5 Trade Packages and Destinations for Indiana Pacers Center Roy Hibbert
Roy Hibbert won't be a free agent until 2016, and yet he may have already played his last game for the Indiana Pacers.
After opting into the final year of his contract, Hibbert is now being dangled in trade talks, according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein. Once considered the invaluable fulcrum to Indiana's ironfisted defense, he is now a monetary millstone—financial fodder for the rumor mill to devour.
Seven years into his career, Hibbert has yet to average 30 minutes per game for an entire season. He hasn't shot 45 percent from the floor since 2011-12, and his defensive value, while still intact, is feeling the weight of an NBA that exposes bigs who cannot step out on the perimeter.
This decline in stock will become even more evident as the Pacers try to unload his $15.5 million salary. As Grantland's Zach Lowe wrote:
"It will be surprising if the Pacers can snag a real asset for Hibbert. Few teams in the new NBA are starved for cap relief, and that has sucked away most of the trade value that expiring contracts once carried. Everyone will have room when the cap skyrockets next summer, and most contracts under the new collective bargaining agreement are so short, teams can see their expiration date from the moment they are signed.
"
Suggested trade packages will keep Hibbert's individual free fall in mind. The Pacers are not going to land a star in exchange for his services. They'll be hard-pressed to even grab an impact player.
Proposals will range from the acquisition of potential upgrades to a blatant salary dump. The Pacers' best interests will be taken under advisement, but the deals in question must be justifiable in some respect for all parties involved.
Hug your families, and tell them you won't be home for dinner. We now embark on the treacherous journey that is finding Hibbert a one-way ticket out of Indiana.
Boston Celtics
1 of 5
Indiana Pacers Get: SG R.J. Hunter and SF Gerald Wallace
Boston Celtics Get: C Roy Hibbert
In the event the Celtics fail to land a rim protector—or obnoxiously overpay Greg Monroe—in free agency, Hibbert could be a slapstick solution to their interior problems.
Swallowing his $15.5 million salary is a ginormous downside, but for all Hibbert's blunders, he's still a solid paint-policer. And the Celtics need an entire S.W.A.T. team down low.
Neither Kelly Olynyk nor Jared Sullinger is a good enough shot-blocker, and Tyler Zeller's value lies solely in rebounding and offensive versatility. Not surprisingly, Boston ranked 25th in opponent field-goal percentage within six feet of the basket last season.
Opponents shot 12 percentage points below their season average when being defended by Hibbert from that same range. Of the 122 players who contested at least four shots at iron per game, Hibbert ranked fourth in shooting percentage allowed, behind only Andrew Bogut, Serge Ibaka and Rudy Gobert.
Head coach Brad Stevens would have to adjust his faster-paced offense to account for Hibbert's lumbering legs, but that adaptation needs to be made for any big man not named DeAndre Jordan the Celtics pursue. Besides, the cost is worth the one-year experiment.
Wallace remains contractual dead weight, even as his deal nears expiration. He appeared in just 35 games last season, and Hibbert is someone the Celtics can actually play.
Losing Hunter only stings a little bit. His three-point percentage plummeted in his final season at Georgia State (30.5) percent, and Stevens has a glut of guards to find minutes for with Avery Bradley, Terry Rozier, Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas and James Young all on the roster.
Hunter actually makes more sense on the Pacers. They could lose Rodney Stuckey to free agency and need additional options on the wing as they look to play Paul George—a career shooting guard and small forward—at power forward in 2015-16, per the Indianapolis Star's Dana Hunsinger Benbow.
Absorbing Wallace's expiring pact shouldn't be a big deal at all. There's a chance head coach Frank Vogel even extracts between 500 and 1,000 total minutes out of him.
Indeed, this isn't a drool-inducing return for a two-time All-Star. But the Pacers need to face facts: Hibbert won't net much, if anything, should they be lucky enough to move him.
Denver Nuggets
2 of 5
Indiana Pacers Get: F Danilo Gallinari and PF/C J.J. Hickson
Denver Nuggets Get: C Roy Hibbert and 2016 lottery-protected first-round pick
Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports says that Gallinari is on the chopping block in Denver. Appearing in just 59 games over the last two seasons curbs his value somewhat, but at 6'10", with three-point range, he's exactly what the Pacers need.
As team president Larry Bird said at Indiana's end-of-season presser, per the Indianapolis Star's Candace Buckner:
"I was talking to coach earlier; we'd like to play a little faster tempo. And that means we've got to run a little faster, maybe at times play a little smaller. We just got into it, so I don't know what style, but we'd like to change it a little bit. … But I would like to score more points, and to do that, you've got to run.
"
Gallinari shot a respectable 35.5 percent from three-point range for 2014-15. But that number skyrocketed to 41 percent through the 18 games he spent playing under Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt.
More than 43 percent of his total shot attempts came as spot-up threes, so he's used to functioning as a complementary scorer. And while he put in an adequate 36.3 percent of those looks overall, he drilled 43.6 percent once the Nuggets started running faster under Hunt.
Hickson's $5.6 million salary gives Denver an incentive to take on Hibbert's contract and comes off the ledger in time for 2016 free agency. He can also spend time at the 4 and 5, tween-age that'll come in handy on the heels of David West's likely departure and Hibbert's exit.
Acquiring a first-rounder as primary compensation for Gallinari would be huge for the Nuggets. He's owed nearly $22.5 million through 2016-17 and hasn't been fully healthy since 2012-13.
Hibbert doesn't figure into the team's long-term picture, but he's a low-risk, high-reward pickup given his expiring deal. New head coach Mike Malone knows how to get the most out of his bigs, and Denver just ranked 24th in opponent field-goal percentage inside six feet of the bucket.
