He doesn't need a SF to average 12 points per game, although that would be great. We need Batum in there to keep the other teams best player from scoring easy. Bruce Bowen was on championship teams and played the same role and hit mainly 3's on occasion. All we need is Batum to score a little more and continue to be a defensive stopper. Oden should improve and our team is already in the top half of the league in offense. Our weakness is defense. Adding a SF who can score is fine as long as they play GREAT defense, not average or below average. To add a SF who scores 15 a game and plays average or below average defense would mean more fouls for LA and Oden and we might lose that offensive gain we got from that SF.
Travis had only 22 games (out of 82) where he failed to score in double digits, since 8 and 9 are pretty close to that mystical 12 PPG - when I looked without it - he scored less than 8PPG only 13 times - out of 82 games. I am pretty sure that by most measures Travis was pretty much consistent last year - he gave you 8 or more points 69 out of 82 games - that's pretty consistent, in my book.
Love hearing that Batum was displaying nice handles and passing skill. And decision-making. If Batum can actually be a Pippen type of player (great, versatile defender and point-forward who makes all-around contributions) then he could be incredibly valuable.
Pippen type, not Pippen caliber, in case that wasn't clear. Pippen caliber, yeah, that might be a bit too obvious. But my point was that I don't much care if he's a major scorer. What I'd love out of him is a guy who can "fill in whatever is missing any given night" and play great defense. That would make him a "star role-player."
Looks like KP may have been right to not make a trade or sign a free agent to upgrade our SF position. That upgrade may come from a player already on our roster. Nic is bursting with potential and playing on his national team is giving him a great opportunity to develop his game against top level competition. This is much more productive than playing a few glorified pick-up games in the Las Vegas Summer League where he probably wouldn't have touched the ball, let alone been running the offense with the game on the line. The only thing that kept his PER low as a rookie was his undeveloped offensive game. It sounds like he's made great strides improving that this summer. He fills up the stat sheet in other ways. So, a few more PPG should push his PER up in the 15 range - which is great for a player that is basically your 5th option on offense. He's also been my duaghter's favorite player since the 1st time she saw him play in the preseason game against Utah last October. She was worried he'd might be traded this summer. It's looking more and more like he may very well grow into our SF of teh future and be wearing a Blazers uniform for quite a while. With Oden's rumored/anticipated improvement, Batum's growth and the addition of Miller, I'm really excited for the coming season. We won 54-games last season with 3 rookies in our top 7. Those rookies will all be better this season - and we've added a experienced PG to help get them the ball. We may have not made any flashy trades or big name signings, but I still think our team will improve substantially and advance to at least the 2nd round of the play-offs - with the potential to go even further. BNM
IIRC assists in Euroleague are counted differently then in the NBA. Something about they have to result in a close in shot or something like that. I can't remember the specifics. If that is the case, then 1 Euroleague assist is pretty good. He may have had 3 or 4 NBA assists if he handled the ball a ton.
I've always thought Batum had the tools to be a deadly slasher, but it seemed like he rarely got the ball in position to do so. It will be soooo nice having someone on the team who will actually pass him the ball when he isn't just standing in the corner!
Where? How? That Eurobasket site isn't so user friendly and I can't find when the next game is, which I assume is against Finland. I'm also not sure what the criteria for advancement is against the other three team pool winner. I'm assuming if France beats Finland, they'll play the winner of the other side for the 16th slot in the the main tourney. I also saw a blog post from Rudy yesterday that he's back in training and looking forward to Eurobasketball. Can I dream about a Spain-France final? Anyone feel like going to Poland in late September?
The Batum I saw last year was unable to create for himself or for others. He was most effective standing in the corner and getting his baskets off of kickout, slashing and getting the pass on the way to the hoop, or finishing off of offensive rebounds. An ability to improve his ball-handling and becoming more consistent from the outside would really change the way we can use him.
