Official: Hibbert traded to Lakers

[pacers33granger]

It had to be done at this point basically and I'm glad Bird figured it out sooner rather than later if things were really that bad. Wish we could have gotten something more, but whatever.

There's no real free agents worth it left other than a couple who will likely be quite expensive (Koufos, etc.). We have the space, but I don't want to overpay on someone really since an overpay right now could be close to a slight overpay under the new cap. If we could get someone like Looney for taking on David Lee I'd pull the trigger instantly. Not a huge fan of Lee, but it's one year and he'd fill out the roster:

Hill/Young
Ellis/Miles
PG13/Hill
Lee/Allen/Rudez/Looney
Mahinmi/Turner

We'd still need a backup PG, but that'd be about it. I'm scared we will try and sign someone like Boozer though.

[Jermainevent]

Well Koufos just signed a 4 year deal worth 33 million with the Kings, take him off of some of your wishlists.

[Moooose]

Haven't read all the other posts yet but i don't blame the front office at all for this.

This has to be done eitherway, as we all know Hibbert wouldn't be okay coming off the bench. He's not good dealing with mental issues and i think we can recall the times when we were cheering him up to get his old form back. I mean no offense but it would a foreseen scenario, I guess. And I think Larry and the guys were trying to move Hibbert for some time now, but couldn't find a suitable trade partner.

Now, is the Lakers the best trade partner we could get for him? Prior to the trade, there were discussions of a three team trade that would involve us, the Mavs, and the Clippers. Could've sent Hibbert to LAC but for some reasons it didn't pushed through. Maybe Dallas wouldn't want Hibbert playing for a rival team?

I don't think the move is too late. There are still plenty of options in the market that COULD fit our requirements better.

And really, I think we can all blame our team's regression on that PG injury. Had he not got injured, we could've been in a deep playoff run last year.

[Grang33r]

I hope you guys are right. They have 3 years to figure out a plan for all of this until Paul George sees what i'm seeing and bounces.

[basketballwacko2]

Amazing how far we've fallen as a franchise.

it's sad isn't it? Just like 2 years ago we were a power house an team to reckon with now the pacers aren't anything.. An I fully blame Larry for this his comments pushed west out then to trade hibbert after all the good players are signed... Just dumb to me


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I'm actually surprised that it didn't take longer to move Roy. And I agree that it was stupid, beyond reason to make those public comments about Hibbert. You may want to trade a guy but you don't go to the media and run the guy down. Should be the exact opposite. Larry should have kept his plans to himself, and publicly supported Hibbert by saying that he's one of the best defensive centers in the NBA, Which he is.

All that said we might not be all that bad in 2015-16, we might not make the playoffs, but we'll just have to see how the rest of the off season plays out. If we can keep some of the cap space maybe we can get in on a deal and get payed off to take a guy like Philly has been doing.

[basketballwacko2]

Amazing how far we've fallen as a franchise.

How have we fallen far? West was old and Hibbert isn't Hibbert 3 years ago so we needed to change it up. Falling far would be blowing it up and becoming the Sixers for the next 3-5 years. I think this team is only a year away if we add some more to what we got to being back in the thick of things. I still think the team we have now is still a playoff team easily.

Depends on the development of Turner. And Lavoy Allen.

[basketballwacko2]

What good is cap space? Now we can sign stuckey and Scola.

Koufos and Teletovic?

Well Koufos is gone and I have no confidence in Teletovic. He wasn't setting the world on fire for the Nets.

[basketballwacko2]

Phoenix.

You think we could make a move for Tiago Splitter, perhaps? He's very much available, SAS made it known.

Atlanta.

Yep traded for cap space last week to make room for Aldrige.

[Jake0890]

Was really hoping for the rumored Nene for Hibbert deal. Now we've got cap space to use on no one relevant and a 2nd rounder to show for one of the best rim protectors in the league. I dunno man, not a huge fan of this one overall.

[basketballwacko2]

^ our fall is also a function of the changing NBA game. The big frontline and slow offense won't work against the smaller, faster teams like Atlanta and GS, who have great floor spacing.

