This is a quote: “All my teammates talked to me. ‘We need you if we want to win this game.’ So I decided to be more aggressive.” - Nicolas Batum He 'decided'... How good would this team be if he 'decided' to play every night? Would they have 7 losses right now? Would that little extra defensive effort give us that extra two or three points to pull out a game or two? Who suffers most when Nic 'decides' NOT to be aggressive? He or the team? I made an asinine comment night last saying, I was ready to revisit the idea of moving Nic for Carmelo. 15 games in the season, I wouldn't have. I was living Nic and what we was doing. But Nic is who Nic is. For better or worse. He either helps or hurts the team. It's a 'decision' he makes all on his own. The team could use the extra points and star power. So If Nic can't make a professional 'decision' to help the team each and every night. I may not be opposed. As asinine as that is. I hate quotes like that one.
Doesn't have to be Carmelo. It's just the idea that many of the outcomes for the team 'rest's on the decision Nice 'decides' to make.
You like the ball movement and player movement we have in our offense? Well ALL of that stops with Carmelo. How you could want such a LAZY player on this team is unbeknownst to me.
Remember he had just gotten torched by one of the best players in the game, that quote was more about telling Nic to keep on battling, we believe in you and lets go win this.
Putting that quote into context, this last game Nic came out with very little energy and nothing was going his way in the first half. LA gave him a little pep talk to boast his spirits in the 2nd half and Nic fed off that. I think that is all he was trying to express. I think Nic's demeanor on the court gets him a bad rap. You can't play in the NBA and put up numbers as consistently as he does without having fire and trying every game. I don't think it is a matter of Batum having to have that mentality all the time. He is a competitor who comes to play every night, just like the entire starting five. Trading anyone in the starting 5 right now would be bad idea. You have five guys who trust each other and share the ball. I'm all for improving the bench, but these 5 together could be special. Wish the playoffs were a month away. I'm OK with a 7-8 players rotation with the subs not getting a lot of time . . . if it were the playoffs. Months of this rotation scares me.
When you working your butt off guarding the best scorer in the NBA who is scoring despite your best efforts, and your legs just aren't quite there for your 24 ft three pointers, it can get pretty discouraging. Throw in how unselfish Batum is and wanting to do what the team needs him to do, it's nice to know you have teammates who will give you feed back and tell you that you are doing exactly what the team needs and to keep at it. There is ZERO credibility to an argument that Nico does anything but makes Portland a contender. I couldn't say that last season, or the year before, without being called a Kool-Aid drinker because the team on the whole was so thin talent wise. I think it IS asinine to suggest that this team would be better served by trading Batum (who does ever-ee-thing) for a ball hoggin' prima donna. The Blazers have THE BEST offense in the entire NBA. If you have issue with the presumption that Batum needs to "decide" to keep playing hard, then how can you not have an issue with Melo, who is the poster child for guys who pick and choose when they will play defense? Chew on that for a few minutes the next time the thought of Carmelo crosses your mind.
I know that Anthony was just a suggestion, but could you imagine just how much worse the defense would be with Anthony on the team? Batums defense comes and goes, but Anthonys goes and went.
Yeah but you are implying that whoever we trade him for….. will play well every single night. That won't happen. It goes back to the "grass is always greener" theory that I don't agree with. We see our guys play every game, so it is a lot easier to nit pick their deficiencies. Where other players we see only a small sample size of their games. Some say we over value our players, but I believe we over value everyone else. So if you are not talking Carmelo, then who are we talking about? We need to know so we can dissect their game as well.
I blame Stotts for that very thing even though this team is playing well enough that Stotts deserves a lot of credit. However, when Nic is playing his Point Forward game this team is at their peak. I do not suggest that they play that style all the time, I do think they should do so more often to exploit Nic more and him responsible for leading the team intencity during those periods. Stotts needs to make that happen by making Nic time a regular period of time.
Nicolas Batum, in a nutshell All my teammates talked to me,” said Batum. “Dame, L.A., they say ‘We need you.’ Mo, Coach (said) ‘We need you. We need you if we want to win this game.’ I can’t give up on those guys so I had to show up because we need this game. So I just decided to be more aggressive on offense and defense.” This right here is exactly what drives me insane about Nico. I love his versatility, athletic prowess, and jack of all trades type game. HOWEVA, doesn't this seriously just encompass everything that is wrong with him? It's not like this is a new development, i'm aware of that. Why is he being TALKED INTO playing aggressive? He gets so passive, shies away from taking shots, has trouble when his game isn't clicking on one end(Bad defense lends itself to disappearing offensively), etc... Again, i'm not trying to hate on the guy, being in triple double territory on a regular basis and filling up the stat sheet is invaluable. The fact that he constantly needs outside motivation, or even simply that he is reluctant to take more than 8 shots in some games is beyond me. At this point in his career he should be willing to shoot through a slump or attack the basket and draw more fouls, and such is the never ending struggle that is watching Batum.
Re: Nicolas Batum, in a nutshell Ok just realized someone else started a thread on the EXACT same subject, my apologies. Disregard.
Blame? Stotts spoke with Nic, as did every player at the half. It's nice you know that even though Durant was having his way with him, that no one on the team or in the NBA was going to shut him down with any greater success. That his teammates, and coach, have the chemistry, trust, and respect for each other to communicate what they see and what they need from each other, including and especially when guys have rough games.
It feels like work sometimes. And then you remind yourself, you can't fix stupid. So, you make your point and move on.