Next game appears to be vs. Finland on Saturday the 8th. It also appears each team plays each other twice as a home and home. If anyone understands the finals formula feel free to explain me to it. http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/ci...ompID_qMRZdYCZI6EoANOrUf9le2.season_2009.html
There was a link on justin.tv....my bad for not posting it over here. got it from myp2pforum.eu. Just click on the "NBA+Basketball" section. Here's a link to the exact thread where I found it. http://www.myp2pforum.eu/nba-basketball/41437-european-championship-additional-qualification.html Just check here for future stream links.
No disrespect, but there were a lot of signs of his ability last year. I don't think I can count how many time Batum hit Joel in the hands with a drive and dish only to see Joel fumble it away. You could write this off as poor decision making by Batum, but I saw it as a sign of what to come. Also, the few times he did slash (especially on Gasol) or run the break were amazing. Very solid handle and vision. I think the main problem was he was shy about using it and was trying to do only what the coaches told him to.
No disrespect taken. I agree with you that his passing is one of his better attributes, that's why I didn't mention it as a weakness in my post. I do remember plays where Batum looked awesome, but I also remember long stretches where he didn't look comfortable with the ball in his hand. I don't know if you're assuming that because he's done something a few times, that makes it a strong suit of his. I've seen TO play really good defense on plenty of possessions, but it doesn't mean he is a good defender overall. It was very rare to see Batum dribble through traffic. We mostly saw him handle the ball in transition or when the ball was reversed to him. This is an area of his game that I think he can improve on. He certainly looks more comfortable during international play, but that might be due to the fact he's a far superior athlete in the majority of those games.
True, he was very tentative in traffic and usually only drove or broke when clearly open. I assumed that was him trying to stay in his role rather than him not having the ability (or confidence in his ability). Either way, I think some of that will disappear this year and we can look forward to a lot more.
He also got an occasional fast break dunk - usually off a steal or deflection. With Andre Miller capable of pushing the tempo, Oden controlling the defensive boards and two fast, long gazelles like Aldridge and Batum at forward, I wonder if this is the year we will finally see the Blazers start racking up some easy fast break points. I know Nate is still our coach, and in spite of him claiming he'd like to run more, I won't belive it until I see it. In the past he's never had a PG he trusted capable ot pushing the tempo. He trusted Blake and Jack, but neither was good at leading the break. Sergio could push the ball, but Nate never trusted him. Will a proven veteran like Andre Miller earn Nate's trust so that Nate will finally let this team of great, young athletes use their speed and athleticism to get some easy baskets? BNM
additional qualifying round: GROUP A 1. Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 1/0 62/56 2 2. Portugal 1 0/1 56/62 1 3. Belgium 0 0/0 0/0 0 GROUP B 1. France 1 1/0 80/77 2 2. Italy 1 0/1 77/80 1 3. Finland 0 0/0 0/0 0 France 08.08.2009 20:00 Finland Finland 11.08.2009 19:00 Italy France 14.08.2009 20:00 Italy Finland 17.08.2009 19:00 France Italy 20.08.2009 20:30 Finland group winners play each other (both play once at home and the aggregate score decides the winner) for the last available spot in the final round (tournament). those games are on 27th and 30th august. the tournament system is as follows: the initial group draw, with b/2 being the winner of the additional qualifying round: GROUP A 1. F.Y.R. of Macedonia 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 2. Croatia 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 3. Israel 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 4. Greece 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 GROUP B 1. Russia 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 2. Team(B/2) 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 3. Germany 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 4. Latvia 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 GROUP C 1. Great Britain 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 2. Serbia 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 3. Spain 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 4. Slovenia 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 GROUP D 1. Poland 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 2. Turkey 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 3. Lithuania 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 4. Bulgaria 0 0 0 0 0 0,000 0 http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/ci...ompID_qMRZdYCZI6EoANOrUf9le2.season_2009.html and schedule: http://www.eurobasket2009.org/en/ci...ompID_qMRZdYCZI6EoANOrUf9le2.season_2009.html I hope the links work, they seem somewhat cryptic..
