Oh please, get off the $11 million salary. Batum is not overpaid. In fact, he's one of the more appropriately paid players in the entire NBA. I remember, when we matched the Timberwolves offer, it made Batum the 49th highest paid player in the NBA, and the season before we matched the offer, he was the 46th highest scoring player in the league. And, since Nic isn't one of our top scoring options, and contributes in other ways, making him the 49th highest player in the league seemed like fair pay for his contributions. His scoring is down this year, as are his minutes and FGA, but he is averaging career highs in assists and rebounds. Yes, I'd like to see him score more, but when you look at the players making more money than him, and his total contribution, I don't think he's overpaid at all. He's averaging 5.2 APG and 7.0 RPG. He recently had three games in a row with 15 or more rebounds. Do you know how many power forwards and centers go their entire career without 3 consecutive 15+ rebound games? I know LeBron and Durant have never done it. And, he had 12 more rebounds last night. Yeah, if he scored more, he be paid LeBron/Durant dollars and we'd be a favorite to win the NBA championship, but he doesn't and we aren't. Gilbert Arenas is getting paid over twice as much to not play this year and Brandon Roy over 1.5 times as much. So yeah, if you want to bicth about his inconsistent scoring, you have a legitimate complaint. If you want to keep insisting he's overpaid, not so much... BNM
No need to name call broski. At the end of the day, is Batum anywhere close to the level of player the other two are? A stat can be made up for anyone at any time. There are infinite combinations of things to create a stat on. I appreciate Batum, but the guy needs to stop making lazy ass passes and checking out on games, specially for what hes paid.
Experimentation and creativity with the ball usually means more turnovers especially for a player who has never played the role of a key distributor. Wasn't it expected that he'd be a little sloppy with the ball and his decision making this year? In any case, better to start laying a foundation and "fail forward" now when the stakes are a little lower vs. trying to get it done in a make or break season (like next year or the year after).
