Hibbert has until June 29th to decide on player option

Pacers center Roy Hibbert has just over a week to finalize his plans for next season. Hibbert, the team’s first-round pick (No. 17) in 2008, has a player option for the 2015-16 season that would pay him $15.5 million, second to only Paul George ($17.1M) on the team.

Hibbert is coming off a poor season, where his averages were slightly above his rookie numbers: 10.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game.

Both Roy Hibbert and David West have options to decide on by June 29.

“I didn’t think he played that well, to be honest,” Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird said in April at his end of the year press conference. “I thought at times he played well. He always played hard. He’s very durable. But I don’t think he had a great year.

“… I think with Roy a lot of time it’s confidence. I think he’s got the talent. I think he gets down on himself and he worries about a lot of things that really has nothing to do with the way he plays.”

Hibbert — and David West, too — has until June 29th to formally make a decision, according to a league source. The expectation is that he’ll exercise his option and stay with the Pacers for another season (and big guaranteed money).

But he has mega agent David Falk on his side, and Falk could possibly work something out that would deliver money over multiple years, and get him on a team that both needs his services and can perhaps help him return to All-Star form.

When asked by VigilantSports.com in an email Wednesday about Hibbert’s status and a timetable for finalizing his decision, Falk wrote, “We are not discussing this publicly. We will inform the Pacers first when a decision is made.”

Hibbert, meanwhile, is spending the offseason in Los Angeles and learning jiu-jitsu.

Robert Mathis, his friend and a fellow professional athlete in Indianapolis spoke with him by phone earlier this month.

“He’s out in Cali just relaxing, clearing his head and being Roy,” Mathis shared. “… He’s the same old Roy. He’s still big, goofy Roy.”

Coach Frank Vogel has always been in Hibbert’s corner.

In my conversations with several of Hibbert’s teammates over the last few weeks, they were unsure of what Hibbert is thinking. Most uttered, “If Roy comes back,” when discussing next year.

In mid-April, Hibbert — who was closed in interviews with the media all season long — didn’t hint at how he was leaning at his exit interview with team executives and staff.

“Whatever he does, he does,” Bird added, also noting that at the time he wasn’t sure if Roy was tradeable. “I don’t know what he’s going to do. We assume he’s going to be back. If he comes back, we’re probably going to play a different style, and I can’t guarantee him anything. He’ll have to earn it.”

Both Bird and coach Frank Vogel have been outspoken since that year-end press conference about playing smaller and faster next season — which follows the evolution of the league.

Jalen Rose, the former Pacer (1996-2002) and current NBA analyst on ESPN/ABC, didn’t like what he saw from Hibbert last season.

“Some of the games I saw in the second half of last year, they were the worst games and the worst performances of any player that has made an All‑Star team that same year,” he said on a conference call.

Rose wasn’t surprised with how forthright Bird, who was once his coach, was regarding Hibbert’s play and his future with the team (as quoted above).

“(He’s) earned the right to say what they feel, and so when you’re the only guy that’s been the MVP of the league, the Executive of the (Year) and the Coach of the Year, you have pretty much a landscape to say what you feel,” Rose continued. “As somebody that works in the media now, I appreciate getting frank answers.”

Whatever Hibbert decides, the Pacers would like a resolution prior to June 25th, the day of the 2015 NBA Draft.

Hibbert has a chat with Pacers consultant Donnie Walsh after a practice.