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Lawrence Hill interview: He's ready for Warriors summer league
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Former Stanford player Lawrence Hill does not know much about his teammates on the Golden State Warriors’ summer-league team, which begins play on Friday. He just knows he has to perform well and show that he has the skills to play a small-forward spot in the NBA.
He left for Las Vegas on Tuesday to prepare for the Warriors’ games, and it is mainly coincidence that he happened to land on a Bay Area summer roster.
“I worked out for the (Sacramento) Kings, and Golden State and Memphis (in the pre-draft workouts),” said Hill, after he scored 31 points in Monday’s San Francisco Pro-Am league game. “So those were the teams that knew me and were interested. And my agent, Chris Evans, worked it out with the Warriors, thinking that was best for me. People are telling me now, ‘You should have gone here,’ or ‘You should have gone there.’ But it’s not about where I go, it’s how I play. If there’s no spot on the Warriors for me, hopefully someone else there will see me.”
Hill has no idea what offense the Warriors’ summer-league team will run and knows the names of only a few of his teammates.
“I know Anthony Morrow and Anthony Randolph and the guy from Davidson, Stephen Curry,” he said.
Hill will learn soon that the team also includes Jermareo Davidson, Acie Law, Jared Jordan, Jamal Sampson, Joe Ingles, Connor Atchley, Cartier Martin, Quan Powell and Lawrence Roberts.
Hill played both small forward and power forward at Stanford but played the power-forward spot almost exclusively as a senior. Being a slender 6-foot-8, Hill knows he must try to make it as a small forward at the next level. Ingles, a skilled 6-8 player from Australia, and Martin are the two newcomers who play that position.
“People don’t think I can play outside,” Hill said. “I’ve got to show that I can play out there, show I can guard on the outside. I know the roster guys (Morrow, Randolph, Curry) are going to get the most playing time. I’m not thinking I’ve got to beat any (particular) player out. We’re all on the same team. If a guy is destroying his defender, he’s going to get the ball. But they can’t keep me from rebounding and talking and doing the things I need to do. I want the coach to see that when I’m in the game the team is better, and that when I’m not in there the team is worse.”
Hill plans to get married in about two weeks and said he wants some “stability” in his life. He knows the odds of him sticking with the Warriors are poor, and admitted the chance of him winding up in Europe this season “are about 99 percent.” He has no European destination in mind, but expects it would be western Europe, perhaps Germany or Italy.
“The average time in the NBA for a player is 3.2 years, and I’ve got to get some stability,” Hill said. “I want to make it in basketball to help me relax, so afterward I can do things, make the world better. A lot of people say that, but it’s hard to do that when you’re living paycheck to paycheck.”
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