An interesting way to look at it would be, is Batum of more value than Turner and Harkless combined? (Harkless is Mr. Invisible this year, so that's not tough to accomplish.) All three are on bad contracts at the moment with their level of play, so the degree of horrific-ness of Batum's isn't overly relevant if he nets two lesser evils that add up to a bigger evil. It's only relevant if Turner+Harkless can return a more valuable or cheaper player, which seems unlikely. Batum has a lot of mileage on him, though. I'd be worried about paying big money to old Tony Parker at this point.
I wonder what happened to Batums three point shooting. I’m guessing he got cleaner looks in Portland despite the amount of attempts being pretty similar. If he came back I’m confident his percentages would go back up. I’m biased though. I defended Batum throughout his tenure in Portland. Besides his basketball talent, he just seemed like a dude anyone could be friends with. I miss him.
His contract is huge. But aren't we the destination for all pay/no play at the current time? (Moe. Stop frowning.)
Yeah, I think he'd be a much more effective player on our roster than he is on CHA's roster. He'd be a 3rd/4th option role player, rather than a primary/secondary ball-handler/playmaker.
no.....Batum's good games are 10 cents on the dollar...he mails it in for long stretches of a season and just when you're done with him, he'll have a great game...every year he says the same thing....finally I can play my game! He said it when he got to Charlotte but it was the same game he played in Portland pretty much....meh....when Nico does play that great game, I love to watch him play...then next game you forget he's on the team
His contract is exactly why I wanted him gone in the first place. I didn't think he was worth that money before, and I certainly don't think he's worth that money now.
Batums better as a 3rd option. In CHA he's the #2 option, and it's not right for him. As a #3 I think he'd play better.
OK, I get that he makes twice as much as No Show Mo, but at least Nick shows up once every 5 - 10 games. Mo is currently taking the entire season off. Turner is a terrible fit. I'd originally hoped he'd be a good third ball handler/distributor with the height to defend taller shooting guards. He, in theory, is that, but his terrible shooting makes him useless in Stotts' offense. Instead of facilitating, the offense grinds to a halt as Turner tries to go iso on his man with everyone else standing around. Flashbacks to the Nate all-iso-all-the-time offense, minus the shot making ability of Brandon Roy. Turner with the ball in his hands represents the worst of our last two coaching regimes. This could be one of those rare trades that makes both teams worse (the ESPN trade machine thinks so). More likely, it's a lateral move of trading our overpaid, underachieving players for theirs. We'd still be bad at the SF position, but it would be a different bad. The only bright light is it would get us under the luxury tax threshold this year, thus postponing the inevitable repeater tax by another year. Unfortunately, we won't just be paying Nic $27+ million in 2020-21, we'd be paying nearly $90 million in luxury tax on that $27 million. Given his history of nagging injuries and his already rapid decline, is a 32-year old Batum worth $117 million in 2020-21? As much as I would like to move Turner's contract and just flat out don't ever want to see that pouting quitter Harkless in a Blazer uniform, I'd probably pass on this trade. That final player option year of Batum's contract is just a killer. BNM
I'd still consider bringing Gerald Henderson back...he's probably recovered from surgery and wouldn't break the bank...good solid 2 way player..vocal guy on the court.
Moe is the epitome of "got paid, I'm done". Dude makes 10 mil a year... but, I've heard from Quick on 1080 a few weeks ago that he's the moodiest guy in the locker room (by Moe's own words) ... but this is elongated far beyond just mood changes, this is performance changes. I wonder if there's some chemical and cognitive underlying factors we don't know about (and it's well within his right to keep them secret if he so chooses).
I voted no. I get he's better than Turner is by some margin, and I get that Moe seems to still be pouting over Carmelo recruitment, but I think it'd be easier to break those 2 contracts up and move them if needed. At the very least, I think there's plenty of teams that would trade for Moe, to get us under the tax, so it'd then be Nic at 24-27 versus Turner at 18ish. I get Nic's slightly better, but with Nurk a RFA coming up, I don't want that much money tied up in Nic.
I didn’t hear that interview but I believe it. Seems like he always needs positive reinforcement or a feeling of importance, but there’s only so much Dame can do. Even last year he only played well when he was starting. He needs to be elsewhere where can have a longer leash and more freedom. Hopefully Neil actually does his job. Chicago still seems like an ideal landing spot. Or the Knicks.
Yeah. It was on a Thursday... right around the end of last month or the beginning of this month... probably archived on the site. It happened around 5:30 PM. So Issac and Suke's show.
I agree he is better as a 3rd option....but DAMN, that is an expensive 3rd option especially when we are going to have to pay Nurk. That would be a heck of a lot of money tied up in 4 players of which, only 1 is a part-time all-star.
Does adding Batum get us closer to contending? I think it does. As long as it doesn’t cost us Collins or a first I would do it.
He's owed like 77 million over the next 3 years (not counting this year). ET is owed 36 and Maurice is owed 22.
I see all sides of this coin and have literally voted both ways... I'm literally on both sides of the fence...
