Learn about the current Charlotte Hornets assistant coach and how his offensive and player development philosophies have made an impact throughout his career.
Matt Hill is currently an assistant coach for the Charlotte Hornets under head coach Charles Lee who’s has previous stops in the NBA as an assistant coach for the Orlando Magic, Atlanta Hawks, and Phoenix Suns before joining Charlotte.
In this article, you’ll learn about Coach Hill’s coaching career and his philosophy.
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Before Coaching
Matt Hill played basketball in high school, becoming the Nebraska Mr. Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year in his senior year. He later played college basketball for the Texas Longhorns, who eventually reached five NCAA Tournaments and won the 2007-08 Big 12 regular-season championship. Hill stood at stood at 6’10 and played the Forward and Center positions.
Orlando Magic (2012-2018)
Hill began his coaching career with the Orlando Magic serving in the video analyst, scout, and player development roles under head coaches Jacque Vaughn, Interim James Borrego, Scott Skiles, and Frank Vogel. He was retained when Scott Skiles was hired in 2014, and was also retained under Frank Vogel in 2016. Hill officially was promoted to assistant coach as of the 2017-2018 season.
Coach Hill had the opportunity to notably work with and coach Hedo Türkoğlu, Nikola Vučević, Al Harrington, Tobias Harris, Maurice Harkless, Victor Oladipo, Willie Green, Channing Frye, Aaron Gordon, Evan Fournier, Elfrid Payton, Dewayne Dedmon, Brandon Jennings, D. J. Augustin, Jeff Green, Terrance Ross, and Jonathan Issac.
As a young coach, Hill worked with fellow assistant coaches Wes Unseld Jr, James Borrego, Chad Forcier, Jay Hernandez, Igor Kokoskov, Mario Elie, Adrian Griffin, Corliss Williamson, and David Adelman over his 6 year tenure with the Magic. Hill says he’s grateful for the fact he has built so many connections with other coaches due to the fact there was 4 different head coaching changes and staffs.
Atlanta Hawks (2018-2023)
Coach Hill was hired on rookie head coach Lloyd Pierce’s coaching staff in 2018 for the Atlanta Hawks. Hill was later retained when Nate McMillian replaced Pierce in 2021. He also coached the Hawks summer team in 2021.
Coach Hill was a factor in running and developing the Hawks offensive systems, which resulted in the team finishing 3rd in highest quality shots in the NBA at the 2018-2019 season. Coach Pierce’s coaching included a system which divided the shot clock in 3 zones:
Red Zone: first 8 seconds of the transition possession.
Yellow Zone: Considered the middle or the “Bulk” of the possession, which could include running sets.
Black Zone: The last 8 seconds of the possession.
Hill notably coached Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Kevin Huerter, Vince Carter, John Collins, Clint Capela, De’Andre Hunter, Jeff Teague, Bogdan Bogdanović, Danilo Gallinari, Onyeka Okongwu, Lou Williams, Jalen Johnson, Delon Wright, and reunited with Dewayne Dedmon from their Orlando days.
Phoenix Suns (2023-2024)
Hill was hired as an assistant coach and advanced scout under Frank Vogel in Phoenix for the 2023-2024 season.
In 1 season, Coach Hill had the opportunity to work with Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, Jusuf Nurkić, Grayson Allen, Eric Gordon, Royce O’Neale, and Isaiah Thomas.
Charlotte Hornets (2024-)
After Coach Hill was informed he would not be retained on Mike Budenholzer’s new staff in Phoenix, he was able to connect with newly hired Hornets head coach Charles Lee about joining his staff.
Since the 2024-2025 season, Hill is working with LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller, Miles Bridges, Mark Williams, Grant Williams, Josh Green, and Tre Man amongst the Hornets roster.
Coaching Philosophies
Communication
The importance of sharing your thoughts and collaborating with your coaching staff to discuss the roster, player needs, roles, what needs to be improved where they stand it’s important. Player “maps” are used to determine what the player has been working on during the summer, their training schedule, 3 main areas of focus, and other side points of their development.
Coach Hill also mentions having a variety of voices while working with players is important, meaning having different coaches work with players rather than the same coach for majority of their time. It allows a different perceptive, voice, and style of coaching being presented to the player. It’s also helpful to involve the other coaches for them to understand what this player needs to improve on.
Offensive Philosophy
Coach Matt Hill was featured on an episode of “coachtube”, an online source for sports coaching including basketball during his Atlanta Hawks tenure. In this particular episode, Coach Hill explained and demonstrated the following:
The Atlanta Hawks early offense and style of play
Ideal shot locations in the Hawks offense
Common terminology
Early Offense – Red Zone
AB & C Spacing
and so much more aspects of his and the Atlanta Hawks offense philosophies and systems that were used at the time (2018-2023).
Click the button below to navigate through the entire library of this episode, certain episodes are free, while others you must create an account for. Regardless, this information is valuable and important for coaches who desire to improve their own offensive coaching.
Player Development
Coach Hill’s height is a major factor in his involvement in player development, standing at 6’10, he can simulate a taller player during practices.
When it comes to developing players, identifying what a player needs to work on, having a process in place to implement those needs, and providing an outcome and feedback to the player are some of his biggest factors in the player development process.
Compared to his early coaching days, technology has improved and you can track any stat in today’s NBA, but adds the technology could be “too much information” sometimes. Hill’s progress tracking mostly consists of tracking how many times he and the player have worked out in a week or a month, and if they tackled the 3 main player development points:
What is the player working on?
Is it translating to the game?
Hill also mentions relationship building takes time and doesn’t try to convince anything to the player or sell anything to the player early in their relationship, patience and trust is important. Being involved in their development and career and challenging them to do better is a significant factor in building a relationship as it will eventually open the door to something bigger.
Being honest with your players is the best policy, players want to improve their skills and grow their careers in the NBA, so combined with building a relationship and being there as a coach are two things that can help a player succeed.
Coach Hill is currently in his 8th season as an assistant coach, but his 15th overall season in the NBA. He’s already gotten to work under several veteran coaches and had the opportunity to work with numerous veteran and young players in the NBA so far.
His offensive and player development experience is so valuable in today’s game, the Hornets are lucky to have a coach in Matt Hill.
Founder & Managing Editor of Behind the Coaching.