On Roy Hibbert

Perplexing rookie season thus far for Big Roy. Annointed the starter for the Pacers earlier in the season, Roy has been shifted to the bench on and off and seen his playing time reduced, mainly due to his inability to stay out of foul trouble. Check out his stats thus far below.

Career Averages															Rebounds
YR	TM	G	GS	MIN	FG	FG%	3P	3P%	FT	FT%	STL	BLK	TO	PF	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PTS
08-09	IND	48	20	12.5	2.5-5.0	.504	0.0-0.0	.000	1.1-1.7	.651	0.2	0.9	0.8	2.8	1.3	1.6	2.9	0.7	6.2

The 6.2pts and 2.9rebs in 12.5 mins/game isn't that bad, and roughly translates into 18 and 9 if he played 36+ minutes. Shooting over 50% is fine, and 65% from the line isn't bad either. But those fouls are preventing Hibbert from making an impact, as he is picking up 1 foul for every 4 minutes of playing time. Indeed, in his previous five games he has picked up 5, 4, 5, 6, and 5 fouls in just 84 minutes, an average of 1 foul per 3.4 minutes of playing time. In January, Hibbert averaged a whopping 12.3 fouls per 48 minutes. "Rival" Greg Oden was 2nd with 8.1 fouls per 48 minutes.

To open up an old wound and shove a wedge of salt in it, Roy fouled out against Davidson after just 16 minutes.

Will Roy's fouls come down once he begins to adjust to the speed of the NBA and works on his defensive positioning? Or are most of his fouls from using his hands to reach in order to compensate for poor footwork and poor speed?

Either way, he's making about $1.5mm this year.

Casually.