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He was also often sloppy with the rock, however. Especially in the high post, way too many of Roy’s touches were wasted with him just holding the ball and letting the shot-clock dwindle before making a bailout swing pass that did little more than force a guard to re-set the offense.

This season has been very different.

His assist percentage (the amount of teammate field goals a player assists on while he is on the court) so far this year is 19.3%. For reference, only 12 centers in history have finished a season with an assist percentage of more than 19%. Only four centers have done so since 2000 (Shaquille O’Neal, Arvydas Sabonis, Vlade Divac and Brad Miller). And no center has finished above 19% since Miller did so for Sacramento in 2005-06.

(If you open it up to players of any position who are 6’10″ and over — thereby including great passers like Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Toni Kukoc — there are still only 22 tall guys that have ever maintained an assist percentage better than 19.0% for a whole season. KG has done it an amazing 10 times — with a high of 27.1%.)

He is performing well by other metrics as well. Per-36 minutes this season, for example, Roy ranks fifth in assists among players 6’10 and over — ahead of guys like Pau, KG and Dirk.

How is it that Roy has become so much more adept at passing the ball so quickly?

Like all his improvements this year, his slimmed-down physique and new-found agility are the primary drivers. It’s not that MMA training this summer gave him better court vision, but better stamina and greater quickness have slowed down the game for him, and he now just sees everything that happens on offense better — and sooner.

Also, he just understands the offense better and is more comfortable receiving the ball at the elbow. The trepidation and indecision that was all too familiar last season is now rarely seen. He has a plan from the catch and does something useful with the ball much more quickly. If a guy gets open, he usually gets the ball from Hibbert. This, naturally, incentives movement and helps prevent stagnation. Instead of looking like a QB hurried by a blitz, he stands there calmly, pivoting and scanning the court as if he is checking down receivers and looking for a seam to throw. He is also better at executing the hand-off to a teammate — usually Danny Granger — who curls off his shoulder towards the foul line.

Sport Illustrated’s Ian Thompson recently spoke with Hibbert about his passing. And Roy credits working with Bill Walton this summer as a big reason that his technical proficiency has improved.

Few NBA offenses run as much motion around the post as the surprising 10-10 Pacers, but then few teams have a center who can pass as well as 7-foot-2 Hibbert. It’s no coincidence that Hibbert spent three days last summer working with Bill Walton, the Hall of Famer who was the finest passing center of modern times.

“[Bill] had a drill from the high post,” said Hibbert, “and he was like, ‘Just make passes between your legs, behind your back.’ They were silly passes to the guards while they were moving, and he was like, ‘Don’t be afraid to make those passes.

“We watched tape on Hakeem [Olajuwon], we watched Pau Gasol and David Robinson and how they were able to see guys [cutting] and they didn’t think twice about making those passes. It just came natural to them, and Bill said I have that [ability] so I should do it.”

Perhaps even more importantly, Walton helped instill confidence in Hibbert.

Since last season, Hibbert has … developed confidence that is on display during the pregame introductions, when he raises both hands high at the sound of his name, whether at home or away. That last bit comes from Walton.

“He said you have to love yourself,” said Hibbert. “He was like, ‘You have to be all about yourself!’ I told him, ‘Basically what you’re telling me is swag.’ Come out like this.”

He raised both arms.

“All eyes on me,” said Hibbert. “I do it now because of Bill, that’s why I come out like that.”

I’m not sure that Bill Walton knows what “swag” is, and I’m almost certain he hasn’t ever listened to to Tupac’s multi-platinum-selling double-album All Eyez on Me, but nevertheless, it seems as though the universal language of beautiful passing was not lost in translation.

Here’s a gorgeous pass from Roy Hibbert to Darren Collison from Friday’s win over Charlotte. I don’t believe he could have done this last year. Note the Walton-inspired, All Eyez on Me arms at the end.

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Trey Kerbz and Kelly Dwyer aren’t really telling us anything us Pacer followers don’t know, but there were a notable two Roy Hibbert mentions today on the co-#1 NBA blog out there (along with TrueHoop, naturally). So I figured we could talk about that since it’s boring old August and all.

Roy first appeared in the mid-tier of NBA centers on Dwyer’s “Ranking the Centers 30-1″ list. Specifically, Hibbert comes in almost dead center at #16.

Says Kelly:

16. Roy Hibbert, Indiana Pacers (last year: unranked)

Hibbert has had his growing pains, for sure. From fouling too much in his rookie year to serving as Pacer coach Jim O’Brien’s go-to screaming post in his second. But the Georgetown product has significant skills in the pivot, and don’t be surprised if Roy comes out of nowhere in 2010-11 to act as one of the better passing big men in the NBA. His growing ease with the high post, combined with his already potent low-post play gives Indiana a real up-and-comer.

