When was the last time one of those involved Portland? You are talking about a front office that rewarded Batum for saying he wanted out of Portland so bad he was willing to sign with the TWolves.
There are a lot of unknowns and maybe some of them will turn into serviceable players (Claver, Freeland and Barton) but god damn, that bench is mostly just a hot plate of garbage. The starters are going to have to play out of their minds this year if they want to win consistently. Any let up or even just average performances and that horrific, kludge of rejects and cast-offs (the bench) is going to give a lot of games away.
Could not of said it better myself. Finally someone who is not a complete homer. Sometimes I think that half the people on here are Mike Barrett.
Sure you could have: Turd polishing time!!!!!!!!!! LA and Lillard are the only potential bright spots on this team!!!!! On a rookie deal, Batum was a disappointment!!!!! On his current contract, he is an albatross!!!!! Yes, he *could* be a good player, but it ain't gonna happen!!!!!!!! The rest of the roster are generic journeymen or worse!!!!!!!!!! 30 wins would take a minor miracle!!!!!!!!!!
Bring back Bob! 1 When has he ever won a game in the last minute? His shooting is like Babbitt's, opportunistic only when wide open, and unreliable when it matters. 2 Your answer is a non sequitor. The writer says that like 2 players he names, Batum is a defender who is an afterthought in the designed plays, and you simply show that Batum gets more points than them. Irrelevant. 3 You say that IF Batum gets up to 19 ppg in his last contract year, he won't be overpaid that year, after being overpaid in all the years before his last year. You worked hard to find a stat to prove your straw man. Nice stat.
Did you forget about this: [video=youtube;8O_BT4oUkOY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O_BT4oUkOY[/video] Not only did he score the game winner, he scored the final 4 points of the game in 0.9 seconds. How many opportunities did Nic have to win games under Nate? Other than the lob from Miller, not many. When he had Roy, it was always an ISO for Roy with the game on the line, which worked well when Roy was healthy. When he didn't have Roy, Nate still ran ISO after ISO with the game on the line. He did it when Bayless was filling in for Roy. He even tried to do it with Andre Miller against NOH one time and blew an 8-point lead in the final minutes to lose by 1. Last year, rather than change his strategy, he simply plugged Jamaal Crawford into the Roy ISO. We all saw how well that worked. He was an afterthought under Nate. That should change now. Roy is gone, Nate is gone, Crawford is gone. Now Nic will finally get some plays run for him. And, even without any plays run for him, he still averaged 13.9 PPG last season. Imagine how much more he will score with a coach that actually runs set plays for him. That's not what I said. You may want to learn how to use the quoting feature. Or, perhaps not. It would prevent you from putting your own spin on what others have written. OK, fine. Look at it this way. Last season, in a slow paced system, with a coach that didn't run set plays for him, Batum averaged 13.9 PPG. He was 48th in the league in scoring. This season, his salary is $11,950,000 - the HIGHEST of his 4-year contract (Minnesota front loaded their offer). And, guess what, that makes him the 49th highest player in the NBA this season. So, even if his scoring doesn't increase under Stotts, his salary is still in line with his scoring ability. Throw in the fact that he also plays great defense, is still only 23, will likely score more, play more minutes and a bigger role, over the next four years, and his contract doesn't look bad at all. And, if he can improve his scoring gradually, something like 16 PPG, 17 PPG, 18 PPG, 19 PPG over the next four seasons, and he will be a bargain and just entering what should be the prime of his career. BNM
Your answers for all 3 were: The writer was correct about Batum so far, but he should be psychic and see that Batum will improve with McMillan gone. After you upbraided me on Point 3, you gave a fishy stat that a 13.9 ppg average ranks #48 in the league (each team has only 48/30=1.6 players scoring that much?), so I checked and it was #69. That destroys your Point 3 defense that even if Batum doesn't improve his ppg, the new contract still won't overpay him. http://bkref.com/tiny/IuMGt
Wrong again: http://www.nba.com/statistics/playe...itScope=GAME&qualified=Y&yearsExp=-1&splitDD= You forgot to select the "Qualified" option. So, your list includes guys like Brook Lopez, who only played in 5 games and Chauncey Billups, who only played in 20 games. Of the players who actually played enough to qualify for the scoring title, Batum ranked 48th in PPG - last season. This season, the highest paid of his new 4-year contract, he will be the 49th highest player in the NBA. So, even if he shows no improvement under Stotts, his paycheck will be commensurate with his scoring ability. And, he also plays great defense. So, that destroys your destruction of my Point 3 defense. Unless you think a guy who only plays in 5 of 66 games is worth more than a guy who plays in 59 of 66. BNM
