He is only 20..for the next 2-3 years, thats all we need him to do..he wont hit his ceiling for another 6-8 years
That would be amazing. I don't see it right now...his court awareness/basketball IQ is good, but not at point guard levels, like Pippen had. The thing is, this team has a rather remarkable "ceiling" at each position, but also a ton of variability. In terms of the 90th percentile projections, you have Roy as an MVP-caliber player, Aldridge as an MVP-caliber player, Oden as an MVP-caliber player, Batum as maybe something between Prince and Pippen, Bayless as a Tony Parker/Baron Davis type of player, Rudy as a Ray Allen type of player. But of course, all those top-end projections won't be realized...Rudy and Batum could be just average players, Bayless and Oden could disappoint completely and Aldridge may end up just a very good player. So there's a huge range there. But the talent to dream on is quite amazing.
Thanks for the translations. These are awesome reads. Nic is going to be so damn good it's not even funny.
Yeah I was just giving myself a moment to project a little bit, I really don't foresee Pippen-like levels, in fact I'm not even sure I expect Prince-like levels, but there's just something about Nic that strikes me as 'special' -- certainly raw, but I guess I get close to the same feeling watching him that Roy gave me when I was watching him play in his rookie year (although much more in flashes and glimpses than the steady diet Roy gave).
I expect Prince-like levels. Prince is not that stellar in terms of production. His really great skill is his long, rangy defense...and Batum is reasonable to project similarly defensively, I think, considering how good he was on defense as a rookie at ages 19-20. But I agree, there's something special about Batum. Coming into this season, I thought Batum had the lowest ceiling of the four rookies. Now, I think he has the second-highest upside, after Oden.
I remember watching him in summer league and thinking to myself, "how is it that a guy who moves like that and passes the ball like this and seems to understand spacing and defensive position looks so utterly lost and passive on offense." Good for Nic, pushing the issue and really insisting that KP bring him over now instead of stashing him in Euope -- better for the Blazers
Man.. Nic's a really interesting dude with some good insight and opinions on things. Hopefully his English gets better and we get to see more of it over the next 15 years.
"I surprised myself" Nicolas Batum, present at Roland Garros (the French Open), recounts his first season in the NBA, and talks about the NBA finals between the Lakers and Orlando as well as the future of the French national team. Nicolas, what is your prediction for the final between the Lakers and Orlando? I think that it will go seven games. It's a very open final and that's why it's difficult for me to make a prediction. But it wouldn't be bad if Orlando won. After from Tony (Parker), Mike Pietrus would then be the second Frenchman to win an NBA title. How do you judge Mike Pietrus' season? Mike missed around thirty games in the regular season because of injuries. But he's had a great playoff. Against Cleveland, he had become the X factor. Everyone is talking about it in the United States. After LeBron James, he's going to have to take care of Kobe Bryant. What did you think of your first year in the NBA? I surprised myself. I didn't really know where I was going with Portland at the start of the season. In hindsight, when I see what I did... (Nicolas started 76 games in the regular season). But I still have work to do. This summer, the French team is waiting for you, to help recover and qualify for Euro 2009... You could say that we're on alert. Besides, the players are aware of it. That's why everyone wants to come. If we are serious, we can qualify for the European championship. What is your opinion of Vincent Collet, your old coach at Le Mans that you will meet again with the French team? Vincent is someone very open, he's very passionate. He always talked a lot to me. We still called each other regularly this year. He's the coach who sent me into the professional world. I owe a lot to him.
I think I read that most of those people were mainly Blazer employees at the airport, waiting for the team's arrival.
