Foul trouble. When he can play his game defensively and not pick up so many cheap fouls, THEN he can be penciled in by coaches for 35+ minutes every night.
Yes. Including Roy, Batum is our best all around player. There is no reason other than foul trouble or injury that he shouldn't play 35 minutes a night.
The guy averages only 2.2 fouls/game. That's really good for a guy who always gets the toughest perimeter defensive assignment. I've never viewed that as a reason he traditionally gets such limited burn. Watching the games, it seems like Nate thinks to himself, "Well, time to bring in bench guys. I'd rather not pull out Miller or Aldridge or Roy yet. I'll sub in one center for another. So to get minutes for Rudy/Bayless/Webster, Batum has to come out. That kid is only 21 anyway." It's like he's obligated to play bench guys, when I don't really think it's so. If you've got a starter like Batum who is clearly a notch above everybody on the bench, you play him as many minutes as he can reasonably handle. Anyway, I'm not trying to be a downer here. It was a great win and it was a ton of fun watching Batum bring all the intangibles out there. And it was awesome seeing him do that pump fake, single dribble, shot, and hear both announcers drool, "He is just so smooth." I think this series will be a little like that Dallas series so many years ago where Zach Randolph clearly demonstrated to the world he was a 35+ mpg player. But I think Batum is better-equipped for that kind of responsibility. Unlike Randolph, he's already got all the fundamentals firmly in place. You can take the training wheels off and not worry about him spiraling into a me-first no-defense chucker.
Batum has been my favorite player since he joined the team. That being said, a passive Batum is a slightly below average player, and he has been that at times. However, an active Batum kicks Bahoochie!
It was great to see Nic get almost forty minutes of burn, he's a true differnce maker in this series. Speaking of minutes, I get that Nate is trying to get Rudy some confidence for the rest of the series by riding him, but holy cow, you're telling me that Rudy deserved 28 minutes? As good as Nic (and Bayless and even Marty were) Rudy was a hot plate of garbage.
You can't complain about limited minutes for a player, then throw out a per game stat. Batum picks up fouls in mini clusters. In fact, it happened last night. Because of that, and because of his role to focus on playing tough defense, which wears players out and causes them to pick up extra fouls, he is penciled in for limited minutes. You brought up the other reason (bench rotation), which is valid.
Ok, he averages 3.3 fouls per 36 minutes. By comparison: Bruce Bowen averaged 3.3 over his career Ron Artest 3.0 Raja Bell 3.4 Shane Battier 2.6 And the above wing defenders had basically the same job as Batum, but the added benefit of career reputations as "defensive stoppers," which led to fewer fouls being called. Batum is slowly getting that reputation, but he certainly isn't seeing as much of the benefit in only his second year. It's pretty clear to me that fouls really aren't an issue in his minutes. "Defensive stoppers" necessarily foul a little more than other guys, and Batum is no exception. But he's well within the norm in that category.
true that Rudy wasn't very good last night, but I like that Nate doesn't have a quick hook when things aren't going well on a particular night. Guys need to be focused on playing through mistakes rather then being worried that they're going to be jerked out of the lineup because of a couple bad plays. I'd support a quicker hook when a series hangs in the brink but I see real value in the coach keeping a steady hand and sticking to the plan/roles that he lays out prior to tip-off STOMP
If you take defense into account, and the fact that AssClown doesn't call any plays for Nic, I think he is easily our best all around player
What makes Batum great is that Nate doesn't have to call plays for him, nor should he really. At least not too many.
I support Batum playing as many minutes as he's physically capable of (whatever won't cause him to lose effectiveness/break down). I think he's clearly established himself as one of the team's four or five most valuable players (and, more importantly, far and away the team's second-most valuable wing after Roy), so should be drawing a starter's load of minutes. He should be getting at the very least 30 MPG and probably 35 MPG. Nic having a break-out series would go a long way toward getting Portland into the second round.
Batum has been amazing in 25mpg. But the incremental minutes from 25-35 would not necessarly be as high of quality as the first 25. Right now he can go all out for the minutes that he is out there instead of coasting on defense for stretches which players like Brandon do to conserve energy. Nate is bringing the kid along slowly and keeping his minutes limited even if he is the best player at that postition. If Batum continues his play he'll get plenty of minutes in the next two years, have some patience people he's 21 and not everybody is ready to step in as a 35mpg starter at a young age like Lebron.
I love Batum's game, but he has missed a few important shots in the past. That 3 after Miller's 3 was probably one of his biggest plays for us.
