What is he up to? I read someone mention him resting for the Olympics and team France. But I can't help but notice he just entirely stopped trying after the trade/fire. I am worried that he is tanking too so that the Blazers will not sign him to a big contract and then suddenly he'll be revitalized in say ... Boston. Any other couch therapist ideas out there?
He's like a lot of players on this roster that have been exposed as completely overrated. He's got no handle, can't shoot off the dribble and lacks any sort of aggressive instinct. He seemed like a nice complementary piece when we had a healthy Roy and the dreams of Oden, but we need much more now from the SF spot (he's no SG). He doesn't have me worried. The big contract he's looking for has me worried. If this is him "hungry," wait until he gets paid. It's going to be brutal.
When his 3-point shot (his only real offensive weapon) left him, that's when he went into a tailspin.
When he became a starting guard, I expected him to bloom and he didn't. When he returned to forward, I expected a resurgence of energy and didn't get it. Maybe if we make him the Coach he'll wake up.
I completely disagree that his only offensive weapon is the three. In fact, he has a nice drive to the free throw line for a fade away jumper. He is a better offensive rebounder too. Again when he's playing SG. He doesn't have to worry about a stronger and same height sf on him.
IMHO He's a good 4th or 5th option on the floor. The problem is that the Blazers are going to pay him like he's a 2nd or 3rd option. Tying big money up in Batum (anything more than 5-6 mil) would be detrimental to this team's ability to score point.
It was 15 games. That's small in this condensed season? Shit man, we threw Felton under the bus for 10 games of piss poor performance.
Okay how about Advanced Stats? Small sample size? Well this is the entire freaken season. http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/batumni01.html 17.4 PER, TS% 57.4, eFG% 52.8, DRB% 11.6, ORB% 5.8, USG% 20.9 Or just the stats: PPG: 13.6, 45% FG, 39.1% TPFG, 4.4 rebounds, 1 SPG and 1 BPG. I don't get how quickly people throw players under the bus. It's amazing.
If he were setting the world on fire at SG, there's no way he would have been moved back to SF. I watched all those games and he disappeared for stretches but he was shooting the 3 really well. Once that left, we has just another sold defender with streaky offense (see Arron Afflalo).
Nothing special this far into his career. In the similarity score blow on that Basketball Reference page the "similarity scores" listed these players: Charles Oakley John Salley Clarence Weatherspoon Tom Chambers Tom Meschery Robert Horry Andres Nocioni John Williams Jerome Kersey Dick Schnittker His numbers are similar to role playing big men for the most part.
I honestly think we should trade him while the league still thinks very highly of him. If we could use him as piece in a trade to acquire a star guard, I'm all for it.
