2012/2013 Player stats Paul George: PTS REB AST PIE 17.4 7.6 4.1 13.4% Nic Batum: PTS REB AST PIE 14.3 5.6 4.9 10.4% And for comparison's sake: Kevin Durant: PTS REB AST PIE 28.1 7.9 4.6 20.2% George is better than Nic, based on last year's stats, but the margin is a lot closer than the margin between George and Durant.
Obviously LBJ on his contract is much more valuable than PG. I believe PG on his contract is much more valuable than Batum on his contract but the difference between those two is not as much as the difference between LBJ and PG.
What the hell is PIE? Nic is a below average defender and Paul George is quite good. PaulG led the NBA in defensive win share. PaulG is entering his fourth NBA season and Nic his sixth so he is projected to improve more than Nic. As others have said PaulG is already an all-star and All-NBA player while Nic has never been close. When the games matter most in the playoffs Nic got shut down by the defense of Steve Nash; George carried an offense against LBJ.
Always thought 5 yrs, 80 was the max for a guy coming off a rookie deal. Dug through this a little more and found this: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2013/9/23/4760622/paul-george-max-contract-derrick-rose-rule
I remember saying on this forum at the beginning of last year that he was going to be the next breakout star in the NBA. Look at him now.
Some additional data points: Pre-injury (Oct - Jan, 44 games), Nic was 16.3 PPG / 6.0 RPG / 4.9 APG Also interesting is that, in the 25 games where he played 40+ MPG, he averaged 17.6 PPG / 6.9 RPG / 5.4 APG. We were 12-13 in those games, but there's a clot of 4 wins where he played between 39:30 and 40:00. That 48% winning percentage is 8 percentage points higher than our record, and 19% higher. My POV: give Batum minutes, keep him healthy, and he's as good offensively as Paul George. His defense wasn't great, good, or even average last year, but that might be a symptom of being taller than our center. *shudder* I'm curious to see if everybody's defensive ratings go down with a legit center in the game...
Replace George with Batum- do the Pacers get by the Knicks this season? I say no. George isn't elite on offense, and hes not an efficient scorer, but hes so clearly in a different tier than Batum. Its indisputable if you watch the games, and look at how many of even you Blazer homers are admitting you'd take George at 18 mils over Batum at 11.
Well if you want to cherry-pick a sample size of their best stretch of play Over a 41 game stretch George averaged 19pts/8.4reb/4.3asts/2stls
I pretty much agree with you 100%. There are probably some Batum homers that will act like these two players are somewhat close, or that it's worth having Batum over George because of their contracts. But like you said, when you actually watch them play you can see a clear defense between them. Batum is a poor man's Paul George.
It's all good guys... I just thought I'd put some more numbers in the mix. Sorry if I seemed like I was cherry picking. It seemed reasonable to pick rough pre versus post injury.
George is a legit core piece on a contending team. You can max him and live with it. Batum would be the 4th or 5th best player on a championship team, yet he's taking up 20% of your cap room. With the new CBA you really don't want guys who aren't a true core piece making double-digit millions per year.
Yeah no kidding. How about Batum having had major injuries limiting him nearly every NBA season? I've learned from the Oden fiasco its not good to salivate at a players healthy stats and ignore his injured stats. If he can't stay healthy enough to play at a high level at an age of 24 that makes me nervous going forward. Players with injury histories at a young age begin to have more issues as they age.
Yes, increased production becomes exponentially more valuable to a team so playing a lesser player in a linear fashion is poor roster management.
I go back to last year when a reporter asked Aldridge about Nic's struggles and if the wrist was a big factor or not. Aldridge's replay? Essentially that everyone on the team is banged up and playing through something. This whole Batum argument about his wrist has always just been a bad excuse to me. You either perform or you don't. If you're so fragile that you let a bum wrist hamper you half a season, you're just soft. I'd argue this is actually worse than just not performing well. A guy that's not performing well can pick it up. A guy that's just soft will always be soft.
