The Indiana Pacers are having a pretty good year after changing much of their roster, but have Ian Mahinmi and the rest of the Pacers big men replaced the rim defense that Roy Hibbert provided?

Ian Mahinmi has been much better than expected this season with the Indaina Pacers, averaging 8.2 points and 7.2 rebounds a game. It isn’t that he’s just getting more minutes, he’s actually playing his best since he got to Indiana.

When you look at his per 100 possession stats on Basketball-Reference, you see this is the best season he’s had since the limited minutes he played with the Dallas Mavericks in the 2010-11 season.

In the preseason when he scored 16 points, we joked about his ‘offensive explosion’ while noting how he was projected to compared to Roy Hibbert. He never scored quite as much as Indiana’s former starting center, even when you adjusted for pace. Before the season began Basketball-Reference had him projected to score 8.9 points and 9.4 rebounds per a game this season, which he’s relatively close to. So far he’s compared well to Hibbert offensively.

Rk Player Season G MP FG FGA FG% eFG% FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1 Roy Hibbert 2014-15 76 25.3 4.2 9.3 .446 .446 .824 2.1 5.1 7.1 1.1 0.2 1.6 1.4 2.8 10.6 2 Ian Mahinmi 2015-16 33 24.2 3.3 5.5 .590 .590 .557 2.1 5.2 7.2 1.4 0.9 1.0 1.1 3.2 8.2 View Original Table

Generated 1/7/2016. Provided by Basketball-Reference.com Generated 1/7/2016.

However more important than replacing Hibbert’s 10.6 points a game (roughly his career average) was replacing his defense — and particular his rim protection — and that was the big question. Mahinmi’s rim defense was always close to Roy’s, but that was starters versus bench. Now Ian is facing tougher competition this season as he’s become the Pacers starting center. So when you look at last season’s rim defense numbers, Roy Hibbert ended the season limiting defenders to a 42.7% field goal percentage. This season Ian Mahinmi’s stands at 53.7%, that’s rank 61st among centers in the NBA who have played 20 or more games. It is also up from the 45.3% he had a season ago, which ranked him 12th. For the record Hibbert has fallen down the list as well but still stands above Mahinmi at 48.9%.

Playing against starters now is part of the reason his defense has suffered, but he’s also affected by the Pacers style and roster changes. Hibbert had David West and Paul George to help him, but now it’s C.J. Miles often taking the power forward spot while PG defends on the wing still. C.J. does a pretty good job, and more often than not has made up for any mistakes by shooting lights on from 3-point range, but he’s not nearly as big as West was, as C.J. stands 6’6 compared to West’s 6’9 frame.

It’s a strategic gamble, and, for the most part, is has worked as Indiana’s defensive rating is at 98.6 only two more points a game than the peak Roy Hibbert years. The Pacers net rating has dropped down to 3.8 compared to the 4.8 and 5 that Indiana sported in 2012-13 and 2013-14. Indiana’s scheme has went away from rim defense being a top priority and moved towards a more balanced approach on defense, and more emphasis on the offensive end overall.

It is impossible to compare the two directly as the roster has turned over so much, but it’s fair to say that while Roy’s time was up in Indiana, he still was a slightly better defender and scorer, for what’s that worth. It’s hard to look at Hibbert’s numbers from this season and take them seriously (6.9 ppg, 6 rpg) as the Lakers are more of a carnival act with the main attraction being Kobe Bryant than an actual basketball team.

That’s not to say it wasn’t the right move. It was clear that Roy Hibbert no longer wanted to be in Indiana nor did Larry Bird really want him there. The original contract he was on was likely one that the Pacers assumed he would grow into more and that never really happened. While he did fine as a Pacer, it became harder to justify the $15 million a season when he wasn’t improving much on the offensive end.

Mahinmi has served as a nice stop-gap between the Roy Hibbert and hopefully Myles Turner eras. Mahinmi deserves plenty of praise for stepping upping his production to nearly fill the gap, but he hasn’t fully covered what Hibbert did on either end. However to Mahinmi’s favor he seems more like a chemistry guy than Roy was. Hibbert’s moodiness was fine when the Pacers were at their peak, but as they declined it made it easier for Bird to look at the situation and see Hibbert as expendable. When you look at Mahinmi’s contract and the league averages, it becomes clear that the equation of money÷production meant Mahinmi would be an acceptable next step for Indiana.

The one argument I think is fair to make that this season’s the rotation of Mahinmi, Jordan Hill, and Turner are collectively better than the Hibbert/Mahinmi one, but just looking at the starter vs starter comparison, Hibbert still has a small advantage statistically over Mahinmi.

The mix of money, chemistry, and production combined to make it was the right decision to move on, but it is up to Myles Turner to develop into a more consistent and productive player than both Hibbert and Mahinmi for that decision to truly look brilliant in the long-term.