Roy Hibbert
Okay let me start this this by saying I'm aboard the Omer train. However I like stirring the pot and those of you who aren't all about the Turkish goofball, I have a suggestion for you.
Now its no secret that Hibbert has a been the butt of jokes the last couple years. He is disgruntled and the FO has been very vocal about him lately. Even Larry Bird has gone on record this year saying "Lance wasn't there to steal his rebonds" and that they want him in a diminished role next year in favor of playing smaller and faster. How you can get more diminished than playing 25mpg, idk, but let me explain a bit of his value.
1st - He is a menace at protecting the rim. So much so, that the NBA had to send a league memo on the rules of verticality. This year, Hibbert allowed just 42.6% at the rim while contesting 7.6 shots a game. This mark was 4th in the entire NBA for those who contested at least 7 shots. A better mark than known rim protectors like Dwight, Duncan, Jordan, Davis etc. Think this was a fluke? Last year he allowed 41.1% - the best mark in the NBA. Keep in mind this year he did not have the perimeter help of Paul George, Lance Stephenson, nor George Hill for much of the season. Even David West missed a lot of time.
2nd- After anchoring the best defense in the NBA last year, he anchored the 7th best defense this season despite the lack of the above mentioned players. Quite impressive considering how PG is a top tier defender himself. He is so intimidating that the Pacers saw the 6th least attempts at the rim against them, and the 3rd MOST midrange attempts against them. When PG was healthy, they say the 5th least attempts at the rim, and THE MOST midrange attempts against them.
Asik is a great presence at the rim, but having a guy like Hibbert who has even gotten in LeBron's head is next level. It lets AD do his free safety stuff with a guy to watch his back.
Now you're gonna say "Kumar, this guy can't rebound and he is shooting under 50% as a 7 foot 2 center! He makes 15 million a year! What a waste!"
Lets address rebounding. If you notice, the Pacers have been on of the top rebounding teams for years. Here is a nice quote from a a SBNation piece
He averaged a little over 10rpg per 36 and was great a boxing out. Again- without George, Lance, Hill etc the Pacers could still rebound the ball. Similarly, I believe with our perimeter rebounding and AD, we shouldn't take a big step back in rebounding.Hibbert did grab 7.1 rebounds per game this season, which is slightly above his season average from a year ago (6.6), when he shared the floor with Lance Stephenson. At 21.9%, he also posted a career-high in defensive rebound percentage (an estimate of the percentage of available defensive rebounds a player grabbed while he was on the floor).
Though these numbers may seem far from mammoth, it is important to note that, per SportVU, Roy was in position for more rebounding chances per game (12.0) than any other Pacer this season, which means he made the effort to put himself within the vicinity of the ball (3.5 feet). Hibbert only recovered 59.3% of his rebounding chances this season, but that figure likely can be explained away by the fact that he is actively blocking out within the designated vicinity in order to better facilitate his teammates ability to grab the rebound.
http://www.indycornrows.com/2015/4/2...ibberts-season
Now lets talk about his offense. For starters, Indiana has no idea how to use him. They have poor spacing and not much dribble penetration. We use Asik primarily as a screen setter who we hit on dives and cuts. For some odd reason, this is not how Hibbert has been used. Lets look at some of the numbers. Due to their lack of scoring, Indiana has Hibbert at a usage rate of 21.3%. This is more than David West and close to George Hill's 23.8%. Roy Hibbert should not be using that many possession offensively. In comparison Jrue Holiday and Ryan Anderson have usage rates of near 23%. Asik has a usage rate of only 14%.
Hibbert needs to hover in the 16-18% range. Jonas Valunciunas has a usage of around 19% and he is much more gifted offensively. Looking at Synergy numbers and where Hibby and Omer get their offense from, a few things become super duper clear.
- Hibby gets a massive 45.6% of his offense from post ups converting at a mediocre .86ppp. Only 9 players have posted up more than Hibby. Asik gets only 3.6% of his offense from post ups, and he isn't very good (.64ppp)
- Asik gets a massive 35.7% of his offense from cuts scoring at an efficient 1.05 PPP. Only 5 players have cut to the basket more than Asik. Hibby only gets 11.1% of offense from cuts, also scoring efficiently at 1.11ppp.
These two numbers only serve to back up the eye test that Indiana has Hibbert trying to do too much. One would assume that in our system, we would use him as a more competent version of Asik who can also post up some. He turns the ball over at a much lower rate (11.8% to 15.7%). We clearly don't need offense from him, and he clearly is a better anchor than Asik. Now the only daunting part is acquiring him, and I'll admit that I haven't really done my homework on how to do so. He has a player option this summer much like EG for 15.5 million. In a vacuum a straight up swap works, assuming Indy buys in. Demps is more creative than I so I'm not going to pretend to offer possible trade scenarios. But above is my case for why Hibbert would be a good pick up for this team. Another reclamation project, another guy who could use a change of scenery.
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Originally Posted by BallSoHard
