The Big Man of Tomorrow en Resurrection
Image by David Pham
Roy Hibbert was superb. It would be hard to overly praise him here. He slipped and fell flat on his face on one play and it was pretty funny. That’s the only negative I can really recall. Other than that, he did nearly no wrong. He passed like Arvydas Sabonis out of the post, baiting hesitant double-teamers to hedge his way and then whizzing the ball by their ear to a wide-open cutter for a lay-up. Collison and Rush both did excellent work finding space when their defenders turned their head. This needs to be a constant go-to. Roy is good enough now in one-on-one coverage that getting him the ball deep in the post is always a good look. He might miss, but he’ll make a decent move to create a makeable shot. And if they double? Well, when he is feeling it like he was in Staples Center, the opposition would be wise to just hope he misses a hook shot. He was Detective Alonzo Harris-in-Training Day-surgical-with-this-b**** tonight. Meanwhile, Pau Gasol was 5/15 on the other end with 13 points. Yeah … nice little night for the good Dr. Hibbert.
via Eight Points, Nine Seconds — An Indiana Pacers Blog.
This, my friends, is what we refer to as a Game Changer. While Andrew Bynum misses his latest recovery date and Greg Oden’s knee structure gently weeps, we are witnessing the discovery of the next great big man. Or at least very good. And in this day and age? That’s far more than enough to change your future in a significant direction. Dwyer’s calling him All-Star caliber. Everyone’s marveling at his production (check out his per-40′s and then hide ya kids, hide ya wife: 21.3, 12.7, 4.0 (!), 2.8 blocks, with a +21 PER, 17.6 TRR and shooting 72% at the rim-YE HOLY BEJEESEUS), while I’m stuck on the fact that he hung with Gasol’s body-fake right, dribble-step left fadeaway, got the hand up and made Gasol’s life generally miserable for a night. Gasol will respond next time out, because that’s what the best big in the biz does, but that’s a quality win if there ever was one.
More staggering are the ways in which Hibbert is superior to his contemporaries in the sub-Dwight zone. He has both sides of the mirror sharpened. Oden (when healthy) lacks a set of defined offensive moves and a midrange (HIBBERT’S GOT A MIDRANGE, SERIOUSLY WE’RE ALL DOOMED). Bynum (when healthy) can’t find a defensive rotations if you put him on a moving walkway routed to the weak side. Hibbert’s only restriction was fouls, and he’s cleaned up that part of his game (read: the refs have gotten used to him and are no longer giving him the kid treatment- Marc Gasol has yet to obtain this particular advantage). But with a balanced game that allows him to finish off a well-placed pass from Collison or Ford, in the post (shooting 44% from the post), and kill it on the offensive glass (14 of 23 on putback attempts this season) on offense, and protect the paint (allowing just 44% shooting at the rim in non-post-up situations- his post-up defense still needs work, allowing 50% in the block), and close out on shooters (allowing just 40.7% on spot-up shots), Hibbert has a complete game and that’s simply a weapon few have in this league at center.
Furthermore, Hibbert’s slimmed down, going for the lanky, athletic approach rather than the pure-brawn that can sometimes lead to injury issues with our fine fathomed friends. Instead, he’s capable of things like this, in tense situations such as:
Every team besides the Magic are searching for the next great big man. While the “always take the big man” logic has doomed more than one franchise in the draft, it’s still verifiable that having something like Hibbert roaming your lanes is irreplaceable. For the rest of us, it’s the dawning of a new era, if the Pacers can figure out a way to build around it. That’s of course the question, but all of a sudden, after years of looking lost in the snow, the Pacers seemed to have made camp with a point guard, a star forward, and now the monster from beneath.
Oster-Tags: bigmengoboom, holycrapsomethinggoodhappened, Indiana Pacers, Roy Hibbert
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