Like I said, nothing here Pacer fans don’t know. And while I’m sure some Indy backers will put up a stink that Roy is ranked behind Anderson Varejao and Marcus Camby (and perhaps Okafor, too), there is a reasonable argument to be made either way.

The second mention was an Ol’ Yertdawgs joint about Roy Hibbert working with Bill Walton this summer. Again, we’ve known this for quite some time (although I don’t think we actually have mentioned it around these parts yet … mainly cause Tim Donahue is really lazy). And, of course, the actual reporting comes from Mike Wells, who told us about how Roy’s “eyes lit up like a 5-year-old on Christmas morning” when Larry Bird told him he could have his choice of working out this Summer with any of Walton, Kevin McHale or Bill Russell, the proud owners of a combined 16 championship rings if my math is correct. (I’m almost positive it is 2 + 3 + 11 … but whenever I do math in my head it sort of goes like this, so you should probably check my work.)

Now, I’m not sure if the decision was actually up to Hibbert (although Larry has a lot of pull with all three of those Hall of Famers so perhaps it was), but I probably would have also opted to learn from Bill if I was Roy.

For a few reasons.

First, none of these three legends are exactly spry anymore, but Russell is 76-years-old and probably hasn’t actually done a post move in a decade. So his teaching would likely be limited to just sage wisdom. That’s not a bad thing when we’re talking about a 6’9, NBA-version of Yoda who knows more about defense than General Patton, but, at this point in his development, Roy mostly requires help with his footwork, which has been really coming along on its own over the past 24 months.

Given that, McHale might seem the best choice. Along with Hakeem and Duncan, Kevin has the best low block moves of any player to grace the league in my lifetime. But his combination of quickness, deception and gorilla-dragging-his-knuckles-on-the-ground arm length make replicating anything he was able to do nearly impossible. Hibbert trying to learn post moves from McHale would be like an average Major League pitcher trying to learn how to throw like Randy Johnson from Randy Johnson. “Oh … So I see … I should just be 6’10, left-handed and hurl a 100 mph four-seamer that drops six inches while making the hitter think he is about to die from head trauma? OK … I’ll get right on that.”

Thus, Walton was the best fit. Sticking to that past paragraph metaphor, Roy learning from Big Red is like a normal Major League pitcher learning from Greg Maddux. The skill set seems, at least on paper, reasonably translatable.

Both are very, very tall. Both have touch around the hoop. And while even mentioning Roy in Walton’s class when it comes to big man passers is laughable, Hibbert is certainly above average in that regard.

Going back to Dwyer’s comments from earlier, he certainly does have a “growing ease with the high post.” At the beginning of last season, he was at times comically poor, holding … holding … holding the ball with his back to the hoop and just waiting for someone to come save him by taking a dribble hand-off. A dribble hand-off he would execute clumsily.

But by the end of the year, he was turning, facing and hitting cutters at times. No, the awkwardness never escaped him entirely. And, yes, the low block is where most Pacers fans should want to see him firmly planted most of the time. But there may be no big man on the planet more qualified to help Roy get comfortable holding the ball when he isn’t immediately trying to score than Mr. Sir Bill Walton himself.

Meanwhile, Bill was a master of the outlet pass, something that will come in handy in an high-pace offense on the few occasions Roy actually grabs a defensive rebound. Speaking of, Bill can help him with that, too. And, yeah, did I mention that Walton is a genius on the low block, too? Well, he is. Both hands. Hook shots off one or two feet. The works.

All and all, Roy can’t go wrong learning from Walton.

Trey sums it up well:

Yeah, there’s probably no better feeling than having Bill Walton hyperbolizing about how great you are at basketball. It’d be like living in a dream world of magic. Heck, I’d buy a 12-second Walton-ism for $50 if he offered such a service.

Who knows how much this is going to help Roy Hibbert, but if he learns even three defensive tricks from Walton, that’s good news for the Pacers. And, of course, it’s good news for Hibbert because, well, he got to hang out with Bill Walton all summer.

Honestly, the best part of this story, really, is just that Walton is up and about and even physically capable of helping Roy out. Not long ago, Bill was dealing with perhaps his most painful —at least emotionally — injury in a life full of way too many. His spinal pain got so bad that, according to Walton himself, he almost didn’t want to go on living.

“It got to the point where my life wasn’t worth living. I was standing on the edge of the bridge, figuring it was better to jump than to go back to where I was.

“You can’t understand until you’ve been where I’ve been.”

So, yeah, hopefully Roy has gotten a lot out of working with Bill this Summer.

But I have a feeling that one of the best ambassadors this sport has ever had might actually be the one enjoying it even more. Glad to see you back on your feet, Bill.

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UPDATE: I forgot to add what I had tweeted earlier, which is the only thing I really have to say about the whole incident at this point:

“I saw the Malice at the Palace live in an NYC bar that was later destroyed when a 24-story-tall construction crane fell on it. Apropos, I thought.”

(video from FanDome)

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