# Blazers Sign Center, Steven Hill



## ABM (Dec 30, 2002)

From the _Who Cares_ Dept.  (OK, OK, we'll need a Center for the summer league. Oden won't be playing, correct?)

Springfield, MO Newsleader.com



> Former Branson High School and University of Arkansas center Steven Hill has signed to play for the Portland Trail Blazers in the upcoming NBA summer league, his father Troy Hill said Saturday.
> 
> Despite going undrafted, the 7-foot Hill will have a chance to make the team if he can impress during Portland’s run in the summer league, which begins July 11-20 at the Thomas and Mack Center and the Cox Pavilion, both on the campus of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
> 
> The Trail Blazers’ first game will be Monday, July 14 against Washington. Hill averaged 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game as a senior at Arkansas.


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## Perfection (May 10, 2004)

Oden won't be playing...no reason to risk him. I hope they sign Josh Duncan for summer league. Kid can play.


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## GOD (Jun 22, 2003)

I think it's going to be hard to sign quality summer league prospects because our roster is so loaded, they would rather play for a team that they have a shot at making/


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## Samuel (Jan 1, 2003)




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## 2k (Dec 30, 2005)

Cool I hope he shines. He is not that bad of a rebounder. Arkansas's guards steal all the rebounds over there. Little Patrick Beverly averages 6.5 boards a game.


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## Samuel (Jan 1, 2003)

Bill walton much?


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## JFizzleRaider (Nov 1, 2004)

What about Freeland? Isn't he going to be our starting center for the summer league? Haha and Nedzad


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## B-Roy (Feb 12, 2008)

Freeland plays PF, we needed a center for the SL.


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## ABM (Dec 30, 2002)

Has anyone seen a SL roster out there?


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## Utherhimo (Feb 20, 2005)

hill and ducan should go play in europe thats what i woudl do if i went undrafted.


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## ABM (Dec 30, 2002)

I really like this guy's bring-your-lunch-pail game. Definitely won't make the team, but, like Dean Demopolous related, the kid belongs in the league.


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## mediocre man (Feb 24, 2004)

He's Joel Przybilla with an offensive game. 


Pathetic we have to pay Joel all that money when we could sign Hill for pennies


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## Sambonius (May 21, 2003)

mediocre man said:


> He's Joel Przybilla with an offensive game.
> 
> 
> Pathetic we have to pay Joel all that money when we could sign Hill for pennies


You're joking right? Joel is a bargain for the money he's being paid, furthermore Hill can't even rebound the ball half as well as Joel does. I've still seen no evidence of Hll having an offensive game? Why don't you read me back his points per game again.


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## Tortimer (Jun 4, 2007)

mediocre man said:


> He's Joel Przybilla with an offensive game.
> 
> 
> Pathetic we have to pay Joel all that money when we could sign Hill for pennies


I sort of like Hill but not sure he is good enough to even be a backup center in the NBA. I agree that Joel doesn't have a offensive game but he is much better defender, rebounder and even blocking shots which is Hill's best part of his game.


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## AudieNorris (Jun 29, 2006)

Sambonius said:


> You're joking right? Joel is a bargain for the money he's being paid


Could you please explain this? I see him as a middle to lower quality center getting top dollar.


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## drinking_rogue (May 4, 2008)

His beard is cool.


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## BlazerFan22 (Jul 4, 2006)

So is he going to be one of are young guys sitting at the end of the bench along with Sergio and maybe one more?


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## MAS RipCity (Feb 22, 2003)

We should keep tabs on Hill, he'd be a great Pryz replacement in a few years.


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## BlazerFan22 (Jul 4, 2006)

MAS RipCity said:


> We should keep tabs on Hill, he'd be a great Pryz replacement in a few years.


Yea in a few years Przybilla will be in his early 30's. We can't have that for this team. This team needs young guys.


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## ebott (Jan 7, 2003)

Does anybody know what happened to Freeland? None of us expected anything out of "The Finnisher" and he delivered HUGE.

Maybe Freeland would have done the same. It's kind of a bummer that we didn't get to see him. I figure he'll sign a big deal with a Euro-League club and we'll never hear from him again.


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## meru (Jul 2, 2003)

ebott said:


> Does anybody know what happened to Freeland?


Supposedly the Spanish team that refuses to play him refused to let him come over here and play. I guess they don't want him to play _anywhere_.



> I figure he'll sign a big deal with a Euro-League club and we'll never hear from him again.


I think he'll be back stocking shelves in a couple of years...


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## meru (Jul 2, 2003)

Talking of Steven Hill - right now on the delayed broadcast on NBA.com, Pritchard and the announcers are raving about his defense.


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## BLAZER PROPHET (Jan 3, 2003)

Joel actually has a small offensive game, but he's not part of the offense. That's not to say he could ever average 20 ppg, but I've seen him shoot some nice little jump hooks over good defenders when the shot clock was winding down. He's not all that much of a stiff. I mean, no relation whatsoever to Ostertag.


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## meru (Jul 2, 2003)

Joel left Minnesota after his freshman year, didn't he? I'm willing to bet that in that one freshman year he scored as many points total as Hill scored in 4 years at Arkansas. 

But his beard *is *damn cool. And he certainly _looks_ like he belongs in Portland...


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## LameR (Jan 4, 2004)

BlazerFan22 said:


> So is he going to be one of are young guys sitting at the end of the bench along with Sergio and maybe one more?


No.



