Thank You, George Hill

George Hill is headed to the Utah Jazz in a trade, ending the Hometown Hero’s time with the Indiana Pacers.

George Hill was never a point guard, nor a shooting guard in his time with the Indiana Pacers, leading many to question just how good of a player he is.

Thanks to the fact that he never fit into a particular position, many fans underrated him because he didn’t fit into the traditional point guard role.

His defense often was his biggest contribution, but his offense was taking another step forward as his 3-point shooting rose to 40.8%, the highest of his career. When you combined his offense and defense together, you had a guard who was in the top 20 of the NBA.

That’s who the Utah Jazz are getting in a 3-way trade where the Pacers sent Hill to Utah, the Jazz’s No. 12 pick heads to the Atlanta Hawks, who are sending Jeff Teague to the Pacers.

Hill’s steady production but the lack of flair help fuel the idea that he’s somewhere between an average and below average guard, but just because he averaged 11.2 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.2 assists doesn’t mean he was a bad player.

If you think the Pacers need a traditional playmaker, that’s one thing, but to somehow think George Hill was dragging down the team is just foolish.

George Hill | PointAfter

As much as I like tangible things — statistics, analytics — having Hill in the locker room helped guide Paul George and Myles Turner the past few years isn’t something that should be dismissed, either.

Hill played an important role in the “Blue Collar, Gold Swagger” era of the Pacers, balancing out the risky play of Lance Stephenson while the two guards patrolled the backcourt on defense — along with Paul George — to make sure opponents struggled shooting 3-pointers. Under Frank Vogel, the Pacers defense was their calling card, and George Hill was a big reason why it worked.

As basketball-obsessed as Indiana can be, he was one of the few players that get to play at home in their professional career. That was something special for Pacers fans as many had watched him at least since college, if not since high school. He was rightly called the Hometown Hero.

I’m not a Hoosier, but I’ve adopted the Pacers as my team. Being from West Virginia, it was one of the closer teams and Reggie Miller had brought me to the team in the late 1990s. From there and through the Jermaine O’Neal era, it was easy to be proud of the Pacers.

However, after the Malice in the Palace, it wasn’t so easy.

For me personally, I was almost ready to turn in my fan card as the fallout from that night in Detriot and the Pacers teams that followed made it hard to cheer for Indiana. It is hard to believe just a few seasons ago that I was considering giving up on this team and since then they’ve made it to the Eastern Conference Finals twice. Perhaps if PG doesn’t break his leg the Pacers are in a different position than what they are now.

But does that really matter? You can waste a lot of time trying to imagine if how things played out in an alternate universe. That was something that still to this day impairs some fans and media members’ perception of George Hill.

The casual fans will remain stuck on the trade that sent a draft pick that became Kawahi Leonard to the San Antonio Spurs and brought Hill to Indiana, but that supposes that Leonard would have been the pick the Pacers would have made as well. Perhaps Leonard doesn’t become the player he is now if he’s stuck behind Danny Granger for a few years. It is an interesting “what if”, but ultimately a waste of time to obsess over.

Next: Indiana Pacers Trade 20th Pick For Thaddeus Young

I’ll miss George Hill, and I’m happy he was one of the players who made me fall in love with Indiana Pacers basketball once again.

Thanks for bringing me back.