Should we bench him and hope his hand gets better, let him keep playing and hope giving up 31 to Parsons and 46 to Durant was just fatigue and an off night or put him on the trade block. Personally, I am in favor of benching him until healthy because when hurt his play really goes down hill, last two games with finger and last third of the season with his alleged wrist injury. Trading him could be an option but unfortunately the SF position in the NBA has really gone down hill lately. Plus the team is still winning so breaking up the team now seems premature if not reckless.
Trade Nic Batum? All seriousness, give him a couple games off. Durant was going for 40+ regardless of who was defending him tonight. 8 straight games at 30+? Batum is a good defender, but if you think he'd be the stopper for Durant....
Sitting him a couple games won't do anything. Unless I'm completely wrong about broken bones, his finger won't fix itself in only a couple weeks. Bones don't repair themselves that fast. It's broken and it will remain broken until it mends itself. He has a splint on it, but every time he hits it, I imagine he's probably prolonging the healing process. I just don't think sitting him a couple games will do anything because he'll just bang it again when he comes back. So either you sit him for a substantial period of time so it can heal, or you just take the good with the bad. I don't think he can make it much worse (unless he rips off his finger entirely.)
The thing is, we can sit him. We have Dorrel Wright, McCollum, Barton, even Claver, none of them is better than Batum but when he's injured, it's not even a dilemma. OKC beat us without Westbrook. If we can't trust ourselves without Batum we may have no choice when he aggravates his injury. Durant doesn't make all these baskets on a healthy 100% Batum, not all of them. We have several players we need to trust here and even if just some of them produce it's better than playing Batum further away from being healthy.
I assume, If we sat him, we would start McCollum (good for his development) and move Wes to SF. That's what the rotations seem to suggest. It would be interesting. Get to see how great McCollum really is.
Rest him a few games and start Myers Leonard at SF. Aldridge could use some rest too. Freeland needs more PT. All that matters now is getting our bench bigs ready for the playoffs, because that's where playoffs are decided. That 4-5 minutes each half when the stars take a breather is usually the time that the shit hits the fan for one team or the other.
After being torched 77-9 over the last two games, I'm not sure what harm sitting him does if that is what he brings. For me it's more a question of toughness. Do any of us think that Wes or Damian would have been so affected with a fracture of a finger on their non-shooting hand? Nic is having a nice year but he still picks and chooses his times to really show up and this year seems more interested in assists and rebounds (not discounting those) instead of stepping up and getting a big bucket more often. Because of his size and ability, he can get a good shot almost any time he wants but is still so passive at times. Giving up 46 to Durant is no crime although certainly well above his average but what Parsons did to him the night before should be grounds for a criminal investigation.
Batum has a slight slump and you call for a trade? Surprise surprise you've been doing that for years.
It's hard for Nico to catch a "break" on this board. There are a few who will jump on him any chance they get. He has silenced most of those posters all season, but they are out there lurking, waiting for the right time to take a shot at him. This might be true for each player, but to me it seems Nico is at the top of the list . . . or maybe just behind Leonard.
I think we should sit him, let him recover and give Wright a chance to get some confidence back by playing with the starters. Especially since he is the only true SF outside of Batum and Claver who does not play either.
I know you know how to read so please do so. I said trading him could be an option except the SF position has gone down hill, meaning their are no reasonable people to trade for at his position right now. Additionally, I said breaking up the team right now seems premature if not reckless. No where did I advocate for trading Batum, I just threw it in as a topic for discussion.
True giving up 46 to Durant is no crime except when you beg and plead to play in this game against the teams advice and then get torched. Claver could have given the team 3 points, 5 rebs, 2 asts, and allowed Durant to go for 46. 46 to Durant not a crime, stealing minutes from people who need confidence and then providing the team virtually nothing should at least be a misdemeanor.
Leonard just offers those folks more opportunities. Yeah, each players has their special detractor, even Lillard (blue9, anyone?). Nic has more since he's been on the team longer than almost everyone except Aldridge. But even LMA has his detractors. I feel for Nic, because he's a good player who got hyped up by Roy too early. He's the classic "very good" player: inconsistent, with flashes of total dominance if the opponent's defense is poor. I've accepted him, and love his gazelle game.
Amputate finger, replace it with some sort of laser gun. Nothing that will kill anyone, just something strong enough to disrupt someone shooting the ball.
The expectations around Batum set him up for critique, first his game is compared with Scottie Pippen, imo its not even in the same ball park, he signs a big contract plays well and then gets a wrist injury that apparently never heals and his play goes way downhill. Then this season he plays well and calls himself the 2nd best sf in the Western Conference before getting destroyed in back to back games because of a sore finger on his non shooting hand. I think many people myself included want to see consistent upward trajectory from Batum, like Indiana is getting with Paul George.
Man, I think you're really missing the boat if you really think that Durant (i.e. the best scorer in the NBA) getting 47 against the Blazers was primarily because of Nic's broken finger. Andre Iguodala, who is known to be a fairly decent defender and who doesn't have (to my knowledge) a broken finger or any other portion of his body, was scorched by Durant for 54 points last Friday. Durant is probably the best offensive player in the game and he is totally in the zone right now. Play him tight and he drives around you. Back off a foot or two to deny the drive and he gets his jumper...and there's nobody on the planet who can block his fadeaway jumper. Great scorers beat even the best defenders 9 times out of 10. As for Nic's finger...guys play in the NBA with fractured fingers all the time. It'll probably take a bit longer to heal than it would otherwise, but unless you're willing to drop into the second tier of the playoff bracket, you keep playing Nic. I mean...Dorell Wright...have you watched him play this season?
I'd be fine with trading Nic if it got us back an elite center like Noah or for a promising young big like Drummond or Vucevic. I will say I've never been the biggest fan of Nic though. Feels like every year he has an injury and falls off a cliff and the injury is blamed. Just tired of it.