BlazerFan22 said:


> Yea in a few years Przybilla will be in his early 30's. We can't have that for this team. This team needs young guys.


This team has young guys. It's stupid to sign another one at that position when we have our current big-man rotation. If Joel starts to slip, that's when to try to find a good back-up replacement, not 3 years before. Plus, when Joel's contract ends (assuming he doesn't get re-signed, I guess he could) we'll be competing for championships, and then we can make sure we get a guy that fits us rather than gambling on a young guy with not a ton of potential outside of the defensive end. Putting Hill on the team would mean Batum or Koponen don't get on, which I think would be dumb given the ages of LaMarcus, Oden, Frye, and Diogu. We have plenty of youth in there already. 

However, if the coaches think Batum is too much of a project to sign him, and for some reason don't want roster flexibility, I guess Hill would be a decent guy to have in practices.


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## dkap (May 13, 2003)

AudieNorris said:


> Could you please explain this? I see him as a middle to lower quality center getting top dollar.


Since when is the MLE top dollar?

Dan


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## Utherhimo (Feb 20, 2005)

Steven Hill started slow in the league but picked it up the last two finally, i expected a lot more from him actually. He will get a contract somewhere he is too skilled, wish there was a 3rd or out to maybe a 4th round so we could draft him for the Idaho Stampeed.


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## Nate Dogg (Oct 20, 2006)

I was expecting to have better numbers for Batnum and lately his stats don't impress me. I understand that his ribs got hurt after the second summer game? But still I was in-visioning better stats for him.
Batnum needs to work on his turnover ratio.
Hill has had two games where he had 20 min + in game play. I like his block ratio, even though he has some turnovers too. But nonetheless I was impressed with his stats.
http://www.nba.com/summerleague2008/players/index.jsp?player=sl_steven_hill


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## Utherhimo (Feb 20, 2005)

stats arent everything


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## stockfire (Jul 17, 2004)

Whoa, someone just quoted my hometown paper for the Blazers, how.. unexpected.


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## MARIS61 (Apr 28, 2003)

ebott said:


> Does anybody know what happened to Freeland? None of us expected anything out of "The Finnisher" and he delivered HUGE.


*None of us EXCEPT myself*, who has posted continuously and repeatedly for over a year now that our PG needs are more than met with the duo of Sergio and Petteri.

I was also the first and the most insistent that Jarrett Jack would not succeed in playing PG for us.

Maybe posters should be less eager to dismiss my sometimes unpopular opinions?


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## Hephaestus (Jun 16, 2007)

MARIS61 said:


> *None of us EXCEPT myself*, who has posted continuously and repeatedly for over a year now that our PG needs are more than met with the duo of Sergio and Petteri.
> 
> I was also the first and the most insistent that Jarrett Jack would not succeed in playing PG for us.
> 
> Maybe posters should be less eager to dismiss my sometimes unpopular opinions?


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## AudieNorris (Jun 29, 2006)

MARIS61 said:


> Maybe posters should be less eager to dismiss my sometimes unpopular opinions?


 Its not that your opinions get dismissed or are unpopular, they are ignored because of the harsh presentation.


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## MrJayremmie (Dec 29, 2007)

> This team has young guys. It's stupid to sign another one at that position when we have our current big-man rotation. If Joel starts to slip, that's when to try to find a good back-up replacement, not 3 years before. Plus, when Joel's contract ends (assuming he doesn't get re-signed, I guess he could) we'll be competing for championships, and then we can make sure we get a guy that fits us rather than gambling on a young guy with not a ton of potential outside of the defensive end. Putting Hill on the team would mean Batum or Koponen don't get on, which I think would be dumb given the ages of LaMarcus, Oden, Frye, and Diogu. We have plenty of youth in there already.
> 
> However, if the coaches think Batum is too much of a project to sign him, and for some reason don't want roster flexibility, I guess Hill would be a decent guy to have in practices.


I think that Blazerfan22's post was a sarcastic response to MAS Ripcity's post about the fact that ina few years Hill would be a good replacement for Pryzbilla.


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## Nate Dogg (Oct 20, 2006)

MARIS61 said:


> *None of us EXCEPT myself*, who has posted continuously and repeatedly for over a year now that our PG needs are more than met with the duo of Sergio and Petteri.
> 
> I was also the first and the most insistent that Jarrett Jack would not succeed in playing PG for us.
> 
> Maybe posters should be less eager to dismiss my sometimes unpopular opinions?


Thread HIGHJACKER. Maris61 stick to the topic post at hand.


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## MrJayremmie (Dec 29, 2007)

> None of us EXCEPT myself, who has posted continuously and repeatedly for over a year now that our PG needs are more than met with the duo of Sergio and Petteri.
> 
> I was also the first and the most insistent that Jarrett Jack would not succeed in playing PG for us.
> 
> Maybe posters should be less eager to dismiss my sometimes unpopular opinions?


Petteri will be a great backup in a couple years, but Sergio would be a horrible starter on this team as he is ONLY effective with the ball in his hands. We have Roy and we odn't need that. He needs to be able to shoot and play D as well, and that isn't happening. We don't need a pure PG next to Roy to excel.


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## mobes23 (Jun 29, 2006)

I can't imagine Hill sticking -- more power to him if he finds a place. That said, the thing that bugs me is when the nbatv summer league play-by-play guys call him the "Mountain Man", which is objectionable for obvious reasons. There's only one Blazer who has that nickname and his number's retired.


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