Brian Spurlock-USA TODAY Sports
The Indiana Pacers missed the NBA Playoffs by the slimmest of margins, losing to the Memphis Grizzlies in the last game of the regular season. It was a long season for the Pacers, but simply being one game away from making the playoffs was an amazing feat. Injuries were the story for the Pacers’ 2014-15 season, and their success despite those injuries gives them high hopes for next season.
Paul George sat out almost the entire season due to a broken leg, while other key players like George Hill, David West, Rodney Stuckey, C.J. Watson and C.J. Miles also missed games due to ailments of their own.
Roy Hibbert was on the floor for all but six games of the regular season, but he failed once again to be the dominant force that Frank Vogel and the Pacers need him to be. At 7-foot-2, Hibbert has yet to show the ability to score in the post against smaller defenders throughout his career. He is weak with his back to the bucket, and is even weaker when going up for his shot.
To show that point even more, Hibbert shot just 44.6 percent from the field overall. It is an area that he will have to improve in a big way if he wants to take the next step and begin reaching his full potential.
Larry Bird made it fairly clear that he wasn’t happy with Hibbert’s season during his closing remarks about the 2014-15 campaign. He also seemed to say that the Pacers were going to diminish Hibbert’s role, or perhaps that the big man was no longer in the teams long-term plans. Indiana shopped Hibbert around in trade talks last summer, but were unable to find a partner for him due to his struggles and a two-year contract.
That task has become much simpler this season, and the Pacers will be able to shop a $15 million expiring deal rather than Hibbert and a large two-year contract. Bird said that the team plans to play smaller and faster, and effectively said that Hibbert would not be playing as many minutes.
It has become a yearly disappointment for Pacers fans to watch Hibbert struggle. Confidence is one thing that Hibbert has not had in his game for the majority of his career, and it is an area that he’ll have to work on moving forward. Unfortunately, at this point in his career the Pacers cannot afford to wait on him and hope that he can turn things around.
Is he in the Pacers’ long-term plans for the future? Absolutely not. Could he be in the teams plans for next season? It doesn’t appear all that likely.
Hibbert’s lack of improvement has likely helped the end of his tenure in Indiana come to pass. There is still a chance that Bird won’t find the type of deal that he is looking for and that the Pacers have to bring Hibbert back, but even if that does happen he won’t be a cornerstone for Indiana.
All of that being said, if the end of Hibbert’s time in Indiana has come it will be a very disappointing end to a promising beginning. Hibbert showed all of the traits to be a dominant big man, but he could never figure out the offensive side of the basketball. Indiana has to move on and find a player that can fit into Vogel’s system better, and it isn’t likely that Hibbert will end up being back next year if the Pacers have anything to say about it.
