Roy Hibbert Needs to Move On

- The Season's Over -

Roy Hibbert Needs a Change of Scenery

March 16, 2010

It's time for Roy Hibbert to move on Mammoth centers who enter the league as projects are a dime a dozen, and the outcomes are all over the place. Sometimes you get a Yao Ming or a Chris Kaman (good one, NBA08). More often you end up with a Frederic Weis or a Curtis Borchardt (who you’ll find more news about on WNBA boards).

With any luck, you hope your team’s coaching staff can keep a big project from turning into a big waste. Enter Roy Hibbert. The 7-2 280-pounder got notoriety at Georgetown for his solid defense despite his underwhelming rebounding numbers (he never averaged 7 boards per in any of his four collegiate seasons). Sure, he was huge and pounded some Big East opponents, but usually he was getting schooled by smaller centers with more mobility.

After graduating in 2008, Toronto took a chance on Hibbert with the 17th selection because as the old adage goes, “You can’t teach size.” Two weeks later, he was on his way to Indiana as part of the Jermaine O’Neal trade, and the potential big stiff became a Pacer. All the signs of he-won’t-work-out were there: he was slow, he played upright, and he was often overwhelmed by smaller opponents. He began his rookie season as a reserve behind Rasho Nesterovic and Jeff Foster, usually not a sign of great things to come.

Roy Hibbert photo credit: Icon SMI

The Pacers started poorly and were out of the running by Christmas, so Coach Jim O’Brien decided to start the youngster for 42 games over the last two-thirds of the season. Hibbert still wasn’t playing much more than 15 minutes per, partly due to foul trouble and partly due to Foster putting together a pretty solid campaign, but he showed late in the season that he could handle a larger scoring and rebounding role. As you’d like to see from rookies, Hibbert’s best month was his last. In April, he averaged 12 points, 6 rebounds, 6 free throw attempts, and 1.6 blocks in only 21 minutes per.

The summer of 2009 is when Hibbert finally started to look like a first-round pick. In the Orlando Summer League, Hibbert showed that even though he was slow of foot, he was coachable and was willing to put in the effort needed to improve. He dominated the six-team league, averaging 20 points, 9 boards, 1.8 blocks, and 6 trips to the line per game. He hit 63% from the field and 75% from the charity stripe on his way to MVP honors while leading the Pacers to a 5-0 record.

In addition to displaying more energy around the hoop than he did as a rookie, Hibbert was finally bending his knees and getting low to maintain balance, strength, and to aid in explosiveness for rebounds. This was a good sign since most project giants tend to stand straight up in order to be as tall as possible; it’s often counter-intuitive for 7-footers to get down, but Hibbert was obviously listening to his coaches.

This season has been a pleasant surprise for fans who last saw Hibbert as a mostly unproductive rookie. He’s started almost every game for Indiana and is connecting on 49% of his shots and 77% of his free throws, both improvements from last year. With more minutes, he’s getting ink all over the boxscore, averaging 11 points, 6 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, and nearly 2 assists per.

This last number doesn’t do his passing justice, an area in which he’s one of the top bigs in the league. He’s a great bounce passer out of the high post, but his teammates put him in company with Orlando’s Jameer Nelson, two players who make far more passes that should be assists than they get credit for. In Nelson’s case, it’s because everyone hacks Dwight Howard when he has the ball; Hibbert has inept teammates who nearly lead the league in turnovers and only convert 43.7% of their attempts, the third-worst mark in the NBA.

There’s no question the second-year center is getting it done and is well on his way to not being a certified bust, but something is obviously wrong. That something is the team he plays for. The Pacers have the worst record in the East other than the Nets, but the real issue is how they play. Indiana likes to run and gun. They play at the second-fastest pace in the NBA and they shoot the fourth-most 3-pointers. If there’s one thing a slow big man doesn’t want to do, it’s run down the court after his teammates, watch them jack up tons of bombs at a low rate before he’s in position to rebound, then have to sprint back the other way in hopes of stopping a fast-breaking opponent who most likely has more talent than his teammates.

Even in a system that he’s not built for, Hibbert is having some of the most success of any Pacer. His adjusted plus/minus is barely behind Danny Granger’s, the best of the Indiana regulars. And check out how many of the top 3-man units on the team include Hibbert, something that wasn’t happening a year ago.

But he’s not built for this type of team, and he needs to go elsewhere to continue his maturation as a player. There are plenty of slow teams that could use more depth at the center position. The Pistons need a lot of rebounding help and play at a crawl. The Blazers play even slower, and their two centers on contract for next year are sidelined with terrible injuries. The Bobcats are always looking for defensive-minded players, and the Nets are slow and could use darn near anyone who can play.

Big East fans expected nothing from Hibbert in the NBA. He ended his first year on an upswing, changing some minds along the way, and his play over the summer raised more than a few eyebrows around the league. Many pundits’ attitudes about him have changed, and I can’t say I’m shocked anymore that he appears to be on his way to a decent professional career. I only hope he can get a change of scenery. Otherwise the Pacers are doing themselves and their young center a disservice.

Zachariah Blott cannot recommend Rick Telander’s “Heaven Is A Playground” enough.

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