July 11th a BIG day for Roy Hibbert and the Indiana Pacers

July 11th marks the first day players and teams can begin signing offer sheets/contracts and that leads to a big question for the Indiana Pacers, Will they match the offer sheet proposed to Roy Hibbert from the Portland Trailblazers? Portland's offer is a 4 year 58 million dollar contract, the maximum contract they could offer the Pacers center. The Pacers could add a 5th year and up to 21 million more dollars to Portland's offer for their maximum contract offer to Hibbert, but all they have to do to have Hibbert remain a Pacer is match Portland's offer sheet within three days of July 11th, due to the fact  that the 7'2 center is a restricted free agent.

      For those who aren't familiar with the whole "restricted free agent" thing, A restricted free agent is subject to his current team's Right of First Refusal, meaning that the player can be signed to an offer sheet by another team, but his current club reserves the right to match the offer and keep the player. An offer sheet is a contract offer of at least 1 year made to a restricted free agent. The player's current team has three days to match the offer or loses the player to the new team. 

      With that being said, good...traditional centers are hard to come by in today's league so resigning Hibbert has to be the top priority for the Indiana Pacers. The big fella has been an essential part of the team's growth over the last couple seasons and in order for the team to continue in the right direction Hibbert must remain a Pacer. We will soon find out what the Pacers' brass will do, with the July 11th date approaching very quickly. July 11-14 is when the decision will have to be made. Until then stay tuned for the latest Pacers news!