Losing Brian Hill Will Hurt

Losing Brian Hill Will Hurt

A couple days ago, new Pistons head coach, and former Nets assistant, John Kuester showed a desire to talk to current top Nets assistant Brian Hill about the same position in Detroit.  Yesterday, the Nets gave Detroit and Hill permission to talk to each other.

Now the job hasn’t been offered to Coach Hill yet, but if it is, you have to think that he will be leaving.  He will be getting more money (he just took a paycut in NJ) for more time (he only has a one year deal here) and he will be going over to a better team with better players.  Oh and to make things worse, if Hill leaves we won’t be replacing him.  Yeah, we will only have two assistants.  Al Iannazzone has the scoop:

The Nets couldn’t say no to the Pistons. Hill, like the rest of the staff, had to take a big a pay cut and was re-signed for just one year. He’ll likely get a multi-year offer from Detroit.

If the Pistons hire Hill, the Nets may not replace him. If they didn’t longtime Lawrence Frank aide Tom Barrise would slide over.

There are a couple things at work here: one is the Nets likely would only hire someone for one year if they did bring someone in, but ownership wouldn’t mind if that money was saved. So we’ll see what happens if Hill is offered and takes the Detroit job.

Losing Brian Hill will really hurt the Nets.  This is because in my opinion, Brian Hill is one of the best top-assistants in the league.  He was a great head coach (I still think he should have never been fired in Orlando), and he helped out Lawrence Frank a ton.

My opinions of Lawrence Frank’s playcalling is already known, but just to recap, I think it is unimaginative and easy to defend.  Brain Hill helped out with playcalls throughout the year, and he even helped us get a win:

If I remember correctly (and please correct me if I am wrong in the comments), but Lawrence Frank gave Brian Hill credit for this playcall in the press-conference after the game.  Which makes sense, because it wasn’t one of Frank’s patented ISOs.

Coach Hill was great at what Lawrence Frank wasn’t.  That is what you want from your assistants, and that is why if we lose Brian Hill it will hurt.