I'd love to see him develop a decent post-up game so that teams can't hide their weak, guard defenders on him. However, I only saw this once yesterday. Hopefully he is working on it.
Hell that game was hard to watch. When you have Boris Diaw basically being the playmaker, it is going to be a tough night.
Man, Diaw looked ridiculously out of shape out there. If I were a Charlotte fan I'd be pretty pissed off.
I agree with observations that Batum's game is going to look worse when he has no help from teammates. As another comparison to Pippen (I don't think Batum is the "next Pippen," that is to say, an inner circle Hall of Famer, but I think the stylistic similarities are striking), Pippen in his later years was more of a facilitator than a first option type. In his athletic prime, he was capable of being a go-to guy. By the time he reached Portland, he was only able to do that in bursts. But what he could do was create flow and make team offense better, due to how well he saw the game. That's how I see Batum right now. Like late-career Pippen, in that he's not a go-to guy, but he can facilitate team offense. If all his teammates are massively overmatched, though, those skills will largely be wasted. You can't do a lot to facilitate a decimated offense and he's not the kind of guy who can carry an offense on his back. In order to become a talent the caliber of Pippen, he'll need to become a guy who can be a go-to guy on offense. Right now, I wouldn't project that. But with Roy and, hopefully, a healthy Oden, Portland doesn't need that out of him. If he can be a "flow" guy and a great individual and team defender, he'll be an extremely important part of a championship-caliber core.
I really don't. Batum hasn't figured out how to make plays yet. Batum is a great defender. But on the offensive end of the court he is tentative and tends to completely dissappear. Pippen was mostly known for his ability to make plays happen on both ends of the court. Batum is purely one end of the court player right now, closer to a Bruce Bowen than a Pippen.
Can Nic even drink yet (in the USA)? This guy should be going into his junior year of college. Can you imagine what he'd be doing at that level? Guy has a skill set, agility and length to be a nightmare match up on a nightly basis. He can guard PG's and SG's. Can you imagine forcing an opponent to guard a Batum/Roy backcourt for stretches? How much of it is on this coaching staff to develop these players skill sets and how much on just them doing it on their own in the off season? Cuz I am certainly not happy with the progression (or regression) of the likes of Batum, Rudy, LMA and marked drop in production from vets brought on board. This coaching staff (pre-turnover) has not been conducive to overall team development.
I'm sure that you'll be thrilled to learn that Nic has been instructed by Nate to focus on his post up game this off season. According to NB, the plan is to immediately post him up if he's got a smallish guard on him http://blog.oregonlive.com/blazers/2010/06/nic_batum_mcmillan_wants_me_to.html STOMP
Proof is in the pudding. Reminds me of the previous summer when Rudy was told he was going to be more of a play maker and run some PG. Hope it happens but the 5 year track record of the Nate regime has proven to not look much different regardless of the amount of "paint presence, scrappers, vets and shooters" he's requested over the years.
(Nate) said (to Batum), “Each year, you have done more than what is expected, so next year it’s on you to be even better.” I guess this answers my question on how much the coaching staff puts on themselves to evolve talent.
I totally agree. Would be nice to have coaches helping during the off season besides the encouragement of “Each year, you have done more than what is expected, so next year it’s on you to be even better".
Coaches have helped the players on Portland get better during the summer. So..... Also, Batum is playing for France right now, and is coming off rehab work. I'm sure Batum worked with some coach at some point, and if not, that's on him.. While the Blazers help these guys, they certainly don't have to hold their hands the whole summer. It definitely is on the players themselves to get better, and that goes for every player.
well he did put the ball more in Rudy's hands to start last year, but dude struggled mightily with his health and game, and eventually had back surgery. Was Greg's knee injury Nate's fault too? STOMP
isn't that why the coach designs workout regimens for the individual players and their staff of coaches and trainers? It's not like they're expecting Nic to go out on his own dime and hire a trainer or focus on some things while playing pickup at the Y STOMP
I am not so sure on how he would be doing. It could be better than current development, it might not be. I see guys come into the league younger than 21 and score like mad all the time. They definitely worked on the offensive side of the ball more than Batum did. I also remember last year the coaching staff reigned in Batum when he started looking to score, which I think was a bad move. The team was offensively challenged, they needed more scoring. They should have just stood back, and let it happen.
I don't know if this response was concerning my post, but most all the observations I made (besides the forced passes part) were consistent with what I've always thought about Nic. Sure, the environment wasn't ideal to see if he has improved at all, regardless, it was still pretty easy to pick out the things he still needs to work on.
I wasn't able to watch the game. That is a terrible stat line. Did he look as bad as that line indicates?
What season where you watching? Rudy DID get the ball early in the year and he stunk up the joint. Then, he got hurt. Geeeeeezzzuss. Put a friggin cap in it already. We get it. Nate is the anti-christ. The fact he has a job is a sign. Blah. Blah. Got anything else to add?
A better statement as a whole would be the whole french team looked terrible. All their shots were just crap jacked up with no rhyme or reason. Imagine an offense where it is comprised of getting the ball up the floor, deferring it to an exremely overweight Diaw, whose job it is to make something happen, nothing happens, and then he throws a flaming bag to one of his team mates who jacks up a shot barely in time, and you have the french offense to a T.
Nope, you did a great job framing Nate as a championship caliber coach. If Rudy got the ball, Nate's gold.