“I need to make myself more assertive” was the line Roy Hibbert gave after a 6 point, 6 rebound effort (if you can call it that) in a loss to #2 Memphis. That lack of aggressiveness has been the knock on this guy since he entered the college basketball spotlight. At 7′2, 275 pounds that is not what any coach or potential GM wants to hear from their starting center.
In arguably the toughest game on G-Town’s schedule, and for Roy Hibbert his strongest and most physical individual opponent in Joey Dorsey, he succumbed to his natural weakness – passiveness. Only attempting 8 shots, he was a non-factor and while I was watching the game looked invisible on the court. Believe me, NBA scouts were watching and took note of his ineffectiveness vs. a college foe that mirrors his likely competition at the next level.
In Georgetown’s first 9 games of the season Hibbert has been an underachiever at best for a pre-season All-American and prospective top 15 NBA draft pick.
- Only 1 game with 10+ rebounds this season – and it was just 10
- Only 1 game over 17 points (vs. William & Mary, a 2-6 mid-major)
- 26.6% is Hibbert’s 10+ rebounding percentage in 79 games from his sophomore through senior year; for a 7-footer that plays just over 24 minutes per game that’s just not good enough
- 12.2 PPG over those same 79 games – weak!
Considering Hibbert has yet to prove himself as a consistent and dominant big man on the college level; would you draft Roy in the top 15 if you were an NBA GM? Competitive fire and assertiveness are inherent traits developed at a young age for basketball players. And his shortcomings in those areas make him a bigger gamble than most college analysts have yet to recognize and report on.
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Roy Hibbert is very overrated but only in a college system…when it comes to a college system..he really isn’t needed but in the NBA system, he would fit great. People tend not to realize or understand that the college system of basketball is totally different than the NBA. The college system of basketball is the only system that fits pretty much perfectly with a certain type of player. Depending on what you learned in high school…depends on how well you will do in college. In college, everything is a play and very difficult to make it thru scoring well…but depending on what you do in that system depends on how you do in the NBA..Lots of players tend to go to College and not understand how to play the game of basketball thru a system, which makes it very difficult but can go to the NBA and succeed. It all depends on what’s best for the players. The NBA does both very different than college, where college works thru a system and you can’t do what you want..that’s why no one averages 30 in college and very few is close, but in the NBA…you do what you want and in high school it’s the same way!
My rebuttal with regards to Hibbert specifically is his style of play. Unless he gets tougher he won’t succeed in the NBA. He doesn’t have a 17ft shot and isn’t agile enough to face up and play offense in the mid-range game a la KG at that size. So that means he will have to post up and score inside. Well when matched up against a strong forward of a slightly less stature (Joey Dorsey) he wasn’t able to get in close enough to be effective. Image what it will be like in the pros when everyone is that strong and that big. System or not he either must get tougher or develop a face-up mid-range game.