I don't see how he's a "tremendous bargain". I still say he's a good bench player or a mediocre starter.
I will agree with this. I do not think we have seen the best from Noah yet. Not at practice to see how hard he is working but doubt he would be getting starts if he was lazy. Look at Patty Mills. Took him some time. My point was just how likely is it that we are going to develop another star without drafting high.
Ya know, I can see it both ways about defining etc....as for your concert tonight, wow, I'll never again criticize you for leaving a game thread early. I don't know how you even find the nighttime minutes for us that you do.
Bingo. A focused, motivated Batum is the superior player. We rarely saw that guy, even though he was making twice as much as Aminu. Chalk up another one to the curse of the Blazerverse.
Batum makes $13mil now. He just turned 27. He's about to be an UFA for the first time. The cap is about to take a significant jump for the second straight offseason, and teams will have plenty of money to spend. Batum is about to get PAID. Like $18mil or more per season. I'll take Aminu at $7.5mil over Batum at $18mil+ plus. Wes coming off a ruptured Achilles is making almost $18mil/season, and with the cap jumping again, don't think for a second that Batum won't get at least that $18mil. Hell, some analysts thought Aminu left a bigger deal on the table by signing so quickly.
I agree with that only if we actually do something with that 11 mil left over. If it's used for a player called, "Capspace," I don't care. I'd rather have Nic.
Batum hasn't been the same the last 2 years. His numbers suck this year (go look it up, its ugly) just like they did last year he had a cute little hot start this season but since like late NOV hes stinking it up pretty bad. PRODUCTION WISE CORRELATED TO THE DOLLAR FIGURE he was getting, its what you call overpaid for Batum. Aminu on the other hand gives u the same defense, same shooting, slightly more rbs all for nearly half the price. Batum has him beat on passing but we have Lillard and CJ for that. Besides every single year Batum has some sort of excuse for his numbers sucking. "I'm tired from playing for my country", One year its his shoulder, last year it was my wrist hurts, now his new one this year is my big toe is hurting, quite frankly Batum is overrated and god bless the team that will pay him big money with the new cap going up.. I'll take Aminu for 4 years and the equivalent of 4M/yr we paid him this summer with new cap coming into play.
This and the fact that Aminu is a year younger than Lillard and 4-5 years younger than Batum...Aminu wants to be allnba defensive team..Batum wants to be an assist leader...right now, Aminu outrebounds Nic...probably shoots better from deep than Nic did last season and held Lebron to 11 pts...a season low no other SF has accomplished yet...matched up with Nic Aminu won the battle with a double double...Nic ended up with 3 pts..Aminu to me is an upgrade and will just get better and better..
I can see why people gets gamed up with Batum though. His style looks so flawless and beautiful, I can totally see the fascination with him that his fans drool over. And I agree it does look nice, we use to look at those traits and scream "OMG LOOK AT HIS POTENTIAL".. But nearly 10 years later the guy hasn't done anything more than piss people off with his inconsistency.
Seems to me what is never really highlighted about the Blazers is that even though marquis free agents usually want big markets..once a player gets here and plays under Stotts....they don't want to leave..that's success..our team would be one of the most desirable places to be if you just wanted to be in a place where you could actually like the guys you play with and concentrate on improving your skillset. Everyone who left as free agents got paid last season. The current roster seems like it might turn out to be my favorite roster in the modern era. Shoutout to Neil Olshey! I really like the guy
Nic has a soccer type game that is really beautiful to watch...he's one of the most talented guys in the league but in my view...once he got a big paycheck, he tended to cruise and most games just do enough to get by. He used to be my favorite blazer and I've argued his value for years...now, not so much
If you don't think we're going to spend the money, you are crazy. I know we're well under the cap this year, but there are multiple reasons for it.
As much as I missed Nic after his pregame interview, I loved watching Aminu steal the ball from him and throw it down on the other end. Where's the video at?
Batum+Mathews for CJ+Hendo+Aminu+Vonleh Something like that. Matthews is shooting .380 from the field and has a PER of 11.
I would definitely make that trade. The thing that really hurts us is no Aldridge. We need a high scoring big. If we still had Aldridge we would probably be 3-5th seed
