One of these years, the New Orleans Pelicans will enter training camp with a
complete roster, avoiding the injury misfortune and other bad breaks that have
left them short-handed in each of the past few Octobers. That year will not be
this one, however.
Due to a significant hamstring injury, projected starting small forward Solomon
Hill will be sidelined for six to eight months. As a result, the Pelicans are
weighing how to proceed to fill Hill’s spot in the lineup and deal with reduced
depth at his position. The timetable for the 6-foot-7, 225-pounder, who started
71 games in 2016-17, likely means he’ll be unavailable until at least the
All-Star break.
“They’re talking about him being out in the neighborhood of six months,”
Pelicans Coach Alvin Gentry said of Hill’s injury on Monday’s episode of the
Black and Blue Report. “So you’re talking about if you get him back, you get him
in the middle of February or something. Obviously that’s going to be a struggle
for us, and a struggle for him to get himself in basketball shape. He’s not
going to be able to do running obviously when it’s a hamstring (injury). We’re
disappointed, but we have to move on.”
Asked whether Hill’s absence could result in the Pelicans using more small
lineups, Gentry said that is possible, but the team’s also evaluating options to
add to the current roster. The only other Pelicans with significant NBA
experience at small forward are Quincy Pondexter and Darius Miller; Pondexter
has missed the past two seasons due to injury, while Miller is returning to the
NBA after two-plus years in Germany.
“I think we’ve got some players who can fill in, but we’ve really got to go out
and find another guy of that size with a little bit of versatility, that can
play some (power forward) or maybe even some (shooting guard) for us, depending
on who we try to get,” Gentry said. “Right now we’ve got to decide if we’re
going to add a guy and how we can do that.”
Hill averaged 7.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game last season, but his bigger
contributions came at the defensive end, where he often was matched up against
the opponent’s best player.
“I thought he guarded his position as well as anyone last year,” Gentry said.
“He did a great job on guys like Paul George. Kevin Durant got his points, but
it’s a matter of how he got those. I thought (Hill) did a great job in those
situations. Not having him out there obviously takes a really good perimeter
defender away from us, but we’ve got to find a way to fill in and adjust.”
Hear Coach Gentry on the Black & Blue Report
Player: Solomon Hill
Player: Darius Miller
Player: Quincy Pondexter
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