Just for fun: Where does Nic stack up?

I added another player to the comparison... an international kid who was 21 in his second season as well. I was surprised by the similarities in the Advanced Stats: http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tiny.cgi?id=0HKqk

 

Not true. In the European tournament when Parker went down he ran the show at PG the whole tournament and played quite well, attacking the rim and setting up players for scores. I believe the only thing holding Nic back really, is the coaches who admit they are kind of surprised by how fast his offensive game is coming along.

 

Average in what context ? This team?

Because here are the players that are better ball handlers than him on the Blazers

Miller
Roy
MAYBE Bayless and MAYBE Mills if he counts
And ummm cant think of any others....

 

Highschool sports star FTW!!

I woulda been state champ if coach had given me a chance!

 

If all he could do was shoot jumpers then he wouldn't have shot 52% from the field overall (his two point % was 62.5). Nic showed an ability to put the ball on the floor on occasion and finish at the rim, usually curling off of a screen on the baseline to either dunk or lay it in and his transition game was really good.

 

Lol, ok so coaches have little or no bearing on the outcome of a game. I guess thats why Phil Jackson is getting paid 12 mil a year

I guess thats why Mourihno can go to any soccer team in the world and have success

 

And Batum is 10x the defender Dirk will ever Be

 

Realistically, he's 1.85x the defensive player (using adjusted DWS), and a better offensive player (7.7 OWS adjusted for Dirk's Minutes versus 6.1 for Dirk).

I think we're actually *underestimating* Nic's offensive abilities, and focusing on his defensive abilities because he happens to share a body type with Pippen and Prince. I really think this kid's trajectory is more in the "OMFG! All Round Player!" range.

 

Not with Nate as his coach going forward

 

Bayless is certainly a better ball handler than Batum. Mills also. They can create their own shot, Batum really can't. Batum does not have these PG dribbles that people on here think he does. They're not terrible at all, but they're about what they should be.

Lots of players in the NBA can come off screens and get an easy dunk. It's nothing special. Despite what you read here Batum ran off screens more than people realize, he just wouldn't be open.

Also, Batum was assisted on over 80% on all of his shot attempts. For him to be this dynamic offensive player people keep talking about he'll have to show he can create his own shot. Even Webster and Rudy had lower asst %'s across the board.

 

Batum has the ability to handle the ball in traffic, which is an invaluable skill. If Rudy had it, he probably would have made the transition from European star to NBA star.

I don't think Batum should be a "featured" offensive player right now, as he's still pretty raw. But I'd like to see him slowly integrated more and more in the offense.

I have my criticisms of McMillan's handling of Oden, but I don't think McMillan has done anything particularly wrong with his handling of Batum. Batum is currently high efficiency but I don't think he'd remain that way (as he stands at this moment) with a high usage rate. My belief is that he will develop into a player who can be efficient with higher usage rates, but he still needs to develop for that.

 

I bet I could throw this football over that mountain!

 

But coaches do most of their work between games, and that's what sets the players up to win or lose.