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Grant Hill returns to practice
Posted: Wed Jan 2, 2013 7:53 am
by mkwest
Grant Hill smiled as soon as he was asked if he has a target date to play in his first game of the regular season for the Clippers.
"Yeah," Hill said, smiling. "In my mind."
So Hill was asked what date he has in mind to play.
"Sometime in January," is all Hill would say.
"Hopefully soon I'll get to start practicing a little bit," he said. "They are stressing that a lot of it is how you respond. So a target date could be sooner, it could be later. You want to let your body dictate that."
"It's responding well," Hill said. "It's coming. I'm getting close, feeling good."
The Clippers play only two games next week, giving them five days off and time for the team to have some practices.
That could give Hill some time to practice with his teammates.
Brad Turner,
LA Times
- Hill is closer to returning than Billups is.
- Bledsoe's hip is feeling better, but it had stolen some of his explosion.
- Odom is playing through some pain in both feet (left-ankle, right-strained tendon).
- Turiaf's elbow on his shooting arm has been bothering him and is a possible explanation to his free-throw shooting woes.
- DJ's ribs have been bothering him ever since getting slugged a few games ago.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Sat Jan 5, 2013 4:00 pm
by GrantHill
Any idea if there's a place for him in the rotation? Your bench unit looks pretty much set.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Sat Jan 5, 2013 5:18 pm
by azncorruptedo17
GrantHill wrote:Any idea if there's a place for him in the rotation? Your bench unit looks pretty much set.
shouldn't you know your own rotation?
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Sat Jan 5, 2013 5:21 pm
by GrantHill
Del Negro doesn't tell me anything!
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Sat Jan 5, 2013 7:22 pm
by thanumba2clippersfan
GrantHill wrote:Any idea if there's a place for him in the rotation? Your bench unit looks pretty much set.
I'm sure he'll be brought in slowly. We have good chemistry so I think Hill will just be eased in.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Sun Jan 6, 2013 3:34 am
by Neddy
chauncey and grant are gonna be huge for us in playoffs, we have got to get them back not only healthy, but in sync with the rest of the crew. glad to hear he is close to his return, but just like chauncey we need to be very careful with grant. do not wish him to rush into anything.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Sun Jan 6, 2013 6:39 am
by mj_shoefanatic
Hill just fit in. In other words the same thing ATCB has been doing since game one.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 1:31 am
by mkwest
I can't wait for Grant to actually play a game. In training camp scrimmages, it was said that he and a few of the 2nd unit players had instant chemistry. We've only seen him play around 30 minutes over 2 games in preseason, but his presence on the boards and on defense was immediately felt.
Players will see their minutes go down when everyone is healthy, but hopefully that just makes them all hungrier. The better the team plays, the more minutes that the bench players are going to get.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 3:58 am
by Quake Griffin
who moves when chauncey comes back?
is our 2nd unit just a small unit?
bled
crawf
barnes
hill
lamar/ turiaf
????
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 6:07 am
by Angel strike1
hill cant play the 4.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 5:29 pm
by Quake Griffin
the closer we get, the more I'm struggling to see how this will work.
i see 0 benefit in cutting matt's minutes to please and appease hill.
how the hell will this work?
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 5:35 pm
by GrantHill
Angel strike1 wrote:hill cant play the 4.
Hill can defend power forwards (especially backups) as well as anybody in the league. Problems might occur in terms of rebounding where he declined over the last few years.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 7:20 pm
by TheNewEra
Hill can play the 4 and rebounding should be okay with Barnes, odom and Bledsoe
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Mon Jan 7, 2013 10:34 pm
by mkwest
Hill is set to participate in a full-contact practice tomorrow.
I'd expect that if all goes well, he may see some time on Wednesday.
Re: Grant Hill hopes to play in January
Posted: Tue Jan 8, 2013 1:08 am
by mkwest
HILL PRACTICES WITH CLIPPERS
Grant Hill practiced for the first time in more than two months Monday at the team’s Playa Vista Training Facility.
It was the first time the veteran forward has seen the court in a team-practice setting since early October, when the Clippers spent a week in China during the exhibition season.
“We’ll see how [Hill] does tomorrow in practice and we’ll make that assessment how he reacts to a little more physical contact tomorrow,” Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro said after practice. “He was doing all the drills today and for the past couple of weeks, so he said he feels good. But we’ve got to get him out there with some contact and obviously his rhythm and timing is off, but it won’t take him long.”
Del Negro said it is a tough injury to deal with. “You get that bruise in there and, you know, Grant’s got a few miles on him too. We’ve been playing pretty well at times so you know we just want to get Chauncey and Grant and give them as much time as possible and keep the big picture in mind with those guys because we know we’re going to need them.”
Eric Patten,
Clippers.com
This was the Clippers first full practice since December 12th in Charlotte. This is why training camp and team bonding is so important.
Re: Grant Hill returns to practice
Posted: Tue Jan 8, 2013 8:50 am
by illastrate
Turiaf will be the odd man out. As it should be.
Re: Grant Hill returns to practice
Posted: Tue Jan 8, 2013 10:02 am
by Angel strike1
illastrate wrote:Turiaf will be the odd man out. As it should be.
ROFL. you do realize turiaf plays pf/c right?
while hill is sf
dont start with hill being pf. lol. that not even funny.
if you wana the other team to take it to you then ya stick hill to pf
i think rotations going to shift a bit
afraid bled/craw/barnes all lose minutes.
also i think butlers minutes go down for another 5min or so
Re: Grant Hill returns to practice
Posted: Wed Jan 9, 2013 1:07 am
by mkwest
Angel strike1 wrote:illastrate wrote:Turiaf will be the odd man out. As it should be.
ROFL. you do realize turiaf plays pf/c right?
while hill is sf
dont start with hill being pf. lol. that not even funny.
if you wana the other team to take it to you then ya stick hill to pf
i think rotations going to shift a bit
afraid bled/craw/barnes all lose minutes.
also i think butlers minutes go down for another 5min or so
It's all going to come down to match-ups and circumstances imo. Hill has put in minutes at the 4 spot while in Phoenix (even post-D'Antoni). Odom is the primary big coming off of the bench. Hill shouldn't have as much of an issue against the stretch 4's or the combo forwards. Team's like Utah would present a problem for him though and Turiaf would be the better option.
Re: Grant Hill returns to practice
Posted: Wed Jan 9, 2013 5:11 am
by TheNewEra
for sure will be about matchups and I think Turiaf and Hollins will be active so in case we need size Vinny can go bigger
Re: Grant Hill returns to practice
Posted: Wed Jan 9, 2013 6:22 am
by Angel strike1
poor willie. he wont ever get in game