Roy Hibbert Knows He's a Work in Progress

About 90 minutes before last night's Pistons-Pacers game, the visitor's locker room at the Palace of Auburn Hills was deathly quiet. With half of the Pacers roster still on the court working out, the other half sat slumped in front of their locker, silently watching a big flat-screen TV with its sound turned off that was showing footage from Detroit's recent preseason game against the Cavs. In other words, it's the kind of situation that makes for extremely awkward interviews.

I broke the silence to talk with Pacers rookie Roy Hibbert about his gaudy preseason numbers (per 48 minutes, he averaged 23.5 points, 15.3 boards, 4.7 blocks ... and 9.2 fouls) and what he needs to do to earn more playing time (remember those fouls?). Later, I also caught up with coach Jim O'Brien for his take on Hibbert's progress.

Matt Watson: You've got your first game in about an hour and a half. Do you have any butterflies about starting your career?
Roy Hibbert: I already got that all out of my system. I just got to go out there and play hard.

Matt Watson: Making the adjustments from college to the preseason, was that tough for you?
Roy Hibbert: [I've been] working on a lot of stuff in terms of getting up and down the court, just learning the offense. It's a different one than college, but I'm getting used to it.

Matt Watson: You guys play at a pretty high pace in terms of getting up and down the court, taking a lot of three pointers. Has that been a tough transition at all?
Roy Hibbert: No, this is what the NBA is all about. We get up and down the court, we get up a lot of shots, so that gives me more opportunities to get a rebound and everything. So I'm just trying to do my part to help the team.

Matt Watson: You had a pretty solid preseason numbers, but the fouling was a problem. Is that just something that once you get your feet underneath you, you'll get used to a little bit?
Roy Hibbert: It was a learning experience. The league is such a faster pace than college so I have to be able to read the game a lot quicker. I foul a lot, but I think I'm learning from it.

Matt Watson: Coming from Georgetown, there's a long, long tradition of centers. Do you think going up against some of those guys in practice and in the summers and stuff prepared you for what you're going to face?
Roy Hibbert: Just from the physicalness of the guys banging down low in the post, but for the most part I think I learned from the coaches. But I learned a lot along the way just practicing from my teammates.

Hibbert has all the tools to become a dominant big man but he won't earn serious playing time until he learns not to foul. When O'Brien met with reporters before the game, I asked him about Hibbert's tendency to foul and whether that's something his staff is actively trying to correct or if Hibbert will grow out of it with more experience.

Jim O'Brien: I think you hit it right on the head. It's good that he has (Rasho) Nesterovic and (Jeff) Foster to mentor him because Roy is going to get better when he understands the nuances of the NBA, how the game is called, what he can get away with, what he can't get away with. You can't really push that process, it's got to be a situation where he plays a lot of minutes over the course of the year and develops a nice experience base, and then I think he'll be fine. His mobility is fine, he really runs the court well, he's dangerous when he has the ball near the low post, he's a good shot-blocker. The biggest thing we're trying to teach him is how to play basketball down low. When you're seven-foot-two, you really never had to do that in college or high school because you're always the biggest guy by far. Now there are people who are seven-foot every time out. And he's best when he's down low because it allows him to move efficiently.