Nate wants Nic to develop his post game (and more updates on Batum's summer)

http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/6/12/1514920/blog-batum-mcmillan-wants-me-to-be

Great stuff from Nic's blog as usual.

Some highlights:

[video=youtube;ripMtD9Hups]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ripMtD9Hups[/video]
[video=youtube;23Tt13WCGHw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Tt13WCGHw[/video]

 

Good to hear!

 

What does Bernie want?

 

Good to hear. Glad to also hear he is giving his shoulder a month off. Despite what some folks say, it shows that Nate wanted to do more in playoffs, but his personnel really didn't allow him to make any more adjustments than he could. I think if Nate had some of the tools at his disposal to make more adjustments he would have. But he didn't.

 

Good stuff. I know I'm a big time Nic cheerleader around here and not everyone sees as much potential as I do in this guy, but I really do believe that we'll see Nic move into that "2b" scorer role next year (with LMA still 2a); I really hope he has a bangup world championships, that would do nothing but give him confidence as he comes into training camp.

Next year could be really huge for this guy.

 

As far as I'm concerned Nico should be close to untouchable -- it would have to be an amazing deal for me to be ok with losing him.

 

Leave it to Assclown. He gets our SF to play more inside, so our 6'11" PF can continue to be a spot up shooter.

 

Nic is already a better player than Tayshaun Prince ever was. Nic posted a 17.2 PER last season with a TS% of 0.646. Prince's career bests are PER = 16.2 and TS% = 0.556. Prince developed a reputation as an elite defender during his first two season, but if you look as his DRTg over the last six season it's no better than what Nic has put up during his first two seasons.

The big difference is Prince has performed well on a bigger stage. He's won a championship and has multiple deep play-off runs. Of course, Prince, who played four years at Kentucky, was older than Nic at the time. So, I look for Nic to continue to improve and become a big factor as the Blazers start to move deeper in the play-offs.

BNM

 

Classic example of relying too much on PER.

 

Bullshit. Nate's an idiot. He had the personnel, but refused to make adjustments (painfully obvious adjustments to anyone with half a clue).

Andre Miller scorched Nash for 31 points in the Blazers game 1 victory over Phoenix (and Batum had 18 points, as well). So, in game 2 Alvin Gentry puts his best defender, Grant Hill on Miller to shut him down, and "hides" Nash's abysmal defense by putting him on Batum. The second Nate saw Steve Nash guarding Batum he should have made the Suns pay by getting the ball to Batum EVERY single time down the court until Phoenix pulled Hill off Miller and put him back on Batum. Christ, I'm 4" shorter, 28 years older and infinitely less athletic than Batum, but I'm confident I could overpower Steve Nash and score on him at will all day long. Batum should have KILLED the much older, shower, shorter Nash. But he didn't, because his coach didn't run a single play for him to exploit Nash's horrible defense.

Gentry made an adjustment after one game. Nate had five games and never made a counter-adjustment. He let Phoenix put their best defender on our PG and never made them pay for hiding their weakest defender, a PG, on our long, athletic, efficient scoring SF. Over the last 5 games of the series, Batum averaged 4.8 FGA/G, including a total of THREE shots combined for games 5 and 6. In the two games Portland won, Batum averaged 36 MPG and 10.5 FGA/G. In the four games Portland lost, Batum averaged less than 16 MPG and 3.75 FGA/G. Nate had a HUGE mismatch in his favor and refused to exploit it to his advantage.

Nate had the personnel, but didn't use it. In 1.5 seasons as a starter, Nate hasn't run any set plays for Batum. He just has him stand at the 3-point line and wait for the kick-out as the shot clock expires. Alvin Gentry knew this (that the Blazers don't' run any set plays for Batum) when he decided to put Hill on Miller and hide Nash's atrocious defense by putting him on Batum. Nate had five games to adjust, but couldn't. To me, that's reason enough to fire Nate, right there. In the play-offs a head coach needs to be able to make adjustments in-game, or at the very least from game-to-game. Nate's philosophy seems to be to wait until the off season to make adjustments. That's not going to cut it and will lead to nothing more than a long string of first round exits.

BNM

 

How so? Batum also has much better shooting percentages as well. Batum is a marginally better rebounder, has has a higher STL% and BLK% than Prince. Other than his defense his first couple years in the league, and his passing, I don't see any areas where Prince is better than (or even as good as) the much younger, less experienced Batum. It's not Batum's fault his idiot coach has refused to run a single set play for him in 1.5 seasons as a starter. That also helps explain Batum's poor AST%. It's hard to rack up assists when you never have the ball in your hands. Prince was a better defender his first two or three years, but has been living on his rep since then.

So, if you don't like PER, please explain how Tayshaun Prince is better than Batum. If Tayshaun Prince is Nicolas Batum's ceiling, we're screwed. Thankfully, it isn't.

BNM

 

Sample size.

Nic did his thing in only 37 games.

Until he proves that he can sustain this sort of play over the whole season, I can't vehemently declare that he's better than Prince.

 

It should be noted that Nate's ability to use Nico was hindered by Batum's bad shoulder.

 

I'd almost agree, except for the fact that Nate never even tried. He didn't run any set plays for Batum in 1.5 seasons as a starter and, therefore, did have any set plays to run for him in the play-offs. He had five games to counter Gentry putting Hill and Miller and Nash on Batum and failed five times in a row.

Batum is 5" taller, quicker and much more athletic than Nash. You don't have to run anything sophisticated to exploit that, just get him the ball. At the very least, Batum can spot up and shoot over Nash like he's not even there - and Nic has shown he's a good spot up shooter.

Unless they are carrying him off the court on a stretcher, there is no excuse for Batum, guarded by Steve Nash, getting a total of 3 FGA over the last two games of that series.

BNM

 

Also by Nate's poor coaching ability

 

Fair enough, but Nic played in more games (79 vs. 42) and put up better numbers as a 20-year old rookie than Prince did as 22-year old rookie. Batum was better, at a younger age and his trajectory looks to far exceed Prince's.

BNM

 

...

Watch them play. Prince has more ability. It's that simple. Batum can't even really create his own shot. Saying Batum is better than Prince ever has been is ridiculously silly.

#'s are not everything. People around here don't seem to realize that. Prince put up those numbers as the 3rd option on a very good Pistons team. If he got more shots he could have averaged closer to 20. Perhaps even be close to a 20/5/5 player with more assists. Hamilton and Billups both averaged over 4.

Batum should be happy if he reaches Prince's ability level.

 

Looks like we're just going to have to disagree on this one. Batum was better at a younger age and is improving more rapidly than Prince did. Prince peaked in his third season at the age of 24. He stopped improving offensively and his defense has regressed.

How do you know Batum can't create his own shot? His coach hasn't run a single set play for him in 1.5 years as a starter.

I saw a HUGE improvement in Batum's offensive game this year compared to his rookie year. I saw him put the ball on the floor more, and either drive to the basket, or fake the long jumper, take one dribble to get around the defender and then knock down the mid-range jumper - something he never even tried as a rookie.

Obviously, the French national team coach sees something in Nic's ability to create. He ran the offense through him last year when Tony Parker was injured and plans to do more of the same this summer.

Nic's game is stifled under Nate. That's not due to Nic's lack of ability, it's Nate's inability to devise an offense that involves more than one or two players.

BNM

 

I get that you don't like McMillan. But really, are you saying that Nate shouldn't run plays to post Nic up when he is being guarded by smaller, weaker defenders?

Go Blazers