For the one season he's in town, Hibbert can split time with the developing Jusuf Nurkic at 5. The Nuggets could also try running the latter at the 4 as part of some interior defensive monster. More than 10 percent of Nurkic's attempts came outside 10 feet as he gradually tried to deepen his offensive warehouse.
Either way, this is a justifiable move for the Nuggets and an absolute home run for the Pacers—provided they're looking to avoid a full-fledged rebuild.
Milwaukee Bucks
3 of 5
Indiana Pacers Get: PG Jerryd Bayless and C Zaza Pachulia
Milwaukee Bucks Get: C Roy Hibbert
Armed with plenty of cap space, the Bucks are being linked to just about every big man available, according to HoopsHype's rumors tracker. But Milwaukee is an untested free-agent market, one that may not yet be ready to serve as a big-name bastion.
Trading for Hibbert is a solid contingency plan for a team that ranked second in defensive efficiency but doesn't yet have a proven rim protector.
Zaza Pachulia doesn't block many shots and regressed substantially during the Bucks' four-game playoff jaunt. John Henson is a shot-swatting machine, but his offensive post game doesn't have the polish of Hibbert's—no small concern considering Hibbert isn't the poster boy for successful back-to-the-basket sets.
Jerryd Bayless is expendable after the trade for Greivis Vasquez, and losing Pachulia won't hurt the cause at all. Hibbert could actually end up being both an offensive and defensive upgrade in comparison to him.
Indiana does this for the financial relief, since the Bucks can absorb most of Hibbert's salary into their projected cap space.
Ian Mahinmi and Pachulia should be more than enough to get them by at center for one season, and they will do so at a fraction of Hibbert's cost. The two of them don't even total $10 million combined.
Taking on Bayless' expiring contract has its own on-court advantages. He instantly becomes one of Indiana's three best playmakers and can play the part of shooting guard when Hill is dominating ball-handling duties.
None of this is meant to imply the Pacers are bamboozling the Bucks. Talent-wise, they're not.
Unloading Hibbert for Bayless and Pachulia, depending on when they do it, simply guarantees them an extra $7.2 million in cap plasticity—savings the Pacers should welcome as they try to retool with a new offensive dynamic in mind.
New Orleans Pelicans
4 of 5
Indiana Pacers Get: SG Eric Gordon
New Orleans Pelicans Get: C Roy Hibbert and 2016 second-round pick
Eric Gordon actually holds more value than Hibbert at this point. His career-worst player efficiency rating (12.7) from 2014-15 doesn't show it, but it's true.
There's still hope that Gordon can remain healthy for an entire season. He's only 26 years old, and he cracked 60 appearances in each of the last two seasons.
Playing beside Anthony Davis has forced him to learn the ropes of supplemental scoring. Almost 40 percent of his shot attempts came off the catch last season, of which he converted a blistering 47.3 percent.
Most of those looks were spot-up three-pointers. He nailed them at a 48.2 percent clip, a success rate the spacing-challenged Pacers would love to work with as they usher in the next era of offense.
Selling the Pelicans on this deal is a tougher task.
It is not an impossible task.
Newly hired head coach Alvin Gentry prefers to run, and Hibbert, all 7'2'' and 278 pounds of him, is more of a plodding big man. But he's not entirely immobile, and investing one year and $15.5 million in him actually stands to save New Orleans money.
Omer Asik is prepping for unrestricted free agency, and the Times Picayune's John Reid says the Pelicans will make an aggressive push to re-sign him. His next contract should cost them $10 million per year on the conservative end, and he's not Mr. Speed Demon himself.
Nor does he protect the rim especially well. Rival scorers shot the ball at only slightly below-average clips when going up against him inside six feet, and he ranked 63rd in opponent shooting percentage on that list of 122 players to contest four or more point-blank opportunities per game.
Paying Hibbert in the short term allows the Pelicans to deploy a defensive upgrade behind the roving Davis without breaking the bank over the next four or five years.
Replacing Gordon shouldn't be too hard either. The Pelicans have some wiggle room and could feasibly peruse the ranks of Arron Afflalo, Lou Williams and Gerald Green, among others.
Washington Wizards
5 of 5
Indiana Pacers Get: F/C Nene and SF Martell Webster
Washington Wizards Get: C Roy Hibbert
Let's get weird.
Washington has assembled a top-notch defense, but Hibbert is a marked shot-blocking upgrade over Nene. He'll even send back more attempts than Marcin Gortat, the team's leading shot-swatter.
The Wizards began embracing small during the playoffs, so while Gortat can theoretically play some power forward beside Hibbert, the latter might find himself coming off the bench.
And that's fine. The Wizards have no obligation to massage Hibbert's ego, and their bench ranked middle of the road in defensive efficiency last season, per HoopsStats.com.
Shedding Webster's salary saves them more than $3 million this summer and aides in their inevitable pursuit of Kevin Durant next year. Webster is owed a nonguaranteed $5.8 million for 2016-17, and moving him now ensures the Wizards won't have to pay a dime.
Adding salary is just the cost of landing two rotation players on the Pacers' end.
Nene can spend time at both the 4 and 5. He's a defensive downgrade yet better-suited to contribute within a more dynamic offense. Webster can provide quality minutes at small forward when healthy, facilitating George's move to the 4, and is just one season removed from pumping in 39.2 percent of his long balls.
Turning a defunct asset into two playable talents is not to be undersold. Hibbert doesn't have a place in Indiana anymore, and the Pacers should consider themselves lucky to nab Nene and Webster for a big man the rest of league knows they don't want.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited. Salary information courtesy of Basketball Insiders and Larry Coon's CBA FAQ. Draft-pick commitments from RealGM.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
