perhaps the most diehard Grant Hill fans are expecting that but I think it's fair to say he's demonstrated he can still be a solid player when he's healthy. His 2005/2006 campaign was disappointing but he played 67 games in 2004/2005, missing most of them at the end of the season after the Magic had been eliminated from playoff contention, sitting only as a precautionary measure. He missed 17 games this season but it was still the second highest number of games he's played since the 2000 season.

If he can play around 65 games in the regular season, remain healthy for the postseason and give the Suns the kind of production he had for the Magic the last few years, then he's definitely worth the minimum deal he's reportedly set to sign. At that price, he's a very low risk.