Now that Batum is officially resigned, are there any worries about motivation?

Cheaper, as in 3 mil cheaper, so not much. I don't buy the BS that it was all his agent's idea. How the hell is that going to earn him a better contract?

 

Why do I have this weird feeling that we're all going to look back in two years and say, "goddammit, we should have listened to maxie and oldmangrouch"

Fuck, I hope you're wrong.

 

I would reserve any and all judgement regarding Batum until we hire a coach and see how Batum's going to be used. One thing I'm relatively certain of is the next Blazers coach will be "instructed" to use Batum differently than the Bruce Bowen roll Nate had him in. I've always believed Batum would be worth this kind of money in the right system - just not our system. Well, we don't have a system, so who the fuck knows how Batum will pan out? This might be a great thing.

 

Maybe you're right, but I'll reserve my judgment for when I see Batum create off the dribble. You know actually create offense himself. Batum is my favorite player, but he does still have stuff to prove.

 

I doubt the next coach will be "instructed" as to how to play certain players. If all we get is a "yes" man for a coach, then the team is in dire troubles.

 

depends entirely on if we hire na real coach or an asst/trainee coach.

Nic totally tanked last year to get rid of Nate and will compare our next coach to Adelman. Anything less and he'll coast.

 

I'm not worried about him losing his motivation because of the money or not being able to play for Minnesota. I'm worried about his motivation in general. His intensity has always come only in spurts.

I'd also like to say that I think there were times when Nate allowed and maybe encouraged Nic to do more. He generally wasn't successful on his first attempts and then I wouldn't see anymore of that for the rest of the game. I don't know if this was his own confidence problem or if it was the general pressure from Nate that every game was so important. Obviously now he will have to be given a long lease and encouraged to do more. But have you ever read a story about Nic spending his off-season working on some specific skill area that he needs to improve?

I also believe he really did want to go to Minnesota, so if I was his teammate, I would be disappointed. I guess all I can say is that I would be pleasantly surprised if Nic can step up and be the kind of dynamic playmaker and leader that you would expect to get for this kind of money. Even after saying all that, if I was running the team, I probably would have done the same thing as they did; I just wouldn't feel very good about it.

 

That's pretty damn well said.

 

Thank you.

 

You're a whore.

That being said, there's a good chance that you're right, or pretty damn close.

 

It also just occurred to me that Nikolokolus is right thinking this will be a pretty bad team this year. And one of the reasons why it will be is because of signing Nik to this big contract. The Blazers absolutely have to give him the opportunity to expand his role; to do more things on the court. And I think this will be a learning process for Nik and there will be many stumbles along the way. He has the athleticism and coordination and the smoothness that should enable him to become a really good player and hopefully a good playmaker. But the Blazers will have to let him play though his mistakes and they will lose some games because of it. But any other path would be detrimental for the longer term success of the team. They will have to find a coach who understands this. And they will also need to find some assistant coach (like Monty Williams) who understands that Batum needs to be encouraged but he also needs to be pushed.

 

We are going to be bad but with a healthy LMA we are going to win around 30 games. The west looks horribly weak this year and I have a great fear we will end up in the lottery but in that 13-14th spot and end up losing our pick.

 

He wants the Brandon Roy role -- the solution is easy: START BATUM AT SG!

 

I don't see how just calling him a SG will make him play any different.

 

I'm fine with this. Mathews can play the Bruce Bowen role, stick him in the corner and have him just shot 3's. Or hell start Babbit/Claver. Or just call them wings and don't give them a designated roll of SG/SF.

 

Was simply how McMillian wanted the SG to play. Wes handled the ball more then Batum and Wes is a horrible horrible ball handler.