Solomon Hill sees an opportunity to spread his wings with Pelicans

6:42 PM ET

In just three NBA seasons, Solomon Hill has vacillated through enough roles to last a long career. The former late first-round pick started as a reserve on the big-is-beautiful Indiana Pacers team that finished first in the Eastern Conference before being slingshot into the starting lineup the following season in place of an injured Paul George. Last season, he all but dropped out of the rotation as well as the Pacers’ long-term plans, before a breakthrough postseason in which he shot the 3-ball like Reggie Miller and guarded power forwards helped elevate him to a five-figure-per-year free agent on this summer’s inflated open market.

For his next act, Hill went looking for the chance to be something more.

“I wanted to go somewhere that provided a place that I felt comfortable, a place where I could get better, a place that would allow me to grow,” he said on a conference call with local media on Tuesday.

After three seasons with the Pacers, Solomon Hill signed with the Pelicans in search of an expanded role. Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images

To do so, he turned to his past.

The New Orleans Pelicans, armed with only the sixth overall pick in the 2013 draft, had shown an interest in Hill, then a senior out of Arizona. Hill said he wasn’t able to work out for New Orleans, but what general manager Dell Demps said during a chance meeting at LAX airport stuck with him.

“We had a talk, just a quick discussion about how the process works, about just because I get drafted somewhere it doesn’t mean it’s ever over,” Hill said. “Every time I go out I’m auditioning for another team or for the team I’m currently playing on.”

Three years later, Demps proved his point.

“When the opportunity came [in free agency], he was the first to really reach out and talk to me about, ‘I’m coming to New Orleans,’” Hill said. “[He] really wanted me to be a part of what he had going in New Orleans. And that just kind of stuck out to me, because there were a lot of people that just came out in the talks that I’ve never had a relationship with, even when I had my little run at the end of the year. It was just something that he knew that could possibly always happen, and that he wanted to see done in New Orleans. It kind of made it really easy for me and my agent, because this is a guy that believed in me three years ago when I first came into this league. For him to still be here to this day, and want to give me the opportunity to build my game and grow alongside some guys that I’m familiar with, it just made it really easy for me.”’

Hill, 25, signed a four-year, $48 million deal with the Pelicans this offseason, with the chance to reach over $50 million in incentives. One year after earning just over $1 million for …

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