Bench Hibbert?

[KobeKenobi]

I'm not sure how a 7 footer can't even get a rebound. I mean is this guy purposefully sabotaging the team...maybe someone has got his family hostage or something to bribe him into throwing games? It makes zero sense at this point

[EuroPacer]

Let me explain young Padawan:

I am fed up with the detractors on Hibbert, so I am going to give a very detailed analysis of why he is failing and why it isn't his fault.

A detailed breakdown of Hibbert - where he got the ball in Q1 and from whom, and significant defensive plays: (And also some significant plays that cost us this quarter from the other guys)

10:47 - Stephenson passes a ball to a contested Hibbert who is forced to step out to about 5 yards behind 3 line.
10:36 - Stephenson of the Hibbert pick on top left of bucket. 5 seconds on shot clock, Hibbert closed down by Nene and Gortat so shoots contested jumper - miss.
10:15 - Hibbert forces miss on Ariza drive under basket.
10:00 - Hibbert closes passing lane for Wall to Gortat, Stephenson gets hand on ensuing pass.
9:44 - George tries to feed Hibbert in medium block with bad low pass. Hibbert tries to establish but Gortat pulls chair, turnover.
9:18 Gortat tries to beat Hibbert on low block, practically airballs.
9:03 - Stephenson crosses himself over. (sorry couldn't resist putting that in)
8:56 - Inbound play - Stephenson to Hibbert who returns it. On ensuing play Hibbert is ignored by Hill in the low block.
7:40 Hibbert fighting for low block position with Nene - 3 second violation. (Just checked it again obviously: was a rubbish call, he lifted out of zone 2 times on that play, ref just missed it)
7:22 - Gortat against Hibbert on left low block, Gortat shoots poor hook but hits of the lucky roll, Wizards go 10-2, Hibbert has been fed the ball ONCE on the low block in just over 5 minutes of gameplay and that was a poor pass.
6:40 Gortat gets ball inside after poor perimeter play by Hill, Hibbert disturbs his move (steal?) and forces the ball out of his hands, Nene gathers, goes up for strong finish - Hibbert is in the way and forces circus shot that bounces of the rim.
(6:30 West misses OPEN dunk, Wiz still 10-5)
6:18 Hibbert boxes out Gortat, PG gets rebound - Stephenson misses transition lay-up with a John Wall block.
5:55 Hibbert boxes out Ariza (nearest man) Pacers get another fast-break - Wall blocks PG24.
5:50 PG24 misses lay-up of inbounds play, hassled by Gortat but should really have finished. Still 10-5 Pacers now shooting 2 for 12.
5:44 Hibbert has low block position - Hill swings to Stephenson for easy play into low post - Stephenson misses a 3 with 20 seconds left on shot clock.
5:34 Gortat slow to join offense so Hibbert forced to perimeter, Wall goes straight to paint and lays it in.
5:18 Hibbert on low block, back to basket, PG24 feeds him, Hibbert finds cutting George Hill who scores third field goal of the game for the Pacers. (Hibbert Assist) _12-7)
4:57 Nene drives to basket, Hibbert stops his move and gets hand on ball, Nene tries to move it to Wall, Hill stumbles into him on ensuing play.
4:49 Wall drives on inbound pass, gets stopped at rim by Hibbert, Wall curls ball around Hibbert to a tracking Nene who dunks with authority (Hibbert had been pushed out of play by Wall). (14-7)
4:37 PG24 finds cutting Hill who misses a sitter in the open.
4:25 Washington feed Gortat in the post, Hibbert has him locked so Gortat passes to cutting Beal, lay-up 16-7. (Time out by Vogel - Hibbert taken out of game).
4:10 Mahinmi comes in, gets fed in the post straight away, misses open chance.
3:45 Hill misses another sitter, gets his own rebound somehow and finishes it anyway. 18-10 (plus one play).
3:20 Wall hits contested shot over Hill, 20-10.
2:55 Ariza hits three in transition. 23-10.
2:37 West goes to charity stripe. 23-12
2:22 Mahinmi completely misses box out on Gortat, PG24 fouls Gortat on dunk attempt, 25-12.
2:08 Pacers run a play to post up Mahinmi, Ian messes up the play and cuts too far, PG24 nearly turns ball over on pass to Watson. Only second time a play was called for the low block post-up.
1:39 Mahinmi over the back foul on offensive rebound (weak call).
1:25 Wall dances with Mahinmi, Ian doesn't get close to him and Wall has open step back, miss. But Ian lost Gortat who gets rebound safe.
1:14 Mahinmi fouls Gortat (another weak call). Bonus for WSH, Gortat scores one 24-12.
Mahinmi of for Scola.
1:01 PG24 finally hits a shot, 26-15
0:05 Ariza hits another long 3 - 28-15.

End of Quarter.

So, observations: With Hibbert anchoring the defense the Wizards got to 16-7, this was with just under 5 minutes left in the game. The problem at this point wasn't the Wizards scoring too much, it was the Pacers scoring too little. In all that time Hibbert has seen the ball on 5 offensive possessions - 2 completely out of range, 1 top of the bucket contested shot (with shot clock pressure) one poor pass by PG24 that made him stumble when Gortat pulled the chair and one where he got it on the low block and got an assist to Hill.

As soon as Hibbert was out the Wizards went on a run, scoring a further 12 points during a period where play was ugly going both ways.

People blaming the poor Pacers form on Hibbert don't watch the game well enough. This is all down to poor coaching. You have a 7'2 man-mountain who can score on the low block and certainly pass from there and you run one single play for him. One. Then you take him off and immediately go to your secondary man-mountain who has no post-game whatsoever.

