The Indiana Pacers had a mess of a season in 2013-14 and heading into the offseason, a Roy Hibbert trade could be on the horizon if Indy wants to shake things up and not even players like David west or George Hill are guaranteed to return, while Lance Stephenson could be gone as a free agent and that could lead to Isaiah Thomas or Mario Chalmers being free agency targets for the team.
The Pacers ended up with the best record in the east this season and got home court advantage in the playoffs, but clearly it did not payoff, as the team lost to the Miami Heat in the postseason. Hibbert is the main player to watch this season for the Pacers along with Stephenson, because if those two are gone it will drastically change the makeup of the team. Thomas could step in for George Hill after starting to breakout with the Kings and he has turned into a very solid point guard after averaging 20 points and six assists last season.
The Blazers are always an option for Hibbert after they tried to sign him to a four-year, $58 million deal that was matched by Indiana and now they could be lurking again. The team may lose LaMarcus Aldridge after this season without an extension and adding Hibbert could help mitigate that and would make a nice trio with Damian Lillard and Robin Lopez. The Blazers were 16th in defense last season and adding Hibbert in the middle could really turn things around and ESPN.com reported Marc Stein said that the Pacers would not oppose looking at Hibbert trades and the player's camp said they wouldn't be asking for a trade, but they wouldn't go against the idea of shopping him either.
The Pacers went 56-26 and won the east and their division this season, but that wasn't good enough to beat Miami and while the series lasted six games, that last matchup was a total blowout. After the postseason ended, many speculated that the Pacers would be making changes and after the way Hibbert disappeared at times during games could mean he is on his way out. Hibbert signed an extension with the team and looked like he was turning the corner as a big man in the league, but he had multiple zero points/rebounds efforts in the playoffs and that simply cannot stand for a team looking to win championships.
The Pacers crowed all season about wanting home court and feeling they could have won against Miami last season if they had Game 7 at home, but that did not happen and now they have to figure out what's next. Looking back, the Pacers totally got the worse end of the George Hill and Kawhi Leonard trade and now that looks pretty bad, as PG is the biggest weakness for the team right now. Leonard would not be there obviously but if the trade did not go down it wouldn't be Hill.
