Solomon Hill Continues to Prove His Professionalism and Defensive Prowess

Solomon Hill went from being the Indiana Pacers minutes leader to a benchwarmer, but has since re-entered the rotation and shown that he is a professional.

Solomon Hill led the Indiana Pacers in minutes played last season, playing all 82 games and starting 78. This year, in the Pacers first 10 games, he played just two total minutes while logging nine DNP-CDs. That stands for “Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision.”

He wasn’t injured. He didn’t display any behavioral problems off the court or in the locker room. It was quite the opposite in fact. Solo, at least outwardly, continued to be the ideal teammate. Despite not playing, he was engaged and even entertaining on the bench while cheering on his teammates, never more elegantly than when he unleashed the 3-Sword after Paul George stuck a jumper from long-range in their former teammate Lance Stephenson’s eye.

Remarkably, he still seemed to be enjoying his career in the NBA even though his playing time had vanished.

So there were no real Solomon Hill-related problems. He simply was deemed to be inferior to other wing players on the roster by the coach. Worse still in terms of his hopes of having a long, successful, gainful NBA career, team president Larry Bird declined to pick up a team option — for a measly $2.3 million — that would have kept Solo in a Pacers jersey next season. Because of this, Hill will be a free agent once Indiana’s season ends.

As the season went on, nothing changed. Hill did start to get some garbage time thereafter, but he was never part of the rotation. Through 29 games, Solo saw just 80 minutes on the court — or less than 3 minutes per contest.

Then a funny thing happened on the way to his post-Pacers career of obscurity on the end of another team’s bench: Solomon Hill started to prove that he was a true professional who was ready, willing, and able to step back into the rotation and contribute to an NBA team making a playoff push.

There are no numbers to cite.

His minutes played is the only thing that really has changed. There hasn’t been a marquee 20-point performance or a 5-assist night to talk about. Because this is Solomon Hill, and he doesn’t do those things. He is just a high-level on-ball defender who understands spacing, timing, and movement well while always competing hard and rarely making the type of positional and “I didn’t know the scheme” mistakes that drive coaches like Frank Vogel crazy and young players like Glenn Robinson, III and Myles Turner and Joe Young make all the time.

So as Chase Budinger and Robinson both proved unfit to help the team (and Budinger was bought out to make room for Ty Lawsom), and as Turner has shown again and again that he struggles to cover anyone shorter and quicker than him, Vogel went back to the wing player he gave more minutes to than any other Pacers last season.

Solomon Hill is back in the rotation and he has often even been playing alongside the Pacers starters in crunch time.

While there are few numbers that show his impact, the video tells the tale.

Here he is checking in against the Cavaliers on a night when LeBron was cooking and slowing down The King.

Here is Solo switching over onto former MVP Derrick Rose and befuddling him enough to force a shot-clock violation.

And here is Solo slapping the ball away from James Harden and then diving on the floor after it to get a jump ball.

How many deep reserves in the NBA could barely play for months then re-join the rotation and be relied on to stick with some of the greatest scorers in league history? It truly is sensational that he Solo has remained this prepared and is able to come in to contribute — within a revamped defensive system — like he never missed a beat.

Something else has also been great to watch.

The enthusiasm that Solomon Hill showed back when he was benched hasn’t disappeared. It’s just now being shown by Myles Turner, who has been held out late in some fourth quarters this month in favor of a player that everyone on the roster — and everyone with a television set — knows is less talented.

Now, Turner seems like a good kid who isn’t prone to moping. He has previously — and forcefully — gotten on himself publicly for such personal failings as missing free throws. Turner seems most concerned with helping his team however he can and improving as a player than anything else. So this attitude isn’t surprising.

But rookies do take their lead from the culture they are drafted into. Young players on those Jail Blazers-era Portland teams, for example, continued to get into trouble while everyone who puts on a Spurs uniform instantly morphs into the best version of themselves.

And, as we heard after his clutch play in a win over the Mavericks, Solo certainly sounds every bit the professional with an aptitude that rookies should try to emulate.

It definitely couldn’t have hurt for Turner to see Solomon Hill react so well to his new lot in life earlier this year. Most players in Solo’s position would have stewed. If they weren’t openly disruptive to never playing just one year removed from being a vital starter on a near-playoff team, the would fester in silence in a way that would make it obvious that they believed something unjust was happening.

There is no evidence that Solo did anything like that though.

He has been a consummate professional — commendable in its own right — and stayed ready to jump back into the mix to contribute.

Now, even with the Pacers underachieving and now fighting for their playoff lives, Solo has shown everyone what being a pro is all about. He will never been a star — and probably not even a starter — in the NBA, but he has shown he belongs. And with each passing game, he is making Larry Bird’s decision to decline his option look even dumber.