Jordan Hill Proves He's Vital To Los Angeles Lakers' Rebuild

In his third straight start, Jordan Hill once again displayed his tremendous upside, recording 28 points and 16 rebounds in a loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Los Angeles Lakers are in the home stretch of what has arguably been the team’s worst season in franchise history, and losing to the team with the fewest wins did not help. However, with every negative comes a positive — that positive being Hill.

After finding himself out of the rotation for several weeks, Hill finally earned himself a spot back in the lineup, making the most of the opportunity. Hill has been an absolute beast since cracking the starting lineup, putting up two 25-10 games out of the last three. This has not only allowed Lakers fans to find joy in a dismal season, but has also proven that Hill is vital to Los Angeles’ rebuilding plans.

The center and power forward positions are wide open moving forward as Pau Gasol‘s future is uncertain to say the least. Hill will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, so it will unquestionably be difficult to retain his services as he will likely be in high demand. Who knows, Hill may not even be interested in returning, especially since he has been so mistreated by coach Mike D’Antoni.

Either way, Lakers’ management must find a way to convince Hill to return. Luckily, the team has an immense amount of cap space going into this summer, part of which should be used towards Hill. His type of player simply does not come around every day. Hill does the dirty work, cleaning up both the offensive and defensive glass in addition to the put-backs on offense.

Defense can certainly improve, but Hill is still very young and has plenty of room to improve. Re-signing him would be a step in the correct direction.

Joseph Crevier covers the Los Angeles Lakers for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter, @RealJoeCrev, and Facebook or add him to your network on Google.