Indeed the front office had plenty of choices between veteran George Hill, the best ball handler and A/TO ratio of the league Ray McCallum, young prodigy Cory Joseph or super talented but inefficient Brandon Jennings. Who to choose to pair with Kawhi, Gasol, Drummond and Johnson?
Jennings was cut from the list and heavily shopped during the next months. He finally found a new home with the Pelicans. A great talent but who has difficulties to cohabit with other players, especially in a low scoring team.
McCallum was quickly named backup as he is thrilling in the second unit. Better floor general than Hill (AST 64 HDL 93 DI 70 IQ 70), he however miss a decent 3pts shoot. Good news is the 2nd unit is now full of snipers with Mirza and GRIII. The main question was about the starting position: George Hill (AST 58 HDL 74 DI 75 IQ, range and defense) or Cory Joseph (AST 71 HDL 67 DI 73 IQ 80, no range but great defense)?
The front office kept their trust in Hill who led them to the conference finals last year. Joseph would have one year to develop without all the pressure of the team on his shoulders. Indeed, Hill expiring at the end of the season, everyone expect the rookie to lead the point from the first day of the 2019-2020 season.
The subject should have been closed for months already but interrogations about this choice kept erupting from the Canadian press days after days. Indeed George Hill had a really difficult beginning of season.
Pre-Injury : 7 games (5W-2L), 13.0pts (40%), 3.4ast, 2.9rbd
Injury : Missed 6 games
Post injury : 5 games (2W, 3L), 11.4pts (35%), 5ast, 3.4rbd
While Cory Joseph wasn’t stellar during his 5 games as a starter (Jennings had 1 start), he was still able to keep the team winning : 5 games (4W, 1L), 8.2pts (31%), 3.4ast, 3.2rbd.
His bad % was offset by a limited number of attempts (1 shot every 4min against Hill 1 shot every 2min45) and the local press was putting more and more pressure on the front office to let the local talent prove his worth.
The GM Chili held on his initial decision but it was clear for everyone that the window would be closing soon for George Hill if he didn’t react rapidly. But the former Knicks did react.
Wake-Up Era : 5 games (5W), 18.2pts (47%), 6.8ast, 5.0rbd.
To be continued.
2028
