So that's an excuse to not need to get better? Role player mentality kicked in, but I remember the drama he created when he wanted that big contract with Portland. Didn't sound like he think he should get paid as a 4th 5th option who didn't need play run for him.
Why would you care about his compensation? It didn't hinder us in acquiring other pieces. Probably the best 4th or 5th option in the league while he was here. What you should be upset about was his replacements.
I am just disappointed that he didn't reach what he could have been. Or it seems like he wasn't trying hard enough to reach it given the players that he played with Roy, Mathews, Lillard, ROLO. All have hearts for the game and always gives their 100% on the court. If only he get a little bit of that rubbed off onto him and show up more often for his team.
Understood. I just know he was the prefect compliment to those teams on both ends. And as far as him reaching his full potential, He blew my expectations out of the water. I don't expect anything from anybody picked past the lottery to be honest.
Look who got picked AHEAD of him. C'Mon FAMS. We redo this draft he's way up towards the top. If i'm not mistaken we got Nico for 2 scrubs anyway. I'm content with what we got out of him.
Problem with Batum, his compensation soon reached beyond his production. 25 mil for a 4th or 5th option would have really put this team in a much worse situation.
That's not a problem with Batum, that's a problem with management. Batum reminds me of Derrick McKey - another excellent role player (the Pacers traded Detlef Schrempf for him and got better) who everyone expected more from. Remember, Batum is one of very few NBA players to have a 5 x 5. (We are lucky to currently have another!) Also, he was great at everyone's fave play: the chasedown block.
Which is exactly why management was smart to trade him before his next contract came due and made it a Charlotte management problem. He was a solid player, but just not 25 mil solid. I also see you're a Leeds United fan. Congrats on moving into the premier league. I look forward to playing your team next year. Man U and Timbers all the way.
To be fair to Batum: he's not sitting because he's useless, he's sitting because Charlotte (a) wants to develop the young guys and (b) has no incentive to win games. My nightmare is that they amnesty him and he goes to the Lakers and helps them much more than the JR Smiths of this world will.
Nic definitely needs a new landing spot. His career has fallen off the edge in Charlotte. Kinda sad actually. When i watched him last year, he looked like the forgotten man on the court. Kinda running in oblivion .
I'll just throw this stat out there. Nic has 28 field goals total in over 500 minutes of playtime this season, by far the lowest for anyone that has played the type of minutes he has.
In a weird way, it kind of is. He looks around at a roster of kids trying to earn their next contract and realizes every shot he takes is a shot somebody else won't. He's not winning anything, he's not going to get another big contract, and he really needs to be moved. Unless he's wide open, it's probably best for his teammates if he just defers. I wrote a few months ago that I hope we don't sign him on a vet minimum for a year, but after watching Melo and Ariza find their niche on the team, I'm kind of re-thinking it. He is a good locker room guy and he's still long and smart. However, the guy I'm more interested in is Aminu. He tore his knee 18 games into the season and still has 2 years left on his $10m/year deal. His stats were terrible. But I wonder if it's just how they were using him. If we're rolling the dice on a an ex-Blazer forward, I like my odds with him a lot more.
Batum has turned into Boris Diaw,* which is no real surprise, because Diaw was his mentor and the generation just before him when French Basketball broke through. Parker is the anomaly rather than the rule - the game is about the team, and individual stats don't really matter. And as we saw with Diaw, he really needed to be in the right context to be valuable. When Batum finally gets dropped from the French National team, you'll know he really is done. *although without the weight gain (yet).
I agree. I could see him thriving in Diaw's role on the Spurs of that era, and I could see him thriving today in the Andre Iguodala role for the Warriors. He needs to be somewhere that can leverage his smarts and passing on offense and otherwise just needs him to play tough, switchable defense. And if this year was an anomaly in terms of shooting, he can provide more three-point pop than Iggy.
I liked Nic and I didn't blame him for getting his contract with Minnesota nor with our decision to match it. But I certainly did not blame the Blazers for trading him to Charlotte. We knew what he was going to demand with his next contract and he just was not worth it at that point in time. Vonleh was a young gamble and one I would take again.