Golden State Warriors: 15 greatest draft steals in franchise history

On the surface, there isn’t much to say about Tyrone Hill‘s NBA career, especially in relation to some of the other names in this draft. If you’re a 90s baby like yours truly, you probably best remember Hill for being one of the many lugs Allen Iverson carried to the NBA Finals in 2001, but if you do some digging, you’ll see that he wasn’t some blunt instrument who merely filled a roster spot because no one better was available.

Sure, Hill lacked a refined post game, contributed almost no playmaking and never developed a reliable jump shot, but despite his remedial offensive skillset, he brought good value to the teams he played for with his defense and rebounding.

While far from the greatest athlete, Hill’s long arms and nonstop motor helped him carve out a niche as a strong offensive rebounder; save for his last season, Hill never averaged fewer than 2.1 offensive boards per game.

The Xavier product was fortunate enough to spend most of his playing career sharing the floor alongside gifted shot creators. The extra attention those players commanded allowed Hill to feast off their creation with either an easy layup if those players dished to him or with a putback following a rebound.

This is also reflected in Hill’s relatively healthy field goal rates (career 50.2 field goal percentage) and combined with his defensive versatility without being a particularly strong rim protector, it adds up to the sum of .120 WS/48 and one NBA All-Star appearance.

Despite only three of these productive seasons coming with the Warriors, they should get some credit for nabbing a complementary piece to play off Chris Mullin, Mitch Richmond and Tim Hardaway. He wasn’t Gary Payton or Derrick Coleman, but he wasn’t Bo Kimble or Rumeal Robinson either.