Minnesota Timberwolves: Jordan Hill Signs Two-Year Deal
On Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that the Minnesota Timberwolves have signed free agent center Jordan Hill to a two-year, $8 million deal.
The frenzy of free agency appears to be over, but that doesn’t mean teams aren’t done making moves.
First reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical on Wednesday afternoon, the Minnesota Timberwolves have signed journeyman center Jordan Hill to a two-year, $8 million deal.
For Hill, it’s just the next stop in his career as the Wolves will now be his fifth team in his eight years in the league. In his one and only year with the Indiana Pacers last season, Hill averaged 8.8 points per game, 6.2 rebounds per game and 1.2 assists per game.
Free agent center Jordan Hill has agreed to a two-year, $8M deal with Minnesota, league source tells @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 13, 2016
It’s been a relatively quiet offseason for the Wolves, but the move to bring in Hill bolsters their already deep frontcourt, headlined by the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Gorgui Dieng.
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Hill was not the only big man addition the Wolves have made this summer as they added Cole Aldrich, previously from the Los Angeles Clippers, on a three-year, $22 million deal.
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This obviously brings up the question of how new head coach Tom Thibodeau is going to distribute minutes to what’s becoming an increasingly crowded frontcourt.
Of course, that’s directly tied to where Towns plays when he sees minutes on the court and time will tell whether he’ll see minutes at the center position in the immediate future.
With Hill aboard now, however, the Wolves will have plenty of big men to choose from to mix and match pairings for the foreseeable future.
What we know for certain with Hill is that he’ll bring some solid offense and rebounding from the center position in a backup role.
After having a down shooting year in the 2014-15 season, Hill bounced back shooting the ball as he shot 51 percent from the field last season with the Pacers.
Not only did Hill regain his shooting touch around the basket, but Hill did stretch his shooting range effectively this season as well (Hill shot 51 percent from 10-16 feet from the basket, per Basketball-Reference.com).
In terms of his other strength, Hill has dipped a bit in rebounding the ball in recent years, but he remains effective hitting the glass on both ends of the floor.
Last season alone, Hill had an offensive rebounding percentage of 11 percent and a defensive rebounding percentage of 21 percent.
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At the very least, the Timberwolves played the waiting game to great effect by bringing in Hill at an incredibly reasonably price.
While it does create more questions regarding their stacked frontcourt, bringing in Hill could end up really working for the Timberwolves.
There’s no question that Hill’s presence on the roster takes potential minutes away from another big man, but it does give them some stability as all of Kevin Garnett, Nikola Pekovic and (potentially) Dieng could wind up elsewhere this time next year or sooner.
The biggest challenge that lies ahead is how to distribute minutes with everyone aboard and to find the optimal pairings as the Timberwolves look to take the next step and possibly contend for the playoffs as soon as next year.
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That’s all for Thibodeau to figure out, but it’s very clear he’ll have plenty to work with this coming season.