Nov 25 2012; New York, NY, USA; Portland Trail Blazers center Meyers Leonard (11) drives up to dunk during the first quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

Quick! Let’s play one of Bill Simmons’ favorite games. Take a look at these two, full-season stat-lines from different players:

• Player A: 69 games played, 1206 minutes, 151 for 277 shooting (54.5%), 71 for 89 on free throws (81%), 255 rebounds, 377 points

• Player B: 70 games played, 1009 minutes, 198 for 420 shooting (47.1%), 98 for 147 on free throws (67%), 243 rebounds, 494 points.

Pretty similar, no? Look at the All-Star center who currently has his team up in a bruising conference semifinals series, and then at the Blazers’ “other” rookie. Now back to Roy Hibbert. Now back to Meyers Leonard. Now back to me.

Still not sure? Player A is Leonard this past season. Player B is Hibbert as a rookie.

A few days ago, as I was pouring over the Blazers roster while bemoaning the lack of interior presence, Leonard’s listed height of 7’1” jumped out at me. If you actually stop to look, you will see that there are just not that many true seven-footers currently in the league. At least in this respect, size, Leonard is already among the elite. Hibbert is another, and the more I thought about it, I saw a lot of parallels between him and Leonard.

While Leonard is no athletic slouch (Golden State game dunks say hello), let’s just say he will never be a David Robinson in terms of quickness and agility, and Hibbert sure won’t be either. In fact, the article that was the inspiration for many of these thoughts details just how much work Hibbert has had to put in to overcome his lack of athleticism. There were not athletic shortcuts for him (coughD12cough). He’s truly had to work his way into becoming an All-Star center.

But wow, has that work paid off.. Watching the Pacers/Knicks series, I am salivating over Hibbert’s post game. It’s just so smooth, fluid, and ambidextrous that he’s rapidly becoming one of my favorite players to watch, especially now that he has his wrist fixed.

I digress, though. The point to pay attention to is Hibbert’s development in the league. I was shocked to see that he averaged LESS THAN 15 minutes a game as a rookie. He was a project in every sense of the word, but his slow, hard work and the patience by the Pacers has paid off in full, and then some – scoring an All-Star big man with the 17^th pick of the draft is the type of move that can turn an entire franchise around. Additionally, Hibbert had a full four-year college career during which to develop. Despite this, the process was still a lengthy one.

Lost among all the clamoring that the Blazers pursue a veteran center this offseason (and I have certainly been in that camp) is the fact that they have a first round center already waiting in the wings. On one hand, I can get behind the idea of young players learning from vets, and if the Blazers do end up bringing a veteran center in, it could be great for Leonard’s future if the situation is utilized properly (that’s a pretty big ‘if’, though).

At the same time, young players need minutes to develop. That’s just a fact. There is no shortcut for this either, and something that I think should be kept in mind regarding Leonard. If the Blazers invested the 11^th overall pick in him, they have a plan for him. It’s that straightforward – there was a reason for it.

The Blazers had a specific vision for Leonard (or so we hope), and it is nearing time to start allowing this vision to come to fruition. As I have heard suggested, he could very well be destined for being a career bench player, but that’s utterly irrelevant at this point. Seventeen minutes a game is not enough to tell either way. If the Pacers had written off Hibbert after his first season (when he couldn’t grab more than 15 minutes a game away from Jeff Foster / Rasho Nesterovic [but seriously, Nesterovic played more minutes than Hibbert]), they wouldn’t be where they are now.

May 3, 2013; Atlanta, GA, USA; Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert (55) attempts to block a shot by Atlanta Hawks point guard Devin Harris (34) in the second half of game six of the first round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs at Philips Arena. The Pacers won 81-73. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

Here is where it would be prudent to acknowledge Hibbert’s defensive prowess and Leonard’s lack thereof. It’s true: Hibbert has been the lynchpin of one of the league’s best defenses these past couple seasons, and Leonard’s defense leaves much to be desired. With that being said, if we again look at their rookie stats, Hibbert posted a defensive rating of 107 (a middling number), while Leonard posted an unacceptable 110. As a quick primer, a player’s defensive rating is a statistic that estimates the number of points a player gave up per 100 possessions that he individually faced while playing. As a baseline, a number in the mid-90s is elite.

While they may seem close, that three point differential is actually large enough to take note of, and clearly indicates Leonard has a ways to go. What I would focus more on, though, is that Hibbert started out as anything but a defensive stalwart. Just like every aspect of his game, he slowly worked on it, until this past regular season he posted a defensive rating of 97. In five years he improved by 10 points, so what’s to say that Leonard couldn’t do the same?

That brings us back to the crux of it all, though: It’s easy for me to sit here and preach patience. The reality is that from top to bottom, professional teams are under immense pressure to win. This is especially true when your owner has very vocally discussed wanting to win a championship before he dies.

Despite understanding this “win now” mentality (also amplified by the fact that Lamarcus Aldridge’s contract is up in two years), I think it would be foolish to completely disregard Leonard’s future in the pursuit of a high profile veteran center. In fairness, if such an acquisition takes place, it in no way indicates that the team is giving up on Leonard. As mentioned above, some sort of mentoring / tutoring system could work fantastically in his development.

However, I would find it curious, very curious, though, if such a move did bury Leonard on the bench, especially since such a large resource (the 11^th pick) was invested on him.

Whatever the case, we shall soon see what the future holds. As a bottom line, I think Meyers is capable of going the Hibbert route, but he needs the support of the team behind him.

