Trade Ideas Thread

He also had a career low 11.9 PER. VORP ranks say Aminu and Harkless are better than CJ. That stat has so many gaping holes in it. And Batum's magaical TS% jump last year doesn't seem sustainable. His previous 4 yrs were at 51.6, 54.6, 52.9, and 52.3%. A larger percentage of his attempts come from three now which caused the bump. He's trash now. They couldn't even play him at the end of their season in must win games.

 

His TS% increased cause he just stopped shooting. He posted the lowest usage rate of his career last year (even lower than his rookie year when he was a token starter). He basically stopped doing anything on the floor.

 

That’s because CJ only does one thing on a basketball court. He didn’t rank in the top five on the team in any major categories (TS%, rebound%, assist %, steal %, block %) and graded out as the worst defender in the rotation. So that doesn’t surprise me.

 

We also don't advance in the playoffs without CJ. We do need to consider these stats with a grain of salt.

I'd take Harkless above Nico right now. Maybe even *shudder* ET. This all blows, because Batum was my guy when he was here.

 

What’s a bigger sample size, an entire season, or the playoffs? I know Olsheys answer.

 

Playmaking can absolutely vanish when you get older and aren't as athletic anymore and don't tell me that I only looked at his assists numbers when I mentioned several other things. AST% took a ginormous dip, that doesn't just happen for no reason.

 

Scalma, you have to BIFURCATE!

Couldn't resist that one.

 

AST % isn’t part of assist numbers?

Passing has nothing to do with athleticism either. A blazer fan should know that.

 

You don't know that we don't advance without CJ....

It's the butterfly effect. If we don't have CJ and have someone who is a more well-rounded player we may not be in that position to begin with.

 

What was Portland’s record without CJ again?

 

Yeah youre on some dumb shit.

 

How soon we forget Game 7 in Denver

 

Last year: 10-2
'17-'18: 1-0
'16-'17: 1-1

 

Passing doesn't have to do with athleticism, but playmaking does. Batum was a good playmaker out of side pick and rolls and with his ability to bring the ball up the floor and penetrate. Those skills are starting to lessen for him making it harder to get to positions to make passes. It's not like Charlotte's team changed much since he's been there, why would his usage and passing numbers dip so much if that wasn't true?

 

Idk, I didn’t sit around watching Hornets games. But it was one season, with a new coach. Could be a bunch of things, the least likely being skills eroding. He’s two years older than Lillard.

 

He's played 4 more NBA seasons, plus Batum was known for going pretty hard for France every summer until the last one. He's got a lot of mileage.

 

Which is an extremely small sample size and this past season many of those wins were against the weaker part of our schedule and Lillard went into hero mode. Over an 82 game season our record would be better with McCollum than without and it's not really debatable.

 

Forget stats for a moment. Let me ask you a more fundamental question. Batum often seemed unhappy and unmotivated in Portland. He has shown the same traits with the Hornets. Why do you think he is going to change?

I'm saying this as somebody who once had great hopes for Batum.

 

Players’ skills don’t erode at 30, unless there was some sort of major injury, especially not passing. That never goes away since it’s just instinct and IQ. Just look at the walking corpse that was Sabonis. Boris Diaw. I mean I could compile a list but I’d rather not. You can put Batum on the court when he’s 50 and he’d still be one of the better passers out there.

 

His demeanor has always been mislabeled as “lazy, unmotivated” because of how smooth his game is. It looks like he’s jogging when he’s really covering ground. He doesn’t show much emotion. The concern about his aggressiveness is another story, but no one is asking him to come in and be something he’s not. He can be the same guy he was the last time he was here, or the guy he’s been in Charlotte, and it’d still be an upgrade.