This. Only thing is he may not have reached his ceiling yet, but either way I don't think he's going to get significantly better. He'll never reach his "potential" that people claimed over the past five years. That's not a knock against him, it's just the way it is.
Yes he did. I'm not giving up on Batum. I'd trade any player for an upgrade, but I don't envision such a deal being offered. Who gives a shit how much Allen pays him, so long as we complete our free agent signings before signing Nico's contract. An extra million dollars a year is going to cause fans to freak out, really? Allen has always overpaid. It's literally the only way to keep quality players in podunk Portland.
We should have signed him for cheaper when we had the chance. Though I guess we wouldn't have the caos flexibility we have now... Win some and lose some.
If Batum were 6'6 and played exactly as he plays now, everybody would consider him a decent shooting guard--maybe the long term shooting guard of the future for Portland. Because he's 6'9 he seems to get forced into playing SF when it's really not his best position.
At 6-6 he'd be a Rudy without the passing. He'd have to improve his shooting and passing to stay in the league.
The Blazers "weren't close" and the offer was low enough to piss off his agent for him to say that they'll talk to "29 other teams before the Trailblazers". It's obvious that he wants Gallo type of money. Steve 'Snapper' Jones chimed in when he was in Portland saying, IIRC, that he's a $6m type of guy.
Of course his agent will call all the other teams and try and get his agent the highest offer possible. Gonna have to say i'm pretty sure all agents do this regardless when there player is a RFA or UFA. As for Batum there was never any confirmed reports of what we offered but the big amounts that were windmilled around was we were at 6m a year and they wanted 9m and wouldn't budge because of what Batum's supposed value was this off season with a weakh money. FA class and a ton of teams wit
I thought you couldn't use amnesty on someone that you traded for after this CBA started. Do I have that wrong? EDIT: found an SI article from December that backs me up here:
ooops, damn, you're right. total brain fart on my part, had just looked quickly at their roster. I guess they'd have to renounce rights to Duncan, and then sign him for MLE to do it. They are set to have 10 in space, I think, without him.
I don't think any of them will be better then Batum, but i do find Claver intriguing to bring over. I'd rather trade our draft picks then Draft either Barnes/Jones. Not advocating overpaying Batum here, but i'm not willing to give him up for nothing either.
Remember, the French National team tends to play him at SG, too, long before he played it for the Blazers. We have to re-sign Batum, that's all there is to it. Small franchises have to retain their decent players, and often have to overpay to do it. I bet Utah wishes they had cap space to make a ludicrous offer for him just to get us back for Millsap. (And, as somebody said, if San Antonio wants him, he must be good. And remember, their starter at SF for the next decade or so is set, so maybe they see Batum as a SG, too.)
