Nico -- simply stunning in the first half shooting, made some really sweet passes that should have gone for assists if anybody could hit anything, played credible defense on Williams Dante -- played pretty solid defense, got called for a lot of questionable calls, took it to the rim with some authority. Nice! Nice effort in the last three frames ... at least they didn't fold like a cheap tent.
Bayless played good defense on Williams as well. Not really a great offensive night, but who did besides Batum? He didn't turn the ball over which is nice too. Batum, as you mentioned, was simple awesome. I think he and Bayless are the future starters at the 1 and 3.
He had three stupid fouls in the 4th quarter that killed the momentum of our comeback. However, I appreciate his effort.
Yeah, but he also had nice defense. What killed our momentum was Aldridge throwing the ball right to the Jazz, that is what killed it. Plus, 2 of those fouls were pretty iffy as in, pretty bad calls.
Agreed on all 3. I mean, we have to look at this realistically. We're playing without our best player and both of our centers against teams that are ready to make a push for playoff seeding. Winning this game would've taken a miracle and we still almost pulled it off. The GOOD news is that Brandon will eventually come back to join the returning Batum. By the playoffs, if we can get there, we may actually have everyone on our team healthy and on the court short of Joel. With Howard proving to be a respectable back up center, we should be okay. The catch is... we have to win at least 2 of these next 3 games or we could fall all the way down to 11th in the West. And if Brandon doesn't get back soon, it could hurt his All Star chances, not that that stuff should matter.
This is the first time I ever thought Batum has the potential to be as good as Brandon Roy. Not saying he'll get there, but man he looked so much better than anybody else on our team tonight.
I think Batum has huge upside. He looked so instinctively smooth as a raw rookie, he seemed to know what he was doing and was always under control. He just didn't look like a 19-20 year old to me last season. I've always felt that a prime Tayshaun Prince was his median expectation and his upside was a star...on both ends of the court. I'm not going to utter the name "Scottie Pippen" in connection with Batum, because it would be extremely premature and crazy...but I believe I just did.
Whoa there. The rest of the team looked so god awful tonight, he might have as well been LeBron out there in comparison.
I know, I know. I'm willing to have irrational expectations tonight, because Batum was that good. I don't honestly expect Batum to ever get near Pippen. But who knows? Pippen, in his second year, didn't project to have the career that he did.
I just watched some highlights of no tippin Pippen the other night. And I know it's too soon, but I swear to fucking god Batum could be that guy. So smooth, such great defensive instincts, I could go on...but I'm trying to be patient
Batum (like Pippen) also has great passing instincts; some of those passes he setup to Martell, LMA and Rudy were almost jaw dropping. I love him 'tres tant.'
I said the same thing last year - he reminds me of a young, raw Scottie Pippen (That's what she said!)
It is not beyond the stretch of the imagination that Batum could one day be better than Brandon Roy. Flame away.
Batum is similar to Pippen mentally, too. (Pippen was affected by Jordan.) They are both tough, competitive, and ambitious. Batum announced he would return in the last game, and no one in management or coaching could slow him down, despite McMillan saying, "Maybe." His blog from last year shows a ferocious attitude toward making it in this new league. In contrast, Webster is milk toast. That's why I say that Batum is a thinker out there on the court, playing strategically, while Webster is just a helter-skelter energy bunny.
I remember at one point, in the mock drafts on nbadraft.net and draftexpress.com, Batum was projected as the #2 pick behind D-Rose. Dude has skills and people always knew. It was that bogus heart thing and lackluster play in France that made him slip. All orchestrated by Kpee of course.
The similarities are nice but realistically he probably won't come close to Pippen. Hell it's arguable if Roy is even better than Pippen when it comes down to it, although Roy is still early in his career. Pippen was an amazing talent, though.
