I think by now, we pretty much know what Batum is. He's well into the 4th season of his career, and is 24 years old. Of course he may improve somewhat, but he's not going to be the next Scottie Pippen, and he's not an all-star calibur player. He's productive, and he has his nights, but he's a support-cast type of guy. I think people like the "idea" of Batum more than his actual play. 10 mil a year would be too much for him. I'd say more like 7 mil, but I have a feeling some team is going to offer him a lucritive contract and Portland will be forced to match. We always seem to end up in this situation over paying for mediocre talent.
When he plays consistent minutes at SG he's been very effective. Bill Simmons recently said on his radio show that Dallas and OKC have circled him for the past few years as a target -- "Battier 2.0 on a contender" and will offer him a big contract. I'm guessing he's going to get an offer similar to Gallinari: $10m per/year. PG: Westbrook SG: Batum SF: Durant PF: Ibaka C: Perkins 6th man: Harden Defense, defense, defense! plus elite scoring from Durant. That's a scary lineup.
I'm sticking with my $8mil per over 4 years. He'll perform better once we have a new coach and a cohesive team.
Hope for the best but expect the worst. Especially when you have Larry Miller and Chad Buchanan making decisions. They already royally pissed of his agent. So far, they are off to an awful start.
Thank you for saying that. So true. Batum is so overrated around here. He's a fine player but a lot of people seem to be most concerned with Batum getting lots of minutes so that he gets good numbers regardless of whether we win or not. It's all about Batum looking good. Exactly. Batum is a solid 4th option. Some Blazers fans want him to be a first option. Not gonna happen.
4th option? More like third option to a contender and second option to a playoff team. The reason why people value him more is his defensive ability. He's a great help defender and he's actually good at getting rebounds. If this guy actually had plays ran for him, I think he improves greatly. Definitely not a scotti pippin, but definitely not a battie either. I am leaning on a "prince type" player with a better shot.
Prince was the 4th option on those Pistons teams. Good player, but overrated by some on this board. He'll show flashes, but ultimately he's just a nice solid regular that has a place on competitive teams.
He was their third option. Sheed wasn't the third option. It was Hamilton, then Billups, then Prince and finally Wallace.
Sheed was their only post threat for the most part. You think Prince's offensive game was an option before that, when they have two other really good wing players on their team? Your post may be true towards the end of Detroit's run when Rasheed was clearly out of his prime, but the reason they had such great runs is because they added Rasheed to the mix that gave them a scoring big man.
Sheed was definitely one of the main reasons why they contended. I won't ever deny that. Just that Sheed was Sheed. He will give stellar D and post up when you ask; but he never looked to score. Just not his style. Spot him for three and he shoots all day.