I think Bird is making the right decision now, which is to move to this sort of game plan. Hibbert doesn't work in that line-up, so move him now.

There's still players available to help the transition, and there's always mid-season trades. The fact is that moving Hibbert for cap space alone gives Bird great flexibility.

You don't put any blame to the front office for not realizing this whatsoever, to a point where we were forced to trade our once-corner-stone player for a 2nd round pick (and who knows when that pick will even be?) and rights to a international player who we'll never see?

I agree with what you said, the moves had to be made, but they were made too late. They misplayed their cards in a bad way. Got nothing for West, and, well, got next to nothing for Hibbert.

I think we should have traded Hibbert at the trade deadline. IDK what we could have gotten or what team would have wanted him and or if they even tried to trade him. Last summer they said they were "quietly shopping" him. It doesn't make since to keep the guy then run him down in the media and expect to be able to trade him

This is the Ron Artest situation again. JO and other player said in the media they didn't want to play with him, the team suspended him for saying he wanted to be traded to the knicks, then all we got was a 1/2 season of Peja. Freaking sTupid!!

[basketballwacko2]

One thing that just occurred to me I saw that the Spurs have signed Aldrige imagine the Butt hurt in Phoenix right now they traded forwards Marcus Morris and Danny Granger and guard Reggie Bullock to the Detroit Pistons for a 2020 second-round pick, to free up space to sign Aldridge and then missed out on him. While Granger is not worth much these days Morris and Bullock are two young guys who would have been useful players.

[basketballwacko2]

It had to be done at this point basically and I'm glad Bird figured it out sooner rather than later if things were really that bad. Wish we could have gotten something more, but whatever.

There's no real free agents worth it left other than a couple who will likely be quite expensive (Koufos, etc.). We have the space, but I don't want to overpay on someone really since an overpay right now could be close to a slight overpay under the new cap. If we could get someone like Looney for taking on David Lee I'd pull the trigger instantly. Not a huge fan of Lee, but it's one year and he'd fill out the roster:

Hill/Young
Ellis/Miles
PG13/Hill
Lee/Allen/Rudez/Looney
Mahinmi/Turner

We'd still need a backup PG, but that'd be about it. I'm scared we will try and sign someone like Boozer though.

If we have the room to take Lee at this point why not and getting Looney would be good. One thing don't project Rudez at PF, he's a last resort at PF, he's too weak to play there even if you're talking stretch 4.

[Boneman2]

Lee doesn't do it for me. I'd rather offer Jordan Hill 4/28.

Hopefully we can salvage some of the value we lost in the Hibbert trade by helping a contender acquire David West through a S&T.

[EuroPacer]

I'm not sure I like just getting cap-space and a second and I really did like Hibbert, I think Bird screwed up his negotiating position by openly hinting he wanted to get shut of Hibbert. Having said that, there are still some options out there. One that would be super-amazing would be if DMC (aka Boogie) had to find a new ball-club in a hurry because Karl won that battle.

Even so, it feels like a hard reset, losing DWest is painful and now we lost our defensive anchor. We are certainly going to see a different Pacers next year, but is it going to be an Iso-ball ineffective defense Pacers? Because that is what it is beginning to look like. For me this is make or break season for Bird, he rolled the dice well and truly, let's see if we can still trust him to make the right calls because Monta for Hibbert and West is tough to take.

[basketballwacko2]

I'm not sure I like just getting cap-space and a second and I really did like Hibbert, I think Bird screwed up his negotiating position by openly hinting he wanted to get shut of Hibbert. Having said that, there are still some options out there. One that would be super-amazing would be if DMC (aka Boogie) had to find a new ball-club in a hurry because Karl won that battle.

Even so, it feels like a hard reset, losing DWest is painful and now we lost our defensive anchor. We are certainly going to see a different Pacers next year, but is it going to be an Iso-ball ineffective defense Pacers? Because that is what it is beginning to look like. For me this is make or break season for Bird, he rolled the dice well and truly, let's see if we can still trust him to make the right calls because Monta for Hibbert and West is tough to take.

