Roy Hibbert rumors: Indiana Pacers unlikely to trade center
By Bryan Rose
Earlier this offseason there were rumors suggesting that the Indiana Pacers would be content trading away center Roy Hibbert. Those sentiments were shared by Hibbert himself, though he later backtracked and suggested the comments were taken out of context.
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Whatever the case, the Indiana Pacers have sent out trade feelers with deals involving Roy Hibbert, though haven’t exactly been met with open arms.
This past weekend news leaked suggesting the Indiana Pacers had offered Hibbert to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for point guard Goran Dragic, though such a deal would have taken a significant amount of financial work to match the salaries of the two players. Needless to say, the Suns weren’t interested.
Indiana didn’t stop attempting to pawn Roy Hibbert off though as they reportedly engaged the Detroit Pistons about restricted free agent Greg Monroe, but again their alleged offer of Roy Hibbert wasn’t a worthy starting point.
Alas, not wanting to completely give up on the former Georgetown product, Steve Kyler believes it’s unlikely Roy Hibbert is traded by the Indiana Pacers.
"I don’t think you’ll see Roy Hibbert moved, but I do think we’ll see how much of the load Roy can carry. He is going to be asked to do a lot more, especially offensively."
Indiana’s courting of Dragic was an obvious one considering many feel the Suns have too many point guards. The same can be said of the Pistons offer considering they’re having difficutly re-signing Greg Monroe, so the Pacers were seemingly attempting to pawn one problem off for another. Only issue? Their problem is coming off a horrific season, can be free agent at the end of the year and is due $15 million dollars if he doesn’t become a free agent. Not exactly a shiny trade piece.