First, here's an article about Batum going up against Galinari in Eurobasket this summer. Looks like the French team will have Pietrus, Parker, Diaw, Turiaf and Batum, so that's a loaded team right there. It'll be interesting to see how much of their offense will go through Nic. http://www.fiba.com/pages/eng/fc/news/lateNews/arti.asp?newsid=47339 Interesting to see the article so focused on Batum with barely a mention of Parker. Especially given the trade rumors of the two before the draft. Also, kind of a different story, but here are Batum's stats compared to a spectrum of wings after their third season: http://bkref.com/tiny/ph2PS When you account for the slow pace of our team, he's in the thick of them. Here are those guys after their fourth season: http://bkref.com/tiny/OE5II So you kind of hope this will be the year for a major uptick in his productivity. *shrug*
I've been thinking that, after a healthy Oden, Batum making an Aldridge-last-year kind of jump is the thing to hope for for this team. Especially after we haven't traded him so many times. Mind you, if he does make the jump (for which there would have to be a season, not a certainty), he'll probably have to be our starting PG because we can't afford him and Felton AND everyone else. (Nice finding-on-the-interwebs, by the way.)
Unfortunately for Batum, he will be playing behind Wallace. Batum will get his chances, as he has every year he has been with the club, but I'm sure he is looking forward to the day he is penciled in as starting SF for an entire season. I expect Batum will be the all purpose 6th man . . . hope he happy with that and it allows his game to come out.
Hopefully a lot, he's finally veteran enough to demand the ball. He's just like LMA, he has it in him, he just needs to flip that aggressive switch. Demand the rock NIC! It's all in his hands. If he comes out in the euro-league with a focus on scoring, learns some new moves, and hones the one's he's got, then he could gain the confidence he's been missing. Time for Batum to step up to the challenge.
I'd like to read he's going to gain 10-15 lbs of muscle this off season, IMO that would be a big plus
Batum, Babbitt, and Johnson all need to bulk up. How great would that be? Off-season programs: --Batum: Eat, dribble, and lift --Babbitt: Eat, shoot, and lift --Johnson: Eat, eat, and lift Add 50 lbs of muscle between the 3 of them, and our depth issues would be much less of an issue.
A little added incentive for Nico is if he plays like a BEAST he will get paid fairly well, if not well.... wait what am I saying? Were the Blazers, he'll still get paid well.
Johnson has already added 15 pounds of muscle, Babbit/Batum are lagging behind someone needs to go pour Protein shakes down there gullets!
I completely agree. Batum's season stagnation was frustrating to me, but I still think he has a lot of potential. A healthy Oden and a big developmental leap from Batum would really change the dynamic and caliber of this team.
I thought Nic showed a real jump in his second year (or at least the half-season he actually played) so I definitely started to get my hopes up about what he might be capable of doing. As others have mentioned he's got to really increase his aggressiveness if wants to get back to that level and then continue to progress. With Wallace in front of him and splitting time with Wesley at the two I'm not so sure he's going to have enough opportunities to make those necessary jumps to go from "solid role-player" to "foundation level player" or all-star. A Tayshaun Prince level career is probably still within his grasp, but he has a lot of work left to do.
If you look at the comparables I posted of other SF's in their third year, a Tracy McGrady career is still within his grasp. Tmac was younger in his third season, though. It ain't exactly likely, but then people didn't expect Tmac to explode like he did when he moved to Orlando. Still, the interesting thing about all those guys I listed is that their third season stats weren't really vastly superior to Batum's. I wasn't trying to cherry pick data, either. I was just trying to imagine where he could wind up down the road, from low end (Bowen/Jackson) to high end (Kobe). Probably should've put Prince in there instead of Bowen in hindsight.
Tayshaun Prince has a career PER of 15.2 with a usage rate of 18.9. Nic Batum has a career PER of 14.7 with a usage rate of 16.4. I'll add that Nic has a 118/108 Ortg/Drtg split, while Prince is at 111/107. Batum already has Prince's career, and that's been while battling injury and coming off of the bench.
tmac was on another level, he got to the line 5 times a game in 30 mpg at 20 years old...IF batum can become much more aggressive, i could see him try and get close, but i doubt he ever leads the league in scoring
Since Nico is going to come off the bench, he should be a primary or secondary scorer at times. Either Roy or Matthews will be the first option, depending on who doesn't start, so Nico should be the second. Matthews is a terrible ball handler and not much of a passer (due to his lack of court vision and handles). Roy dominates the ball and is a decent passer when he isn't calling his own number, and he draws attention and dishes. Nate should set Nico up for success on the second unit by making sure he is featured in the offense. His defense should kill other team's subs. If he is more aggressive, he should have a pretty good rebounding rate. My question is, which of Roy or Matthews will be better for Nico's offensive development?
I still think we should deal Matthews while his stock is high and he's on a reasonable contract, although I think that his injury might hurt that possibility. I like his defense, energy, and shot (sometimes). But Nic with his age, ballhandling, and athleticism has so much more potential. I'd rather start Nic at SG - or play a lot behind Roy (he guards 1's half the time anyways) and play him and Wallace together. I'd only trade Matthews for a good shot at a decent 4 or 5 though so I'm not saying dump him at all.
Matthews's contract only gets smaller from here, so we deal him now or never (because unless his actual baskeball value goes down, we get more and more hosed). But, you'd have to be damn sure Nic has the handles to play SG at least 28 minutes a game, because Roy may not give you more than 20 every night.