We don't have the assets to acquire a DMC unless you're talking about giving them PG. The Pacers came back strong after the JO trade it took a couple of years but we're in a better financial spot now, back then we had TJ Ford, Dunleavy, and Murphy's contracts to deal with and If I recall even Jamal Tinsley who had to be bought out. Now we have space to work with and we're not gonna be terrible like the Knicks and Lakers were last year, and I'm betting we'll be better than either of them in the up coming season.

[EuroPacer]

I'm not sure I like just getting cap-space and a second and I really did like Hibbert, I think Bird screwed up his negotiating position by openly hinting he wanted to get shut of Hibbert. Having said that, there are still some options out there. One that would be super-amazing would be if DMC (aka Boogie) had to find a new ball-club in a hurry because Karl won that battle.

Even so, it feels like a hard reset, losing DWest is painful and now we lost our defensive anchor. We are certainly going to see a different Pacers next year, but is it going to be an Iso-ball ineffective defense Pacers? Because that is what it is beginning to look like. For me this is make or break season for Bird, he rolled the dice well and truly, let's see if we can still trust him to make the right calls because Monta for Hibbert and West is tough to take.

We don't have the assets to acquire a DMC unless you're talking about giving them PG. The Pacers came back strong after the JO trade it took a couple of years but we're in a better financial spot now, back then we had TJ Ford, Dunleavy, and Murphy's contracts to deal with and If I recall even Jamal Tinsley who had to be bought out. Now we have space to work with and we're not gonna be terrible like the Knicks and Lakers were last year, and I'm betting we'll be better than either of them in the up coming season.

It is mere dreaming, I drool about the the thought of DMC in a Pacers jersey.

Big realistic worry now though: What is our big-man rotation? Allen, Mahinmi, Turner, Whittington?, Rudez, Solo and PG? I'm not convinced about PG13 on the 4, I am not convinced about starting any of Allen, Mahinmi, Turner. Rudez is not a starter, Solo is not a starter and certainly not a 4.

Of course, I could be proven completely wrong and I do like the GH, Ellis, PG13, Miles, Solo back-court, but we need another point-guard as well and probably another shooting guard, so Stuckey has to come back.

A lot of loose ends in the core of the team, potential to be amazing but we need to add at least one starting-calibre center and make sure we have Stuckey back on board.

Edit: Looking at the options on C:

Kanter (no D but good O and mobility) no for me.
Jordan Hill (no O but good D, mobility and rebounding) maybe for me.
Biyombo (Really no O whatsoever but good D, mobility and rebounding) maybe for me.
Perkins (No O, good D, low mobility good rebounding) no for me.
Aldrich... no starter and no better than Mahinmi.

Choose one, because I can't.

[davidfr94]

Even if i do like getting rid of Hibbert (i just hate having starters that you cant rely on) i dont think the timing Is really good i dont see us getting someone as useful as he is. I think, if it is only for cap purposes, that we should have waited until the all star break or even the end of next season to get rid of him.
This team will not be in the lottery, too much talent with PG and Monta, why not give it to try to go as far as possible into the postseason? I mean i dont think we are that far from anyone in the east outside the heat and the cavs (what i saw from the bulls was awful).
I hope Larry has something up in his sleeves because i dont feel really good about this one.

[Wizop]

Getting back players with long contracts isn't as good as getting cap space to sign who you want. The coming bigger cap changed everyone's strategy.

[xBulletproof]

I'm shocked that people actually think the press conference comments mattered. Yet, they ignore that he kept repeating "I expect Roy to be here next year". Wouldn't that say you're not entirely committed to trading him unless it's really for what you want?

More important than anything Bird could have said is Roy's declining play. All the teams saw that. Even if we publicly said we were trading him no matter what, if he was playing like he did years ago there would be a bidding war. Yet, there was no bidding war. That has nothing to do with what Bird said.

[boomershadow]

I am gonna miss the big lug, but hopefully LA will be a place where there won't be so much pressure on him because they (hopefully) realize they aint gonna realistically be in the playoffs the next few years.