Defending against Kobe, I was told “good luck” Nicolas talks about what he has done since the end of the season as well as the playoffs. As a defensive specialist, he also takes a look at the job Mike Pietrus has done on LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Since the playoffs finished, I've trained a bit, but passively it has to be said. During the three weeks following the end of the season, I didn't touch a ball. I really needed it, because since last August it's been non-stop basketball, 95 games... After a while it becomes hard, physically as well as mentally, and you have to take a little break. Especially because the elimination in the playoffs was frustrating. We had had a good season, we had succeeded in winning home court advantage, something which isn't easy in the West. And it's too bad that we messed up the first round, we could've won. It's true that the first game put us in a hole, losing by 30 points or so. We did learn during these playoffs, but it's good to take a break. Because we left exhausted and frustrated, and what's more we're watching the other games on TV. So, during this time, I did some quick weight lifting, some running here and there, but it was really light. In fact in Portland, the coaches and the physical trainer told me to not touch a ball, to rest three weeks, even all of May. They told me: “run two or three times a week, lift weights two or three times, but very light, and be sure to rest, see your family, your friends, have fun.” After three weeks, I started to miss basketball. Even after two weeks, in fact, but I couldn't play immediately because I was on vacation. The first time (or so) that I touched a ball again, it was last weekend for a tournament, le Quartier Ouest. The first day, Saturday, I couldn't feel my lungs anymore, I had the impression that I was missing one! But it was funny, I met with some friends that I had played with in Caen, before I left for Le Mans. It was just to play together again, because it had been a long time. In the beginning it was for fun, but once it started, I wanted to win, so we were in until the final and we won. On top of that, in the final, we played against some of my friends, so it was fun. Tonight as well I'm going to touch a ball again, but in a wheelchair! I'm going to be the sponsor of the club of Pont-L’Evêque, where I played when I was really little. Today, they're doing a tournament for kids, so I'm going to come, and after the tournament, they're doing a handicap game with the professional team from Le Havre against the first team of Pont-L’Evêque. And I'm going to play with them, in a wheelchair too. It's going to be hard! I didn't touch a ball until this week, but I still followed the playoffs. They were balanced this year, with lots of good teams. It really was a good playoffs. The ones that beat us, the Rockets, were good afterwards. Too bad that Yao Ming got injured, they could've shocked some people. Aaron Brook surprised me, he had a good playoffs. But the series that I preferred was the Lakers-Denver, it was great. I thought it was better than Orlando-Cleveland. Carmelo, except when he got sick, played at an impressive level. I'm really happy for him, because he has been criticized and I think that he's one of the most underestimated players in the league. He's not talked about enough. He's talked about, but I don't think that he's recognized like he should be. He defended, attacked, he was a true team player, whereas before some thought that he was only an attacking player, a scorer. He must've had 4 or 5 assists each game in the playoffs. He's a true player now, complete, accomplished in all aspects of the game. He's a true leader. I was happy because he's a player that I really appreciate. I was also impressed by the series that LeBron had in the conference final. It was crazy. In fact, I was impressed by the people that elevated their level. Nowitzki also had a great playoffs. And then there's Kobe, who was Kobe. He's in his objective since the beginning, he really deserves to win. As far as disappointments, first off there's our team, but also Boston, even if it was difficult with Garnett out. I didn't really have the time to follow their series against Chicago, I watched it vaguely... At the heart of it, in the final, I saw Orlando winning 4-2. In particular, I thought that with their bigs, the Lakers couldn't defend Rashard Lewis. But what made the difference, in my opinion, was the Lakers' experience, just look at the last game (game 4). So now I see the Lakers winning 4-2. Orlando should win the next game and they'll lose game 6 in Los Angeles. I saw the rerun this morning and it's true that Fisher scored two very big shots at the end, and in overtime, Kobe was Kobe. I don't think that he especially forced it, he just wants to win. He carries his team and he wants to do well. He isn't forcing it like he did before. He wants to win this title. He takes lots of shots, but he had 8 assists. And he can't be too far from a triple-double. It's not forcing it to hog the ball, it's to win. That wasn't Kobe before, who forced it to score his 80 points. It's not easy to explain but for me it's different. He knows that he's the one on his team that can score so he takes shots. Even if Mike Pietrus is playing great defense, he scores 30 points anyway. For that matter since the start of the playoffs, Mike is good, eh! And not only on defense, he also scores. He scored 15 points that night. Aside from the 2nd game, he's scored 14, 18, and 15. That's pretty good for his first finals. And then defensively he's been great. LeBron maybe put up lots of points, but he still limited him. He forced LeBron to play for himself, made him lower his head and the others stopped moving. So sure LeBron scored 40 points, but the others didn't score more than 10. That's what you have to do against LeBron. For us, in Portland, that's what we do against him. “Let LeBron score 40, it's not important as long as the others don't score 20.” If he wants to, he'll score 40 anyway. You have to try to limit him and make him shoot a poor percentage. But you especially have to cut off the others and give it your all against him. Anyway, that's what you have to do against these guys. Sure, you have to try to stop them, but the objective is above all to limit them more than to stop them, because they're so good... After LeBron, you can try to let him shoot, because his shot is less fluid and precise than Kobe's, even if he's starting to become better and better. It's a bit different defending against them. For LeBron, I was told “stay back and avoid letting him in the paint. It's better to let him shoot.” For Kobe, it's “good luck.” Wade, for me, is different, he was maybe the toughest to defend. Well, no, in fact, you can't say that he's the toughest to defend out of the three because they're the three best players in the world. It's crazy how skilled Kobe is. Wade is too quick, his lateral quickness is crazy, in a thousandth of a second he puts his right foot on the other side compared with his left foot, you don't know how he did it. And LeBron, he hits you with his shoulder and you end up in the stands. To summarize: Wade too quick, Kobe too skilled, LeBron too physical. In any case, watching the finals really makes me want to be there. I'm in the NBA, maybe I'll have the opportunity to play in the finals one day, it's even more motivating. Before I just sorta watched them, but now that I'm here and I see the team that we have, given that we'll maybe have the chance to play in the finals in the short or medium term, that really motivates me. But I'll still have to work. I'm leaving this weekend to workout in Dallas, where Alexis Ajinça and Mike Gelabale are working at the moment.
I never knew Nic was an Adidas man. As far as I know, Martell is the only other Adidas guy on the team. Thanks for the translation, number 10!
