Insider: Hibbert likely headed for lesser role

No one can explain why two-time All-Star Roy Hibbert has played inconsistently on the offensive end. Then again, there's no telling how Hibbert truly felt about his 2014-15 season because he escaped the visitors' locker room in FedEx Arena on Wednesday night without speaking to reporters after the Indiana Pacers' final loss to the Memphis Grizzlies.

However on Friday, after another year of bewilderment from their 7-2 man of mystery, the Pacers made one thing clear: The team will make an identity change, and if Hibbert decides to take his player option and return for the final year of his contract, he will have a reduced role.

"We assume he's going to be back and if he comes back, we're probably going to play another style," said Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird. "And I can't guarantee him anything. He's going to have to earn it."

During the team's season wrap-up news conference, Bird made the surprising declaration about his preliminary plans to shift the Pacers' offensive identity, which included playing Paul George as a stretch-four power forward at times.

"I was talking to coach earlier; we'd like to play a little faster tempo," Bird said. "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."

While this does not mean the Pacers, who finished 38-44, will return to the run-and-gun days of Jim O'Brien, Bird's announcement will cause seismic fundamental changes within the program.

Under coach Frank Vogel, the Pacers have built their identity on playing big, especially in regards to a defense skewed towards having a rim-protecting center on the floor. This style had led the Pacers to four straight appearances in the Eastern Conference playoffs, and even in the Western Conference, where floor-spacing power forwards and 3-point shooting centers roam free, the Memphis Grizzlies have had success with their beefy front line of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph.

However, after finishing 24th in offensive rating (number of points scored per 100 possessions) and barely registering as a middle-of-road team in pace (number of possessions per 48 minutes), Indiana wants to join the renaissance.

Starting a ponderous center such as Hibbert does not lend itself to playing faster and smaller. The style of play favors mobile bigs like Ian Mahinmi and free agent Lavoy Allen, both name-dropped by Bird as players who will "get more minutes" if the Pacers go small.

When asked if Hibbert would be benched next year as Indiana pushes for a quicker pace, Vogel responded: "Yeah, potentially.

"We'll have to see how it all plays out and what the roster ultimately looks like, but there's a possibility that Roy's role will be diminished, if we're trying to play faster and trying to play smaller," Vogel said. "But a lot of stuff is going to happen this summer. We'll see how the roster shapes out coming into next season."

When asked about Hibbert's reaction to comments made by Bird and Vogel, Hibbert's agent, David Falk, replied with an e-mail to The Indianapolis Star: "We will respond at the appropriate time."

Falk suggested his client would take his time to choose to opt-in for the final year of his contract.

"We will decide that in late June," Falk wrote in an e-mail.

If Hibbert decides to stick with the Pacers, he will get paid more than $15 million for the 2015-16 season. That number provides plenty of reasons to weather any ignominy as a backup center. However, the Pacers have been turning away from Hibbert for a while now.

In the summer of 2012, the team matched the four-year, $58 million offer sheet Hibbert had received from the Portland Trail Blazers. By the next season, Hibbert was a max player but only the fourth or fifth option in an offense that flowed from the perimeter through George and Lance Stephenson.

During this 2013-14 campaign, Hibbert noticed that his role had changed, and partially blamed his mishandling of the situation for his decline through the season. After a regrettable playoff run, Hibbert pledged to begin his seventh season as a better player. He spent five days last summer working with Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and took up meditation to center his mind for the leadership role he'd have to assume with George out for most of the season with a fractured leg. Yet Hibbert scored only 10.6 points, just a shade below the previous season's average but the second lowest in his career after his rookie year. The Pacers even experimented with playing three centers near the end of the year, limiting Hibbert's minutes to just 23.1 per game through the final month of the regular season as the team made a push for the postseason.

Though Bird appeared hopeful that power forward David West, 34, will take his player option and stick around, he sounded less sure about Hibbert. When it comes to Hibbert, the unknown may be the only thing that's apparent.

"Roy, I have no idea," Bird said. "We just talked about different things and whatever he does, he does. I don't know what he's going to do."

Call Star reporter Candace Buckner at (317) 444-6121. Follow her on Twitter: @CandaceDBuckner.

• Though Bird and Vogel made directed comments about Hibbert's potentially reduced role next year, Vogel made a case for his player:

"He's got to work on his craft, like all of us do, and he'll do that. He'll come in and work hard in the offseason and try to improve. I think some of his numbers are down because his minutes were down, so I think it's a little bit misleading. I thought he was still a great rim protector for us, which is his primary goal. I do think the league adjusted some to the basket attacks against Roy Hibbert in terms of challenging him less and thinking extra pass more and playing shooters against him to bring him away from the basket. Those are reasons why he was a little bit less effective this year as well, it's not just about Roy's performance. Roy gives 100 percent effort all the time and his purity and his care factor is as high as anybody on the team. I think it's inappropriate to dump on him, to mention his numbers are down."