I just don't see it. I have seen Hill be very inconsistent this year. I have either seen him play bad defense in situations where we have back to backs or have no legs in those scenarios.
[...] You can't start Hill if you have someone better then him that can start just so Hill plays better. That benefits Hill more than the team.
First of all, Grant Hill is averaging 15 points, 5 boards and 2.5 assists in 30 minutes a night, while shooting nearly 53% from the field and ALWAYS guarding the team's top perimeter player. And aside from Nash, he is the only other player on the team that can consistently create high-quality shots for himself. If you replace Hill in the starting lineup with Peaches, then that makes it all the more difficult for Nash to score points. As we've seen, we need Steve to be as dangerous shooting the ball as he is passing the ball for this team to be successful. Replacing Hill with Peaches just puts more of a burden on Steve, because offensively, Peaches is just another Phoenix Sun who can stand around and make 3's while Nash has to turn a possession into an offensive system.
Peaches does seem to be a strong man-to-man defender - yes, better than Grant Hill - but it really doesn't matter. I checked the NBA rulebook, and alas and alack, an NBA team is indeed allowed to have more than 1 player on the floor who are capable defenders!! The Suns won't even be fined or censured by the league for doing it! So, even if we don't start Peaches, there will be ample minutes for him to play - assuming he deserves to.
Also, my preference would be NOT to start Grant on back to backs or in some scenarios where we have 3 games in 4 night scenarios. I don't think Hill can handle it any longer.
We need Hill in the starting lineup, especially on back-to-backs and those scenarios where we have 3 games in 4 nights. He is the guy who consistently comes out of the gate scoring from different angles while Nash distributes the ball to everyone else to see if Lopez will be catching the basketball that night, if Frye is going to have a 1-9 shooting night or a 7-13 shooting night, if teams are going to respect Dudley, etc.
Lastly, there is a very significant difference in Grant Hill being athletically inconsistent versus him being just not as athletic as he was the last few years. And to be clear, I'm not comparing him to what he was in Detroit. I'm comparing him to what he is was two years ago. People would say, "Hill may not play above the rim anymore..." and then he'd go dunk over Dampier (youtube it if you don't remember). This year, his dunks look a little more awkward than they did in his previous years as a Sun. But he's consistently improved his already-deadly midrange game, and he's still as quick running the lanes as just about anyone in the game. He's thriving in the situations he's in both offensively and defensively more than he ever has since coming to Phoenix. Heck, if was playing any better, we'd be forced to either trade him or let him go in free agency, as per Suns team policy (I'm not sure if it's called the Joe Johnson Clause, Amar'e Stoudemire Rights, or the Jason Richardson Team Option, but it's something along those lines...)
The other guys have generally had more problems.
