Three B’s: George Hill

Welcome to the return of Brew Hoop’s entirely subjective and emotionally-driven 2018-19 Milwaukee Bucks season player evaluations! Similar to last year’s series, we’ll take a look at each current Buck and ask three questions: what do they do that helps (Boon), what do they do that hurts (Bane), and whether they ought to be on this team (Belonging).

Let’s dive into the wonderful story of George Hill on the Bucks, eh? We all know the story arc he developed — going from a piece in a salary dump trade to playing valuable playoff minutes, it was very nice to get acquainted with the crafty veteran.

Hill’s Boon: Providing an Aggressive Spark

Boy, where would the Bucks have been without Hill’s massive contributions off the bench? There never really was a sense of doubt that you weren’t going to be getting 110 percent in effort from the veteran when he came into the game, and it’d always show with his aggressiveness. According to Cleaning the Glass, 34 percent of his shots were taken from around the rim and he converted on 65 percent of them. That’s what always impressed me the most. Whenever he’d find the smallest opening, he’d take it. That mindset then allows other players to open up their game on the perimeter, and it was always something that Mike Budenholzer stressed in his pressers whenever discussing Hill — he makes others around him better.

Hill’s Bane: Shooting the Three Ball

I’ll be honest — it took some time to come up with a real negative for Hill. However, in the end, I decided to go with his 3-point shooting during the regular season. After coming to Milwaukee, Hill would complete his regular season time on the Bucks with a 30 percent 3-point percentage. According to Cleaning the Glass, he’d attempt 12 percent of 3-point shots from the corner and only connected on 32 percent of those, which is a number you’d like to see improvement in. His range from anywhere else from the perimeter wasn’t any better, as those regular season numbers sat at just 28 percent. However, it’s important to remember that he was dealing with an injury during the tail-end of the season and as he got healthier, his game began to flourish. During the postseason, he’d rack up a 43 percent clip on his 3-point opportunities.

D̶o̶e̶s̶ ̶H̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶B̶e̶l̶o̶n̶g̶?̶ Hill’s Highlight

Normally in this series, this is where we’d discuss a player’s future with the team. However, given the fact that nearly every Bucks fan is hoping he re-signs a deal, I’m going to throw a little curveball and discuss my favorite memory from this season. For me, I gotta go with his performance in Game 4 vs. the Celtics. With the Bucks flirting with danger, Hill would put on his cape and come to the rescue, draining a pair of threes, as well as blowing past Kyrie Irving and slamming one home. Moments like this are where you really hope things work out and he’s able to re-join the squad for next season.