Regarding rebounding during this time: The Wizards hardly attacked the paint when Roy was patrolling it, when they did he altered the shots and boxed out Gortat. Both actions mean others have to take control of the rebounding. It has been like this all season for us.

By the time Hibbert got back on his confidence was shot, can you blame him? His coach is completely underusing him. Completely.

[Wizop]

okay, you may have explained his offense woes, but explain zero rebounds. this is Hibbert's problem and the problem is in his head. he's lost focus. I'm more and more inclined to believe that one of the rumored off court incidents did happen. Vogel needs to sit down with Roy with no one else there and simply tell him that there is no point in dressing him if he isn't going to rebound and ask him to explain whether he has a problem playing with someone on the team. at this point we'd be better off with Bynum at 50% than Roy at 0%.

[Starkiller]

^ That's great and all, but no rebounds is just plain not hustling. All there is to it.

[EuroPacer]

I think nothing happened, people are clutching here. I reckon his confidence received a hit when Bynum was brought in, he acted tough and didn't let on and put himself on a downward spiral. It is Vogel's job to sort that out by making sure he gets enough touches. The age-old adagio be good to the big guy and the big guy will be good to you is definitely appropriate here.

[WIZKID]

Hibbert has a mental disorder and needs to see a specialist and perhaps meds are needed.
The twitching is curious, maybe a catscan also.

[flash22]

There is no reason for Hibbert to not be crashing the Offensive boards and getting points from the line and put packs.

[dlts20]

it might sound crazy but Hibbert can go 0 & 0 all day but I still fear you guys more with him then I do Copeland or Scola. I just feel like your D may drop off significantly in that case

[ThePacer31]

Benching Hibbert will hurt us on D significantly. He can be better on O if he's fed the ball at the right time but even then sometimes he seems too slow. I"m not sure what has gotten into him but obviously it's not good. Playing Scola, Copeland and Ian more in this series only makes sense. I think he's only good against a centerless Heat; therefore, IMO he should be traded soon. You just cannot have a 7'2 guy playing all these minutes with no rebounds.

[Grang33r]

We were pretty bad with Ian Mahinmi in too.

We don't need to bench Hibbert. We need to figure out how to fix Hibbert.

[moohair88]

Bulls fan here... but i just heard a rumor that PG had been sleeping with Hibberts wife?

Do you guys know any truth this rumor?

[Grang33r]

Bulls fan here... but i just heard a rumor that PG had been sleeping with Hibberts wife?

Do you guys know any truth this rumor?

Hibbert's wife doesn't post on RealGM so i guess nobody on here knows for sure, but according to Paul George via twitter, it's BS. https://twitter.com/Paul_George24/statu ... 6669741056

[moohair88]

Bulls fan here... but i just heard a rumor that PG had been sleeping with Hibberts wife?

Do you guys know any truth this rumor?

Hibbert's wife doesn't post on RealGM so i guess nobody on here knows for sure, but according to Paul George via twitter, it's BS. https://twitter.com/Paul_George24/statu ... 6669741056

Good to know. Terrible if it were true... As much as I, as a Bulls fan, want to see Pacers lose, last thing I would want is for a player to go through that drama and pain, especially during playoffs.

Thanks for getting back and posting.

[KobeKenobi]

Benching Hibbert will hurt us on D significantly. He can be better on O if he's fed the ball at the right time but even then sometimes he seems too slow. I"m not sure what has gotten into him but obviously it's not good. Playing Scola, Copeland and Ian more in this series only makes sense. I think he's only good against a centerless Heat; therefore, IMO he should be traded soon. You just cannot have a 7'2 guy playing all these minutes with no rebounds.

Problem is when Hibbert is isolated on Nene, Nene just pulls up and hits an easy mid-range jumper.

[KobeKenobi]

We were pretty bad with Ian Mahinmi in too.

We don't need to bench Hibbert. We need to figure out how to fix Hibbert.

Hibbert checking out kind of reminds me of Pau Gasol checking out when the Lakers tried to 3peat. Hopefully he finds his groove, but I am doubting at this point.

[Wizop]

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/2014/05/07/indysportsday-pacers-paul-george-reacts-to-swirling-rumors-roy-hibbert/8798785/

http://blacksportsonline.com/home/2014/05/paul-george-didnt-have-sex-with-roy-hibberts-lady/

[Starkiller]

OT: But what the hell is with people and Paul George this year? The kid blows up to a top 5 player in the league and you've heard just about every dirty rumor there is come out to try and tear him down. Stripper thing, Roy's wife, he got burglarized, I think I'm missing another one too. What's the deal man?

[sfam]

Bulls fan here... but i just heard a rumor that PG had been sleeping with Hibberts wife?

Do you guys know any truth this rumor?

Hibbert's wife doesn't post on RealGM so i guess nobody on here knows for sure, but according to Paul George via twitter, it's BS. https://twitter.com/Paul_George24/statu ... 6669741056

Good to know. Terrible if it were true... As much as I, as a Bulls fan, want to see Pacers lose, last thing I would want is for a player to go through that drama and pain, especially during playoffs.

Thanks for getting back and posting.

That's cool, good to know that isn't true. But clearly there was some incident between the players earlier in the year involving. Many people have spoken to this - most recently Stephen A Smith yesterday - but he wouldn't give details. Does anyone know what it might have been?

[Wizop]

there is a story that Lance and Turner got into a fight but that doesn't explain anything about Hibbert.

[sfam]

there is a story that Lance and Turner got into a fight but that doesn't explain anything about Hibbert.

Stephen A indicated it was something specifically to do with Hibbert that happened earlier, but that he thought that had been ironed out by now.