Indiana Pacers to match Portland Trail Blazers offer on Roy Hibbert – NBA News
The Indiana Pacers have ended the drama surrounding their star centre Roy Hibbert and according to confirm reports, have decided to retain him.
Hibbert had a 4 year $58 million offer by the Portland Trail Blazers but the Pacers have decided that he is worth the money and will retain him, keeping their starting line unchanged from the previous season.
Portland, who are in a re-building process, wasted no time and gave Hibbert an offer shortly after free agency began on July 1st. The offer they put forward showed that they wanted him to come to Portland and become
one of the cores of the new team. However, Indiana knows the importance of Hibbert to the team and are now going to give the Jamaican national an exact same deal after July 11th. This will prevent Hibbert from accepting Portland’s offer and sending
it to the NBA for approval.
The Pacers had earlier considered letting Hibbert go as they showed interest in Bulls reserve center Omer Asik as well as Chris Kaman. Their priorities however have changed as the end of moratorium period draws near.
Hibbert averaged 12.8 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2 blocks per game for the Pacers last season and was one of the main reasons why they were able to finish third in the Eastern Conference and make it to the Eastern Conference
Semi Finals.
“To keep things rolling, you need to get everybody back so it’s the way it was before,” said Pacers guard George Hill, who was recently signed for 5 years.
With Hibbert retained and the Pacers starting line-up sorted out, the team management is now focusing its attention towards the bench and are looking to add a few players to strengthen it.
O.J. Mayo and Courtney Lee are two players who are said to be on the radar of the Pacers. Both players are hot properties at the moment, receiving interest from a number of teams.
Pacers team president Larry Bird has particularly been interested in Mayo for some time now and will try to recruit him this time around. Lee is regarded as a better overall player than Mayo, but Mayo is the better scorer of the
two.
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