Career high 14 dimes tonight. They were showing an interview with Nic on the post game and Nic was talking about how he watches tape to see where guys like to get the ball. He even mentioned playing point guard. The Pippen comparisons are becoming more of a reality.
Yes I think he is basically playing point forward with Lillard being in more of a shooting guard role.
I would take Pippen at any stage of his career. Nic isn't even remotely as good on defense, but offensively there are some definite comparisons between Pip and Nic.
Offensively. Defensively? Not even close, but Nic does have the skillset to be much better on defense.
14 assists is impressive, I don't care who you are. I've had to SMH so many times re people criticizing Nico's unselfishness over the years. Listen to his interviews. He believes his 'job' to be to set up his teammates, rebound, play defense, etc. Super Glue.
Defensively he's not as good as Pippen, that's for sure, but he does guard point guards at times (which is very Pippen-esque).
That touch pass turnover to Freeland that should have ended in a thunderous dunk, is a good example of his vision. Too often, I think he gets tunnel vision looking to pass when he has a nice open shot. Kind of frustrating, because the extra pass doesn't often result in a superior look. Oh well, with this group there's a lot you have to live with, but that's part of the fun.
I think it is nice Batum can give us another look and Lillard shooting makes him a good SG option in that set.
Batum has become a welcoming surprise. I knew he had the tools to be like this, but I questioned his drive. This season, Batum has really shown great leadership. He seems like he really understands where players want the ball and gets it to them. I'm really surprised with his rebounding effort. He's definitely earning his pay this season. I'm glad I was wrong about him!
the most impressive thing is that he only had 2 turnovers. I'm still not happy with him leading the team in TO but if he can keep them at a reasonable level I'm fine with him playing that role. Nic has had 11 games with 4+turnovers, Dame and Mo have had 6 a piece. I really don't like that Nic has more high TO games than our PG rotation
Drexler said that turn overs are part of the game for playmakers. I tend to agree. Even the MVP Nash had a lot of turn overs. If batum is setting up players more times than turning the ball over, then that's fine by me. Maybe his AST/TO ratio is low (haven't checked), but I'm sure he's getting them at least 2.0 assists per 1 turn over.
Yeah, it's to be expected when a guy is dropping 11 or 12 assists every game that he's going to have a lot of turnovers. When Dame has 3 or 4 TO's but only 5 or 6 assists, that's troubling.
Against the Kings Lillard had 6 turnovers and only 4 assists. No wonder he finally decided to shoot every time he touched the ball instead of passing it.
