I totally understand the frustrations people are having with Batum (and Matthews is only a matter of time) but the truth is I don't think these guys are really built for 36-40mpg. Not a lot of people are. Look at the league leaders in minutes this year, and you see a lot of studs like LeBron, Kobe, Durant, and Harden. Batum sticks out like a soar wrist in this pack. (Lillard looks quite comfortable up there with Curry.) Those guys are just so good that even with a little fatigue at 80% they are a better option than anybody else on the team. The way our bench currently sits, Batum is probably better than anyone else even at 60-70% (which is how he seems to be playing lately with the bad wrist compounded with all the extra minutes.) But I think when evaluating this team going forward, you have to assume 38mpg is not the new norm. At some point our bench gets a lot better, and Matthews and Batum go down to around 33-35mpg permanently. Batum may be at his best with even less, given that he's a two-way player that's very important on defense and offense. Lillard is obviously an exception. That guy looks to be a 38 mpg player for the next 12 years. And Aldridge has proven he can log 37mpg year after year without much difficulty. But I think on a decent team Matthews and Batum are not huge minute-type players. Stotts may have already come to that conclusion on Matthews. He was getting 37mpg for months at a time early in the season, and over the last 16 games it's down to around 32. Batum will soon follow.
You give very solid points man! I have to give you props! Maybe we should just wait and see. Maybe after next season; with a healthy batum and Aldridge; we can see if they even need replacing. The minute issue is a problem. Batum and Matthews have no business playing 35+ minutes a game. Especially batum. Maybe he needs to stop playing over seas too! This next season could be telling. He won't be playing overseas this summer. Could be a significant improvement!
I would like to see Matthews and Batum sit. They are obviously messed up physically and probably drained mentally. Wouldn't hurt to rest LMA and Lillard a bit more too. Eye on the future.
Olshey wants to accumulate "pieces" and he (and the coach) have discovered that many of his bench pieces are really pieces of crap. So, the coach's response is to play as few of them as possible. Now, some of those few are injured. My feeling is that now that we have a PG off the bench who can make those few bench players better they will get more minutes when they are no longer injured.
He is playing this summer for the French National team, there was a post game interview maybe 2 weeks ago with Casey I think where fans were tweeting questions and one was about Nic's summer plans. He said it was good timing for the question because some of the officials for the French National team were in town and he was going out with them after the game. He said him and Tony Parker will both be playing this offseason, FIBA EuroBasket 2013 sometime in Aug or Sept I believe.
Some players (and by some I mean very few although I think Lillard is one of them) are built for high minutes and some are not. Wes' strength of playing like a warrior actually works against him in this regard but as for Batum I have seen enough at times this year to know that he could be ok with somewhat high minutes but due to his injury should be limited quite a bit.