@ripcityproject

Roy Hibbert was almost a Blazer. Credit: Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

A week ago the sky was falling and the walls were closing in. This Blazer team was doomed. The season was over. Things look a little brighter now. Winning two games in a row in heart-stopping fashion will do that. So will shaking the title of “The Only Team In The League To Lose To The Wizards” (thanks Lebron for that one).

Portland closes their season-long road trip in Indianapolis on Wednesday evening. If you can’t remember the last time the Blazers played a home game, you can be forgiven.

In my preview of this road trip, I tried to address whether or not this Portland squad would be able to learn anything useful from being on the road for two weeks. I also tried to address if “The Road” in general was a good place for a team to make improvements or if it just functioned to crush the spirit of young teams and buoy the championship hopes of the NBA’s elite.

Let me say that first and foremost, this trip has taught fans a thing or two about the Blazers. One of those things is that if this team wants to win, they should play for overtime and hope that they score 118 points. That’s a joke, obviously.

But seriously, one thing we learned about this team that maybe we didn’t know before is that they won’t fold under pressure. They may not perform very well some nights, but they are going to play for a full 48 minutes. Another thing we might have learned over the course of the last six games is that the holes in the roster are legion, but there just might be as many solutions as there are problems. Because everybody on the team is going to get a chance to play, everybody will have a chance to step up and make a meaningful contribution.

Just as this season won’t be made or broken by one string of games, neither should this road trip be judged on the outcome of one single game. That being said, beating the Indiana Pacers to answer four straight losses with three straight wins might serve to make us all forget about the last week in November.

Blazers Starting 5: PG Damian Lillard, SG Wesley Matthews, SF Nicolas Batum, PF LaMarcus Aldridge, C J.J. Hickson

Pacers Starting 5: PG George Hill, SG Lance Stephenson, SF Paul George, PF David West, C Roy Hibbert

Portland can play dirty. They can play slow. And they can play sloppy. They can’t really do it on purpose though. The Indiana Pacers are the classic Eastern Conference team, in that they make their money by slowing the game to an absolute crawl on offense and punishing their opponents in the paint on defense. It’s not the style of play in which Portland excels.

As Comcast’s Chris Haynes tweeted, head coach Terry Stotts wants to combat Indiana’s grinding pace by getting out and running a little bit. It’s a fantastic game plan. Whether or not it happens remains to be seen. The Blazers have put up some decent rebounding numbers, J.J. Hickson especially, but against strong rebounding teams they’ve not been super great. Why bring up rebounding when talking about running? To get to a running game, Portland has to really show up on the defensive glass. If they can do that, get rebounds and score on the run, they can win this game.

What to Watch For

• Roy Hibbert. Big Roy was Portland’s main target in the off-season free agent free-for-all. Neil Olshey made a big offer, Indiana matched, Hibbert stayed a Pacer. So far, Roy hasn’t really lived up to the hype that comes with a big-money contract, but his real assets haven’t changed. He’s huge. J.J. Hickson isn’t a real center. Meyers Leonard is a rookie. Hibbert is going to be able to dominant Hickson in the low post. Meyers Leonard will have two fouls two seconds after he checks in Wednesday. Figuring out a way to neutralize Hibbert both offensively and defensively will be important.
• Portland’s shooting numbers. Indiana is the best defensive team in the league. The Blazers have gone through a season’s worth of shooting slumps on this road trip alone. The formula is there for a bad night for Portland. Pay attention to the Blazers’ first period shooting numbers, they’ll set the tone for the night.
• Will the Blazers play loose knowing that this is the end of a bad trip, they’ve gotten super lucky to win their last two games, and they’ve got a serious break coming up. Not much more to say about that.

@mikeacker | @ripcityproject | mike.acker1@gmail.com

May 22, 2012; Miami, FL, USA; Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert (55) reacts against the Miami Heat in the third quarter during game 5 of the 2012 NBA eastern conference semi-finals at the American Airlines Arena. Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

The NBA Draft went Rip City’s way, and if everything goes according to plan, it’s looking as though the free agency period will follow suit.

According to The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman, the Portland Trail Blazers have reached a verbal agreement with one of this off-season’s hottest targets, center Roy Hibbert, for a four-year/$58 million max contract.

Addressing their biggest need going into the season, Hibbert made the Eastern Conference All-Star team last year and posted averages of 12.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and two blocks per game in his 2011-2012 campaign with the Indiana Pacers.

“We intend to enter into an offer sheet once the moratorium period ends,” GM Neil Olshey told The Oregonian in an e-mail.

The Pacers still reserve the right to match Portland’s offer sheet, and very well may do so, but an aggressive move so early into the off-season shows good things to come for Portland.

Hibbert would be a perfect fit with the Blazers.

Making the All-Star game off of solely rebounding and shot blocking, with a taste of low-post scoring, the market’s top center would be the ideal big man to put alongside LaMarcus Aldridge, who also made the All-Star team last season.

If the Indiana Pacers neglect to match the Blazers’ max contract offer to their young center, Portland will have formed a power-packed front-court nucleus of Aldridge, Hibbert, and restricted free agent, Nicolas Batum (who is the No. 1 priority on the Blazers’ off-season list), to play off of their stud rookie, Damian Lillard, and wing sharp-shooter, Wesley Matthews.

Now that’s a team that’s poised to get back into the Playoffs.

Kristian Winfield is a Staff Writer for Rip City Project. He is also Lead Editor for Scarlet & Game. You can follow him on Twitter here.