New article on Batum is just a rehash of what Jaynes has been saying.

Jaynes and Kahn are quite the duo.

 

lol @ dream.

 

It's kind of sad that one more consequence of the bad Andre Miller trade might be that we lose Batum.

 

Well there you have it. I guess Jaynes was right. But doesn't Nic understand that Nate doesn't coach the team anymore?

 

No but it's his DREAM to play in Minnesota. DREAM. Please don't ruin his dreams with your 45 million dollars.

 

Jaynes could be right afterall though. He's not worth 11.5 mil, and I don't have much respect for players that whine about "how they're used", or who don't want to be apart of the team. Raymond Felton tried to blame his crappy play on everything but himself. Nic Batum has gotten plenty of playing time and could take it to the rim any time he felt he had an opening, but he didn't. Were the Blazer coaches really telling him to not be aggressive or attack the rim? I think not.

So Nic Batum can fuck off to Minnesota for all I care. Portland should do a sign and trade and get something in return.

 

Nothing to be sad about, unless you were hoping Nic could achieve his DREAM of playing in Minneapolis. Ain't no way he gets out of Portland.

 

Agents Twitter

https://twitter.com/Boundiaye

 

This is just starting to sour me on Batum, I think i'm gonna ignore everything about this until he is back on the team on the 14th

 

I had a dream too.

In this dream, players like Felton and Wallace were dogging it, and Nic Batum stepped up and became the star many of us once thought he could be.

So it goes, Nicky boy.....and whether you stay or go, this is one Blazer fan who will sit on his hands and never cheer for you again. What kind of twaddle-headed-cheese-eating-surender-monkey turns a contract negotiation into a soap opera? Do you (and your agent) not posess a shred of professionalism?

 

Let him go, he doesn't want to be here and he is not worth $11.5-12 mil a year....

Sign and trade him to MIN and extract as much as you can out of them D.Williams, 1st round pick or 2?

 

I still don't get what his agent is trying to accomplish here. Is he really that hurt that the Blazers "lowballed" him in the winter because they knew Batum had only one option when this time of year rolled around and that was to take the QO? I mean if what Nidayne is doing is business, isn't what PDX is doing considered business as well? Why is he making it personal, when the teams seems to be handling it the correct way? In the end his client was going to get this type of offer no matter what this offseason, so I don't even see it as him doing that great of a job. Why doesn't every RFA try to burn these bridges hoping their client gets let go of, oh because it's BAD BUSINESS!!!

 

At some point we might have to start including Nic in the discussion when it comes to somebody getting their feelings hurt. Certainly it looks like Nidaye is putting out a lot emotion into the discussion, but it's probably a little bit of Nic feeling under-valued here too -- if he was unhappy with his agent he could always fire him and hire somebody else.

My gut feeling is that Nic probably does want to play in Minnesota for a variety of reasons, and that he is a little bit irritated with the Blazers ... that's not to say that he's dead-set against playing for the Blazers again, but if he had his way I think he'd rather move on.

 

Let's put things in perspective. At least he is not trashing the fans like Bonzi Wells did. It's his life. If he really doesn't want to play in Portland, it's no big deal.

 

I agree Nic. I think this is Batum was hurt the Blazers lowballed him during the season. His feelings were hurt and he seems like a bit of an emotional guy. The problem with his agent blowing this out of proportion is that Batum doesn't get to "have his way" unless he takes the QO. Add that to the Blazers saying from the get go they would match and I don't understand the play here. Seems like a lot of unnecessary bridge burning, but maybe that doesn't matter to these agents as there will always be "another" team out there.

 

Olshey has a reputation as being a great salesman with the ability to recruit players. Case in point: CP3 and Hibbert. But he's our SOB now so when players choose Portland, it is of course as it should be.

It appears Adelman did the same with Batum. The Blazers don't even have a coach to convince Batum he'll be just as happy in Portland. Every working person I know wants to be happy in their job roles and it appears basketball players are the same.

If I'm going to make $10-12 mil playing basketball no matter what team I'm on, you bet your ass I'd rather play for Adelman in the role Adelman sold to Batum than go back to playing for Nate and with Crawchuck. Nate and Crawchuck are gone of course, but I'm sure the sour taste remains, and as of right now Batum has no idea how he would be used or what the locker room is going to be like in Portland next season.

From what I can tell, Batum is making a sound choice based on his past experience and the information available to him. There's no reason to beat him up over it. If he isn't going to have a good attitude however, trade him. The deals we've been speculating on, even the one supposedly turned down by Olshey, would be fine with me.

 

He'll play where he's paid. If it's MIN, he'll be immediately happy. If it's POR, he'll get over his bitterness.