Dont sleep on Indiana.

[LakersFan_33]

@Chris:

You might be right and I might be right. At this point, I still need to see a larger sample size before I'm convinced one way or another.

[housecall]

The fact that Pau is arguably the best PF in the game, and that Hibbert does not hold a candle to him, is not questioned by those with basketball knowledge.

  Interesting, but Pau's per48 numbers (from 82games) are 26/15/5 with 2 turnovers, with opponents getting 18/14/3 with 3 turnover. Hibbert gets 26/15/5 with 4 turnovers while allowing 18/12/2 with 3 turnovers. Pau has a higher fg% and commits fewer turnovers but those seem to be the only real differences between them statistically. Pau's the better player, but "Hibbert doesn't hold a candle to him" might be falling by the wayside. Not that I've seen him play a lot, just surprised at how close their numbers are.

Hibbert is peaking and overachieving at this point in time, and those numbers are from too SMALL of a sample size. I would love to say that Shannon Brown is a great player (shooting 49%; 47.5% from three), and is a dead-eye 3-point shooter because of his great start, when in reality, I expect his numbers to level off, as well. His numbers/production will most certainly decline soon.

Obviously the Lakers game was one of his better performances of the season, but there is nothing fluky about the way Hibbert is playing this season...and I would argue that he is still getting better, rather than peaking or overachieving.

When you look at the way his career has progressed, he has gotten better steadily every year.  As his body and game has developed, his numbers and affectiveness have also grown.  This is pretty typical of big men like Hibbert.  

Given his size, and skill level, I see Hibbert continuing to improve a bit more, and becoming one of the best Centers in the league for many years.

And this is coming from someone who thought his absolute ceiling was Brendan Haywood when he came out of school, just because I didn't think he could transform his body the way he has.

I agree this is not as simple as another player overachieving for a game or two...Hibbert has put plenty of off season work into developing himself to be a better center.L.Bird hired B.Walton to work with him for a mini-training camp this past summer.He also added once Boston Celtics Walter McCarty(Tommy's main man)and Vataly Potapenko to their coaching staff.Hibbert added MMA training(kick boxing)to his training to help improve his footwork.It sounds like Hibbert is very committed to becoming the best c he can be in the future.  

[BballTim]

The fact that Pau is arguably the best PF in the game, and that Hibbert does not hold a candle to him, is not questioned by those with basketball knowledge.

  Interesting, but Pau's per48 numbers (from 82games) are 26/15/5 with 2 turnovers, with opponents getting 18/14/3 with 3 turnover. Hibbert gets 26/15/5 with 4 turnovers while allowing 18/12/2 with 3 turnovers. Pau has a higher fg% and commits fewer turnovers but those seem to be the only real differences between them statistically. Pau's the better player, but "Hibbert doesn't hold a candle to him" might be falling by the wayside. Not that I've seen him play a lot, just surprised at how close their numbers are.

Hibbert is peaking and overachieving at this point in time, and those numbers are from too SMALL of a sample size. I would love to say that Shannon Brown is a great player (shooting 49%; 47.5% from three), and is a dead-eye 3-point shooter because of his great start, when in reality, I expect his numbers to level off, as well. His numbers/production will most certainly decline soon.

  Kind of like Pau's production is declining? Oh, sorry, that's just a slump...

You're talking like his production was declining for months or years, when it's only been a couple of weeks (other than that, he was clearly the best big in the league). Check his stats just for this season. He's putting up 21.5 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks a game. That's declining?

  On one hand, I was being facetious about Pau declining. OTOH, if you check out Hibbert's stats, he's not overachieving by much. His rebounding is a little high but his scoring's right around where you'd expect it to be.

  And, for the record, he's never clearly been the best big in the league, as anyone with basketball knowledge will tell you.