The Jordan Hill Corollary

Can the talent evaluators of an N.B.A. team establish proper projections for a young player in only eight months?

The Knicks apparently thought so when they traded Jordan Hill in February, midway through his rookie season. Hill was sent to Houston as part of a trade package designed to clear Jared Jeffries’s $6.9 million salary off the books for the 2010 free-agent festivities. I do not hear anyone complaining about the returns on New York’s cap space, but the Knicks faithful still has a vested interest in Hill’s career, despite his limited tour in Blue and Orange.

Ultimately, Hill represents two aspects of the Knicks’ recent history: the decision to draft him in 2009 over players like Brandon Jennings, Terrence Williams, Ty Lawson and others, as well as the continuing damage done during the Isiah Thomas era. Jeffries was one of the few remnants of Isiah’s Knicks, and the price for getting him (and his bloated contract) off the roster was Hill (the No. 8 pick in the previous summer’s draft) and the Knicks’ 2012 first-round pick.

The frustration with Hill’s lack of playing time and progress during his stint in New York was palpable, but any dissatisfaction should have instead stemmed from the cause for Hill’s exit. At the time, he was a 22-year-old talent with two years of real college experience. Even on draft night he didn’t seem like a prospect who would be able to contribute immediately, a reasonable concession for a rebuilding team. But any hopes that the Knicks had for Hill’s future were mortgaged so the team might turn cap space into gold. Again, that move has worked out well so far, but it never had to be this way. If not for the lingering salary damage of an old regime, the former lottery pick would be growing into himself as a member of the Knicks rather than being an emergency stopgap in Houston.