Idk why people like to pretend Batum is having some kind of great season. I think people look at his best stretch of games and think he always plays like that, when in reality it's just a hot streak. He'll just a nice little player. Nothing more, nothing less.
Don't forget to take into account that at least some (a small percentage, but still some) of his turnovers come from him trying to make passes to/catch passes from some pretty shitty bench players...
He's having his best season as a Blazer. He has broken out of the mold that McMillan had him in, and he's expanding his game. Does he still have flaws? Absolutely, but he's still young, and he's still developing. I don't know why some people pretend like Batum hasn't improved this season.
There always needs to be a scapegoat. Personally, I like to blame the AV guys. I never got my damn highlights of the Rookie/Sophomore game!!!!
I don't really understand the new NBA stats page, but this seems to make Batum look good (and Lillard and Aldridge, too)
15 points on 42% shooting is not a sign of efficiency, that's volume. The worst shooting team in the league, the Bobcats, shoot 42%. He ranks 29th in the league among small forwards in rebounds per 48(qualified only). So that's nothing to get excited about. And and getting 3 TOs for your 5 assists, again, is volume thing. That's almost a wash. So let's review where Batum ranks among SFs: Rebounds: 29th FG%: 20th 3pt%: 18th Assist/TO Ratio: 7th (not bad) Steals per 48: 22nd Blocks per 48: 8th Seems very mediocre to me. And I think his "shut down defense" is a myth. Not an upper level talent.
Um...where did you find that one from? Among SF's (and that includes LeBron who is a SF in name only), he's 15th. Even if you include "everyone" in the sampling, he's 17th. His FG% has been a disappointment to me, but not to the degree his detractors make it out to be. adjusted FG% he's 11th. that seems like an odd way to single out a stat-line, per 48. Couldn't be that doing the per 48 makes things look worse than they are (in the sense that steals he's 10th among SF's, and blocks he's 3rd)...no, couldn't be that... It's interesting to think tho, that if you were to take the stats individually, you can make them look bad (especially if you adjust them to fit your agenda). I think if you take out the top 4 scorers as SF's (LeBron, Anthony, Durant and Pierce), your argument is much weaker.
As I specified in the post, he's 29th in rebounds per 48 minutes, for qualified players. http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/player/_/stat/rebounds/sort/avg48Rebounds/position/small-forwards Why on earth do you think it's odd to use per 48? Batum plays the 3rd most minutes of all small forwards, so adjusting per minutes played is the only fair way to rate efficiency. So if Batum played half as many minutes he'd be half as good?? Ok whatever.
What are the numbers on PER 36? That is how stat sites normalize the data. No one averages 48 minutes a game.
LOL! Ok. I agree it's not good data if you include everyone in the NBA, because you get too much garbage, but these stats are for qualified players, who have played in a certain number of minutes. You can't honestly think a comparison of total numbers between someone who plays 38 minutes and someone who plays 29 means anything, without adjusting the stats for minutes played. Give me a break.
If you add seven and carry the five, it extrapolates out to Batum being a shitty player. Don't blame me, it's science.
Interestingly, no one has brought up PER. He's 16th among Small Forwards. 9th in Value Added, 9th in EWA. So, anyone know where he ranks in salary among those same SFs this year?
Batum is the 5th highest paid SF in the league right now, behind James, Pierce, Anthony and Iggy. As I said, top paid for mediocre production. Typical Blazers....
That list is fucked up, but you probably already knew that. If you remove the guys who play less than 18 MPG (Jordan Hamilton, DeMarre Carroll and Chris Copeland) and the guys who don't actually play SF (Kenneth Faried, Thaddeus Young, Josh Smith, and Ersan Ilyasova) Batum has the 9th highest PER of NBA starting small forwards. Here's the guys ahead of him: LeBron James Kevin Durant Carmelo Anthony Andrei Kirilenko Paul Pierce Paul George Danilo Gallinari Shawn Marion The only player on that list that is both younger and paid less than Batum is Paul George. And he's only paid less because he's on a rookie scale contract. As soon as he's eligible for extension he'll probably be a max, or near max, contract player. Batum is paid in line with his current performance. If anything, when you factor in age and the fact that the first year of his contract is the highest, he's a bit underpaid compared to other starting small forwards. BNM
