The Pacers need to just start 23-year old center Roy Hibbert and start playing him 30+ minutes a night. He is a huge man at 7′2″, 278 pounds and he can throw his weight around inside. Hibbert played in 81 games (69 starts) for the Pacers last season and he averaged 25.1 minutes, 11.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.6 blocked shots per night. He has now played in 151 games (110 starts) in his two years with the Pacers and he has averaged 20.2 minutes, 9.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.4 blocked shots per game. The Pacers need to quit jerking Hibbert around and let him play.

Danny Granger has been outstanding this season for the Pacers. He has played in 58 games (all starts) this season and he is averaging 36.9 minutes, 24.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game. The Pacers would have had a much better record this season if Granger wouldn’t have missed around 20 games this year due to injury.

The Indiana Pacers’ playoff hopes may be long gone, but they are still playing hard as the 2009-’10 NBA season nears its end.  The Pacers scored a season-high 133 points in their win Sunday over the Houston Rockets.  That was their seventh win in the past 10 games, moving them out of the basement of the Eastern Conference and into 10th place with a 29-48 record.  A lot of the Pacers’ young talent has been stepping up lately, and they have beat some tough competition recently, including the Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Charlotte Bobcats.  They took the Miami Heat into overtime on Friday, and only lost by 5 points to the Cleveland Cavaliers in March, who are the top team in the NBA.  This season may not have been very pretty for the Pacers, but the future is bright with guys like Danny Granger, Roy Hibbert, and Troy Murphy.  Even Josh McRoberts has shown some signs of good play lately, as he dropped 18 points, 12 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, and 2 steals in the Pacers blowout win over the Rockets last game.  So if you are a Pacers fan, you have some positive things to take away from this losing season and expect some improvement next season.

Almost any team playing like the Pacers have been would be playing a guy like Roy Hibbert at least 30 minutes per night. But for some reason the Pacers don’t like developing 23-year old, 7 foot centers. Hibbert has played in 71 games (59 starts) for the Pacers this season and he is averaging 24.7 minutes, 11.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 1.6 blocked shots per game. If the Pacers were dumb enough to put Hibbert on the trading block they would find a ton of teams interested in him.

23-year old F/C Josh McRoberts got a rare start for the Pacers last night as he really filled up the stat sheet. In 30 minutes last night, McRoberts played 30 minutes in which he scored 14 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, dished out 2 assists, stole the ball 1 time and he blocked 2 shots. McRoberts has now played in 32 games (3 starts) for the Pacers this season and he is averaging 11.0 minutes, 3.9 points, 2.6 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. He is also shooting 50.9% from the floor as his shot selection has been pretty solid this year. It wouldn’t hurt the Pacers to give McRoberts more playing time the rest of the year as this season is lost.