Yes, please. Now that Minnesota has signed "Hat Man", they have the inside track to signing Oden whenever he decides it's time to comeback and Dominate the NBA!!!!!!!!!! And, when did he become "Hat Man"? Didn't he used to be called "Hat Guy" when he was in Portland. Is this gig in Minnesota some sort of promotion - from a Guy to a Man? Well, no wonder our "Division Rivals" were able to lure him to the great frozen north. I hope the promotion also included a new hat: BNM
Tisk tisk, it just isn't your day. If you give a reasonable definition to "qualified" like a minimum of 1000 minutes played in the season, Batum ranked #63. http://bkref.com/tiny/OJqd4 This decimates your petty sniping at my noble destruction of your desperate defense against my rational critique of your misdirected Point 3. But let's make absolutely sure that your scaly corpse floats dead in the water. All I have to do to prove that Batum's new salary will not be commensurate with his ppg, is to find a reasonable definition of "qualified" that results in his ranking below #49 in ppg last season. Nooo problemo. Defining "qualified" as minimum 1681 minutes (or defining it as any lower minimum than 1681) disproves your distorted line of reasoning. http://bkref.com/tiny/HWQSL In fact, Batum himself is the 5th-least qualified player on that "minimum 1681 list" with a mere 1791 minutes. Don't try arguing in vain that 1681 is too low, because if you define "qualified" as minimum 1800 minutes, Batum, with only 1791, won't be on your list.
So your Mission Impossible is to convince me that to rank at least #49 in league scoring, the minimum minutes to be "qualified" is above 1681 but fewer than 1792. Never take on an accountant right after he's had a cup of coffee. Unless you're a client and you haven't paid him yet.
If you actually click on the link I previously provided, it will show that the definition of "qualified" I referenced is not my personal definition, it is the official NBA qualifying standard. Here's that link again, straight from NBA.com: http://www.nba.com/statistics/playe...itScope=GAME&qualified=Y&yearsExp=-1&splitDD= Unlike you, I do not need to make up random definitions in a feeble attempt to bolster my arguments. I go straight to the official source. And, the official source says Nicolas Batum was the 48th leading scorer in the NBA last season. If you disagree, take it up with the league office. I'm sure they could use a good laugh. BNM
You must have studied their definition extensively before relenting to the unlikely coincidence that your prior reasoned-out definition precisely matches theirs. You must have almost memorized it after your prolonged, studied decision. I'd like to study it, too. Can you please tell me what it is?
Oy. While the statistical argument about Batum is all very interesting, it also over-simplifies the situation. For quite awhile I bought into the argument that Nate-ball was holding Batum back. Then last season happened. Nate left. Roy left. Many of the vets were tanking. It was a golden opportunity for Batum to step up and show what he could do. Didn't happen. Worse yet, Batum announces that he hates Portland so bad he would rather be in Minnie-ha-ha. Keep in mind this pronouncement came months after Nate left - so you can't blame Nate for it. Faced with a tough situation, the Blazers (predictably) went for the worst option possible: they rewarded Batum with a big contract. He now has zero incentive to even maintain his previous level of indifference - let alone improve. Tis situation has "train wreck" written all over it.
Let's go with this definition. There are 30 teams, so on average every team has 2 main scorers who are better than Batum. Batum is the third banana. And lo, he's been the third banana in past years on the Blazers and projects to be once again (behind Aldridge and Lillard), although he might push into that second banana role this year. Is that level of scoring, plus very good defense worth $11mil/year? It's definitely high. Now you add in that: 1. He was only 23 last year. 2. He put up those numbers on a slow-paced, dysfunctional team 3. The coach has only ever used him as a spot up three point shooter 4. His work in France has demonstrated he can do a lot more than that 5. Every year his scoring numbers have improved You factor those five variables in and his contract seems a lot more reasonable. I took your same chart and added in the variable "under the age of 24," and suddenly Batum is 17th in the league: http://bkref.com/tiny/Isz2n He's 5th on that list in fg%, and second in 3fg%. Everybody on that list not on a rookie deal is making decent coin.
