NBA Trade Rumors: Bucks-Pacers discussed trade for Roy Hibbert

Amidst the worst basketball of his seven-year career, Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert drew interest in terms of a trade around the league.

According to Gery Woelfel of the Bucks Beat, the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers discussed a trade centered around the two-time All-Star center.

"I was told by an NBA official that the Bucks also had discussions with Indiana and were interested in acquiring veteran Pacers center Roy Hibbert, who hasn’t performed up to his lofty contract. Hibbert’s contract calls for him to earn $14.89 million next season. He then has a player-option the following season for $15.51M."

Following All-Star weekend, Hibbert’s season took a turn for the worst. In the last 29 games of the season, Hibbert averaged 8.9 points on 39% shooting and 4.7 rebounds per game. It got to the point where Hibbert, an All-Star defensive juggernaut, became a liability, especially in the Pacers first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks.

Considering the Bucks were having center troubles of their own, it’s difficult to tell whether Milwaukee’s front office was more interested in acquiring Roy Hibbert or if they were doing whatever they could to get Larry Sanders off their hands.

"In the days leading up to the draft in June, rumors circulated that the Bucks were seriously shopping beleaguered veteran center Larry Sanders."

Surely enough, any discussions of swapping Sanders for Hibbert are off the table with Jason Kidd at head coach in Milwaukee. According to several reports, Kidd pushed the Brooklyn Nets front office to trade Brook Lopez for Larry Sanders.