George Hill to Utah Puts Pressure on Dallas

George Hill is reportedly headed to the Utah Jazz and even more pressure is put on the Dallas Mavericks this summer.

Dating back to last season, Atlanta has been the topic of rumors as they have a young point guard in Dennis Schroder waiting in the distance behind Jeff Teague. After losing again in the playoffs to Cleveland, Atlanta found themselves looking to make roster changes going into next season.

In Utah, the Jazz fell short in making the playoffs again as Dennis Lindsay put together a young core that could rival most young cores in the league. After watching Dante Exum go down to injury, the point guard spot in Utah was up for grabs.

After bringing in Shelvin Mack at the trade deadline, Utah still failed to make the playoffs. Now they go into next season with the same situation to tend to.

Until now…

Per Yahoo, Atlanta is sending Jeff Teague to the Pacers and receiving the 12th pick from Utah. The Jazz get their starting point guard in George Hill to run the show for the young team out West.

Hill will step in right away and provide a veteran leadership at the point guard spot that Utah has been desperately missing. Suddenly, Utah has put together a starting unit of Hill, Hayward, Hood, Favors, and Gobert. This isn’t even considering Alec Burks and Dante Exum coming off the bench.

For a team that just missed the playoffs, this puts even more pressure on Dallas this summer to keep up with the borderline teams like Utah.

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With Golden State, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Los Angeles (Clippers) and Portland seeming as locks for the playoffs next year, the remaining three spots are completely up for grabs. Normally locked in teams such as Dallas, Houston, and Memphis are all surrounded with roster questions heading into the summer.

Then there are teams such as Utah, Phoenix, and Minnesota who will be maturing their young cores into playoff teams.

The pressure was already on Dallas, but George Hill heading to Utah puts even more pressure on the Dallas Mavericks this summer.