The last time we had a motley crew of rejects...

[Sinobas]

I generally defend Batum, as advanced metrics show he is one of the hardest runners in the NBA. He runs 4.3 miles per game--the most in the league is 4.5. He looks lax because that's just his demeanor.

However, you bring up a good point about the playoffs. Compare Aminu's 5 games of experience to Batum's 35, and it's hard to say Batum is the better player in the playoffs. He pretty much vanishes. Especially the advanced stats--20 PER vs 12.4.

You could say, "Well Aminu had one hot series--you can't extrapolate much from that." But look at Batum's cumulative record over 5 different playoff runs. Not once did he put up better numbers than Aminu did in his first time out. Remember all those Blazers 1st-round-and-outs? How many of those did you say to yourself, "Well, at least Batum showed up." Because I fucking don't.

Maybe Batum's commitment to France leaves his tank drained by the time the playoffs role around. Who knows. If I want to win more regular season games, then yeah, Batum is probably your man. But if I want a small forward who I can be reasonably sure isn't going to disappear in the playoffs, Aminu is the obvious pick to me.

The distance that he runs only proves how he's great and running around a lot and accomplishing little. He's like a bottle of champange, that we're all supposed to celebrate for supposedly being good, but in our heart of hearts, we know it tastes like crap. As far as I'm concerned, we raped Charlotte by getting a young lotto pick for Batum.

 

[mook]

I agree that Vonleh is going to look like a steal when it's all said and done. I disagree with the ideas that Batum is a bad regular season small forward, and that champagne tastes like crap.

 

[jlprk]

Batum...runs 4.3 miles per game--the most in the league is 4.5. He looks lax because that's just his demeanor...Maybe Batum's commitment to France leaves his tank drained by the time the playoffs role around. Who knows.

Or maybe the unnecessary running is what drains his tank. No maybe; it's obvious. Conserving energy leaves you with an overdrive gear, a reserve ability to go 120% for short periods, which he and our team lacked in 4th quarters and the playoffs.

It's the Stotts system and the Batum system. No overdrive gear, due to playing with more energy than the opponent in the 1st 3 quarters.