Roy Hibbert offered max deal by Portland Trail Blazers.
Written by Adrian Gregory Glover // July 1, 2012 // NBA // 3 Comments
NBA free agency got off to a bang with the Portland Trail Blazers offering Roy Hibbert up a max deal. After drafting Meyers Leonard three days ago, this one is surprising.
At 25, Hibbert is still a young gun so what could this do for Leonard? That is a topic for a later date if the Trail Blazers can pull this off.
There was nothing floating out in space that led anyone to believe that Portland would come this hard this fast.
So far the Indiana Pacers have declined to match the deal.
According to CBS, Hibbert is inclined to take the Portland deal. Something else to keep in mind is that Hibbert has been offered the max deal by another unnamed team.
Hibbert is ridiculous in the post and can step back and throw up a nice mid-range jumper when he needs to.
His skills are at a premium in a league that is lacking true centers that can dominate the war zone.
After a springtime campaign to declare that they were going to do what it takes to keep Hibbert on board, it was assumed Indiana would waste zero time to match any offer that came their way.
BUT, that was the Larry Bird led Pacers and we are now under the watch of former CEO Donnie Walsh.
An offer sheet can’t be inked until July 11th and even then the Pacers have until the 14th to match that tender.
This could be a simple matter of assessing the situation and thinking this whole thing through.
Still, it can’t come as a surprise to the Pacers that Hibbert was offered a max deal, so this could be a sign that they simply were not ready to go in this deep and were hoping for the best.
