Does anybody remember Chuck Hayes driving Roy Hibbert batty a few years ago? Right then I knew Hibbert was mentally fragile. Thought possibly he had overcome it. But this year...it cropped back up again. Head case deluxe. Would not want to have to go to war with him in the trenches. Not dependable.
It seems relevant to acknowledge Paul George slept wth Hibbert's fiancé right around the time his play went down the tubes. The team divided into two camps and it led to their downfall. I'm not saying the way Hibbert handled it was poor because I would probably do some heinous acts of retaliation if I had been in his shoes but I don't see why with a new change in scenery/teammates that Hibbert wouldn't return to be the top tier big he was threatening to be before all of this. I could see the Dallas/Phoenix types of the world making a play for him. In summary - he isn't as bad as his lackluster play last year would lead you to believe - he just didn't want to help George out even one bit.
But he was never that good. Everyone's overrated opinion on him formed after his great series against the Heat.
The thing he does well as a very large human being is take away normally high percentage shots in the paint. That's a valuable skill in the analytical stats era of the game. I put him in the tier below Howard, Gasol, and Noah. His offensive game in that Heat series was an anomaly but defensively in that Heat series I think thats who he is.
I could see the Lakers or Knicks going for him - he wasn't always garbage but the momentum of bad play he had going in the playoffs really dropped his value league-wide. Dalembert+JR Smith for Hibbert might seem attractive to both teams at this point.
Was his fiance' that good looking I mean . . .seriously . . . there are hundreds of available women every night why sleep with a teammates Fiance [even if she is a Thot] BOUNDARIES!!! MAN!! Rocket River
When did Hibbert become good exactly? I mean sure he was good defensively but statistically speaking his performance was around kwame brown level. For a big man who costs you 20M that's not enough, for example gortat will give you 75% of that defense with way more points and rebs at half that price, Asik gives you 90% of that d with way more rebs and points for 40% of that price.
Paul George denies this ever happened and he and Roy Hibbert went on a fishing trip together after these rumors had already popped up.
Supposedly that was the reason Evan Turner and Lance Stephenson got into a fight in practice because Lance said something about it in front of the team and Turner was pissed that Lance was airing the dirty laundry and embarrassing Hibbert. I mean it all might not be true, but we are talking about the NBA's best team for half the year all of a sudden collapsing in a truly epic historical way. You could see they clearly stopped functioning as a team during that collapse. I'm much more inclined to believe a story like this could have caused that to happen than George and Hibbert became fishing buddies and somehow the team lost their way in the midst of the season....
The point is that if the story were true, why would Hibbert go on a trip with George after the rumors were already out there and the team was falling apart.
They were never really the NBA's best team. Even if there was no drama their season would have ended with a loss in the same round of the playoffs. Deep down they and everyone else knew they were eastern conference finals fodder.
The mere fact that they went on a fishing trip together should be proof enough that it didn't happen. If George and Hibbert went on a trip together, it just means that either the rumors were false, or it was true but Hibbert didn't care about it so it wouldn't have affected his season and the team chemistry. If it was true and Hibbert cared about it then he wouldn't have gone on a trip with a dude he hates, just simple logic here.
