Hill’s raw. He’s still new to the game, as John mentioned. He’s athletic, but he does need to position himself better on defense and rebounds. He actually has pretty good hands, and he developed some decent face-up offensive moves last year. I think that his poor ball handling stats may be partly understandable, since he was the only post option on a team with two and a half real shot creators (him, Wise, and maybe Budinger). At least he’s no longer merely a dunk or a three-foot jump hook. The fact that he was legitimately the best player on a high-level college team should count in his favor. Maybe.

I’m skeptical that he’ll live up to lottery-pick status, but I think teams believe he can get better still. It’s also not a strong draft, thus I think teams are willing to take more of a flier on guys who they think have room to grow. It’s possible that the rater has Hill pegged just right, meaning that his future development is less likely than we expect. I think it’s a coin flip. Which is more than I can say for Chase Budinger.