By the middle of November, Solomon Hill will have already played more minutes this season than he did in his rookie year. Not needed with Lance Stephenson, Paul George and George Hill on the perimeter, Hill appeared in 28 games and played just 8.1 minutes per game in 2013-14.

That’s what you’d expect from a late first-round pick on a championship contender, but things changed very quickly this offseason.

Just a few weeks after the Indiana Pacers lost to the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals (for the second-straight season), the 23-year-old’s role with the club began to grow. Stephenson left for the Charlotte Hornets as a free agent, making Hill at the very least a rotation player under Frank Vogel.

The Pacers signed C.J. Miles and Rodney Stuckey to help fill the void left behind by Stephenson, which put Hill in position to blossom in due time, but everything changed when George’s right leg collided with that basket stanchion in Las Vegas. Suddenly, Vogel needed Hill to show his game was ready much sooner originally expected.

“They just told me that they believed in my ability to play the game and that I should continue to play the game the way I’m supposed to play it,” Hill told RealGM when asked about conversations he had with Vogel and the front office heading into the season.

“We knew there could possibly be an opportunity, but we didn’t know it would be like this with Paul [George] out. As a guy that just loves to play the game, I’m trying to step up and make the most of it.”

Hill has started each of Indiana’s first six games. His minutes, shot attempts, rebounds, assists, steals and turnovers have all at least tripled (in some cases quadrupled). There isn’t a huge sample size to study from either this season or last, but Hill’s shooting percentages look good early on.

Despite a significant increase in touches, Hill has seen his field goal (.425 to .455), three-point (.304 to .400) and True Shooting percentages (.545 to .579) all increase.

“He’s being asked to do more than he probably should be asked to do, but he is a confident young man,” Vogel said. “He’s a mature young man and he’s rising to the challenge and enjoying every bit of the opportunity.”

As the Pacers worried about Miami and the top seed in the East, Hill looked for ways to get some playing time in his first professional season. He agreed to a brief stint with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the D-League, but returned after a mixed two-game stint. He averaged 17 points, 3.5 rebounds and three assists in nearly 30 minutes per game, but was unhappy with how minutes were given out.

Hill looks back on the experience much more fondly now that he’s had time to digest it all.

“Confidence. That was the main thing,” he said of the benefits of a D-League assignment. “Just the confidence to go out there and score, being able to see the ball go in the hoop as opposed to just watching from the bench. It helped me know that I could still do it, so that was definitely a good experience for me.”

Seeing the ball go in the basket hasn’t been an issue for Hill so far. He failed to score in 15 of the 28 games he played as a rookie and entered this season having never reached double-digits. He has scored 10 or more points four times already and set a career-high with 14 in an overtime loss to the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.

 “[He] is continuing to grow every single game he’s out there. He’s showing more confidence and more ability on both ends of the court,” Vogel said of the second-year wing. “He’s got a chance -- like we believe -- to be one of our best two-way players.”

The Pacers pride themselves on defense, which has made that end of the floor a high priority as Hill develops. Vogel has had to rely on questionable defensive players like Chris Copeland more this month because of a mounting injury report, but Hill’s ability to defend on the perimeter has been his most consistent NBA trait. He even spent time guarding John Wall in the Washington game. As Vogel hinted, Hill is being asked to become a complete player much sooner than the organization planned.

“I don’t think I’m really confident more on one side of the ball than the other. I think one or the other gets me going,” Hill said.

“The ability to use offense and defense to get you going as a player is great because you aren’t relying on one thing. You aren’t just relying on a shot falling, on scoring. You can go get a stop and change a game that way. I feel like that allows me to play more minutes because one side of the ball can feed into the other.”

The one thing you can’t teach or practice is experience, something Hill pointed to as Indiana’s biggest issue as they look to endure a 1-5 start.

“I think collectively, as a group, we’re making up for what we’ve lost, but the one thing that we can’t reproduce are those veteran NBA guys that have been in the trenches of games,” Hill admitted. “I think we’re learning how to try to do that. We’re doing better every game.”

Less will be asked of Hill when C.J. Watson (foot), David West (ankle) and George Hill, (knee) eventually return, but there will still be minutes available and Solomon Hill will be ready for them.