Not saying Hibbert stinks, but I feel he is overrated. Hibbert has been playing longer as a starter than Omer has, and 12 and 8 is the best he can come up with as a supposedly 'elite' center. Asik's first season as a starter, he almost led the league in rebounding. I feel Omer has a much brighter future.
second this. I think Asik is a more dominant defense presence. His offense skills will come along. Hilbert has been in this league for several years. His development is obvious but slower than people's expectation. I wonder what his peak would be, 15/11 maybe?
Asik is a nice defensive center. That is all you get. Hibbert is a TWO WAY player. Both offense and defense. That puts him near the top of the league at the C position.
Hibbert's reg season stats were really bad. 45% field goal for a 7'2 dude. That is really bad. He's doing a lot better in the playoffs for whatever reason.
How in the world is hibbert considered a two way player but Asik is not. Hibbert averages 1 more point than Asik with Asik fg% way better.
I don't think there's a mystery. He injured his shooting wrist during the Miami series last year. It lingered into this season. It was talked about in interviews and in Indiana media, but it never made to national media because there isn't much interest in the Pacers until the playoffs. Hibbert's first third of the season (26 games): 9.7 points on 42% true shooting Second third: 10.3, 46% Final third: 15.5, 56% Playoffs: 15.7, 56% He got better long before the playoffs.
Hibbert is recognized as an offensive center, but scores 11.9 ppg on 10.9 fg attempts, shooting 44.8%. Asik is only beginning to find his place in our offense and averaged 10.1 ppg on 7.5 fg attempts, shooting 54%. I don't know that your offense is really gaining a whole lot in scoring an extra 1.8 points on an extra 3.4 shot attempts. Hibbert may be a better offensive player, but it results in fewer points for the team. This is the tradeoff - Asik gets an extra 3.4 rebounds per game while Hibbert takes an extra 3.4 shot attempts. But Asik makes 4.0 fg per game and Hibbert only makes 4.9. I can see that he's a bigger part of the offense than Asik and takes harder shots I'm sure. But if Asik took 3.5 more shots per game and made one of them, he'd have better offensive numbers than Hibbert. Nah, he'd get benched, heh. But Asik is improving dramatically, and Hibbert isn't . (His numbers are only down a little and that's might be the wrist and it might be the big contract, but it's probably not statistically significant.) But Asik is a dominant rebounder, Hibbert's rebounding numbers aren't really very good, at least not comparatively.
Lol, the ballerina shot....love it. I love Asik and he's my guy. He will be much much better next season.
It wouldn't be this close if there was a stat for assists fumbled. I love Asik's effort, but you can't really compare him to Hibbert offensively. Defensively, I'll still give it to Hibbert. More than double the blocks is pretty good by itself, but the amount of shots he alters close to the paint is insane. Hibbert might actually be the top center in the league at decreasing opponents' shooting efficiency. Don't quote me on that, I haven't actually looked up stats. The only thing Asik has in his favor seems to be rebounding, but then again, Asik is in the Rockets, which means crap PF's, smallball and a pace that generates a ton of possessions, thus a lot more rebounding opportunities. Hindsight is 20/20, but you gotta admit that his rebounding numbers are not exactly a surprise. Hibbert on the other hand, is in the Pacers. They're BIG and play slow and they're topping the league in rebounding % in both the regular season and the playoffs. You can't say Hibbert isn't rebounding well when he's the most efficient rebounder in the most efficient rebounding team.
This year in the playoffs: Asik: 12.3 ppg, 11.2 rpg, 1.7 bpg on 56.4% FG, 64% FT. Hibbert 15.7 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 2.3 bpg on 48.3% FG 81% FT. Asik is in his 3rd year at 26, Hibbert is in his 5th year at 26. Asik made 8.3 mil this year (and salary will stay the same while making 8.3 mil in 2014-2015)....Hibbert approximately 13.6 mil this year (and salary will increase to 15.5 in 2015-2016). Hibbert better have a brighter future b/c right now it doesn't look like that extra 3pts (on a much crappier FG%) and .6 blocks per game are worth over 5 million more per year when it counts.
Yeah, I'm becoming a believer. Maybe the wrist was holding him back. Maybe the last four years were just leading up to this explosion to a new level.
There's a reason why box score are unreliable. Most of you are using the boxscore to say how good Hibbert its. A lot of his defensive attributes don't show on the boxscore, like his dominating pick and roll defense, or his fast switches and paint presence. As well him being reliable at quick switches gives every other guy confidence to close pressure without worrying that their guy will slip in for a easy lay. All these plus his offensive board presence puts him a lot ahead of Asik. But I'm sure Asik will improve as he gets more starter minutes. And this is coming from a big fan of Asik.