OT What's up with Batum?

[Rastapopoulos]

Batum in 2019:



(I really hope the next "scrap heap" player Olshey picks up is Ntilikina...)

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I also see you're a Leeds United fan. Congrats on moving into the premier league. I look forward to playing your team next year. Man U and Timbers all the way.

MARCELO BIELSA BABEEEE!

 

[Rastapopoulos]

To be fair to Batum: he's not sitting because he's useless, he's sitting because Charlotte (a) wants to develop the young guys and (b) has no incentive to win games. My nightmare is that they amnesty him and he goes to the Lakers and helps them much more than the JR Smiths of this world will.

 

[tykendo]

Nic definitely needs a new landing spot. His career has fallen off the edge in Charlotte. Kinda sad actually. When i watched him last year, he looked like the forgotten man on the court. Kinda running in oblivion .

 

[B-Roy]

To be fair to Batum: he's not sitting because he's useless, he's sitting because Charlotte (a) wants to develop the young guys and (b) has no incentive to win games. My nightmare is that they amnesty him and he goes to the Lakers and helps them much more than the JR Smiths of this world will.

I'll just throw this stat out there. Nic has 28 field goals total in over 500 minutes of playtime this season, by far the lowest for anyone that has played the type of minutes he has.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I'll just throw this stat out there. Nic has 28 field goals total in over 500 minutes of playtime this season, by far the lowest for anyone that has played the type of minutes he has.

Unselfish to a fault.

 

[mook]

Unselfish to a fault.

In a weird way, it kind of is. He looks around at a roster of kids trying to earn their next contract and realizes every shot he takes is a shot somebody else won't. He's not winning anything, he's not going to get another big contract, and he really needs to be moved. Unless he's wide open, it's probably best for his teammates if he just defers.

I wrote a few months ago that I hope we don't sign him on a vet minimum for a year, but after watching Melo and Ariza find their niche on the team, I'm kind of re-thinking it. He is a good locker room guy and he's still long and smart.

However, the guy I'm more interested in is Aminu. He tore his knee 18 games into the season and still has 2 years left on his $10m/year deal. His stats were terrible. But I wonder if it's just how they were using him.

If we're rolling the dice on a an ex-Blazer forward, I like my odds with him a lot more.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Batum has turned into Boris Diaw,* which is no real surprise, because Diaw was his mentor and the generation just before him when French Basketball broke through. Parker is the anomaly rather than the rule - the game is about the team, and individual stats don't really matter. And as we saw with Diaw, he really needed to be in the right context to be valuable. When Batum finally gets dropped from the French National team, you'll know he really is done.

*although without the weight gain (yet).

 

[Minstrel]

Batum has turned into Boris Diaw,* which is no real surprise, because Diaw was his mentor and the generation just before him when French Basketball broke through. Parker is the anomaly rather than the rule - the game is about the team, and individual stats don't really matter. And as we saw with Diaw, he really needed to be in the right context to be valuable.

I agree. I could see him thriving in Diaw's role on the Spurs of that era, and I could see him thriving today in the Andre Iguodala role for the Warriors. He needs to be somewhere that can leverage his smarts and passing on offense and otherwise just needs him to play tough, switchable defense. And if this year was an anomaly in terms of shooting, he can provide more three-point pop than Iggy.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I liked Nic and I didn't blame him for getting his contract with Minnesota nor with our decision to match it.
But I certainly did not blame the Blazers for trading him to Charlotte. We knew what he was going to demand with his next contract and he just was not worth it at that point in time. Vonleh was a young gamble and one I would take again.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Good to see Batum doing well: