I love Nic as much as anybody, but I think we have the depth to cover for him. I will admit we will miss him on the defensive end, but we won't skip a beat on the O side.
I agree with this. In fact I think we'll be better offensively. Nic usually played less than 20 minutes anyway.
Which means next to nothing. Batum will be a great player someday in the future but not this year and probably not on this team.
Even if he wasn't going to be a great player this year, he was the team's best small forward and the team's best perimeter defender this year, had he remained healthy. Losing Batum means a fair amount. Obviously, the main drivers of the team's success will be Roy, Aldridge and Oden, but solid contributors like Batum and Fernandez are important to supplement the contributions of your stars. Webster can contribute as much as Batum on offense, but won't on defense. Outlaw is a good gunner off the bench, but not multi-faceted enough to be a good starter.
Sucks about Nic, I think he was going to have a solid year, but if he's the difference between the team competing with Denver for the Division title and the 3rd seed, and not, we were never truly competing for the division title and the 3rd seed.
Not sure I understand that logic. If the two teams are nearly even and Batum's play would have produced the small but tipping difference, how does it follow that Batum being the difference means Portland was never truly competing? I think you're trying to say, in a flip way, that Batum wasn't the player the Blazers were relying on for contention. That's true, but just because the team wasn't relying on him to drive their success doesn't mean that the team is equally good without him. And if they're not equally good without him, that could end up being the crucial difference between getting a higher seed or not.
You people underestimate Batum. He is improving fast. Even if Webster had been healthy last year, Batum would have challenged Webster's starting position. By the end of this season that's beginning now, Batum would have been almost the equal of Przybilla and Blake. It will really hurt us for Webster to start instead. Webster's just a directionless kid full of aimless energy. Batum is very mentally centered.
