The impact of an elite big. Case in point--> Roy Hibbert.

Hibbert is developing a nice offensive game, though.

As evidenced by "BBQ chicken! Jump hook'em to death!"

Granted, he's playing against a Miami frontline that can't defend him well. But he schooled Tyson Chandler in the Knicks series.

 

You can't get any more small ball elite than Miami and they might crumble. That system doesn't work and unfortunately is what we are doing.
You gots to have a killer front court. Will stop here before b****es complain

 

Hibbert isn't an "elite" C. He's a 12/8 guy over an 82-game regular season. But against Miami, the guy is a monster because they can't defender Cs that have offensive ability.

 

He has elite potential.
On defense he does almost exactly what Asik does with a bit more shotblocking, he's just a huge presence in the lane and does a great job of contesting drives by jumping straight up without fouling, something Asik does just as well. I haven't seen Howard do that though, admittedly I haven't watched many of his games though.

 

Hibbert has been really patient in the paint. It's been really impressive. Everyone is criticizing the Heat but it's actually Hibbert who is playing really smart and really hard.

 

It seems to be a bit of an overreaction to say that system doesn't work. Miami made two NBA Finals, won one, had the best record in the league this year, and is tied 3-3 in the ECF with that system, despite two of their three stars being total no-shows.

 

For the sake of discussion, what do you think Hibbert's "elite" potential is?

 

While I don't think he's elite, he's better than his 12/8 average this season. For the first half of the season, he was shooting much worse than his career average and basically missing all kind of his usual shots. Since the ASG, if I remember correctly he got out of his offensive funk and his stats improved to almost 17/9

 

Roy Hibbert is a great player. He is not an elite player. 1 great playoff series does not make an elite player.

 

He did finish up strong, but 12/8 seems to be his level after 5 years. I have doubts Hibbert can average 17/9 over an entire season since he's never come close to doing it after 5 years. If he does, Pacers could compete with the Heat next year for #1 seed.

 

Asik really should watch Hibbert's patience while finishing around the rim.

 

You can run an offense the last 5 minutes thru Hibbert. His FT is not a liability where as Howard could cost you in crunch time. Don't get it twisted tho from what my eyes tell me Hibbert is more skilled offensively than Howard.

 

Hook shot in the paint is the most unguardable elite skill you can get for a big dog. Everything else Asik has him, maybe

 

the guy is still improving every year. if i remember correctly, he came into the league quite raw and weak physically. centers tend to peak a lot later, so he still have room for improvement.
Considering last year he basically averaged very close to 13 & 9, and his performance since the ASG, I can picture him putting up 15&9 next season.

 

Uh what? Hibbert and Howard are basically polar opposites, Hibbert's more like Marc Gasol/Bynum/Bogut, these guys are land bound players who rely on their skills, size and fundamentals. Asik and Howard oth rely on their athletcism and have no post moves. In fact Howard's like a slightly better but twice as expensive Asik, which is why you're seeing a lot of people say Asik's worth keeping and just put the money elsewhere.

And I don't think DH is the best center in the league, not unless he gets back to full health. I don't want us to be the team that finds out what happens when a guy who relies 100% on his athletcism starts becoming injury prone.

 

Omers two games against Miami this year: 19/14 and 15/14. Big men with reasonably good offense/rebounding are Miamis biggest weakness. Doesnt mean they are elite.

 

Here are Hibbert's career stats. His scoring flatlined 4 straight years.

Code:

SEASON	GP	MIN	FG%	FT%	REB	BLK	PTS
'08-'09	70	14.4	0.471	0.667	3.5	1.1	7.1
'09-'10	81	25.1	0.495	0.754	5.7	1.6	11.7
'10-'11	81	27.7	0.461	0.745	7.5	1.8	12.7
'11-'12	65	29.8	0.497	0.711	8.8	2.0	12.8
'12-'13	79	28.7	0.448	0.741	8.3	2.6	11.9
Career	376	25.3	0.473	0.729	6.8	1.8	11.3

Pacers have a key decision to make with David West this summer. They will need more from Hibbert if West's 17/8 leave town.

 

And I'm not sure that Hibbert is elite (offensively, he is defensively elite no question) but he had a wrist injury early this season which made him very bad offensively. His playoff run has been promising and I will be interested to see if he does make a scoring leap next season.