Impact Of Nicolas Batum' Shoulder Injury

by Aaron Sass on Oct 26, 2009 9:40 PM PDT

I just found out today that Nicolas Batum has a torn labrum and will have surgery. The recovery time is an estimated 3 to 5 months but nobody will be able to tell until after the surgery.

I think this will have a huge impact on the Trail Blazers this season. Nicolas may be the Blazers best perimeter defender and I think losing him for a significant amount of time will hurt the Trail Blazers. Not that I think it will ruin their season but it will hurt them. Though I think this injury makes coach McMillan's job a lot easier as far as the playing time issue goes.

This will give Martell the starting spot, which I don't think is bad. I just think that Martell doesn't give you what Nicolas does. Martell is a great outside shooter and he's much bigger than Nicolas but I think Martell is an average defender form what I've seen from him over his career. Though he didn't play last season and he was projected to have a breakout season last season so I hope he can do that this season with the loss of Nicolas. If Martell can be anywhere near as good of defender as Nicolas Batum then I think the Blazers will be in great shape. But I don't think that will happen.

Now I think the Blazers would have gotten off to a slow start regardless of Nicolas being healthy or not so I don't think this injury changes anything as far as the first 20 or so games go. But I think it will impact the Blazers later in the year. Though I understand that Nicolas isn't out for the season but I guess my question is. What role will he be given when he comes back? Will he be put back in the starting lineup or will he have to earn it back? I think that if Martell struggles in the starting lineup then you probably will see Nicolas back in the starting lineup. Either him or Rudy will start at the 3 if Martell struggles. I'd probably lean more toward Rudy because when Nicolas comes back he'll have to ease back in so in my opinion you should only give Nicolas 15 to 20 minutes a night, if he comes back at all this season.

But to sum this all up, this doesn't mean the Blazers season will be vastly different then it would have been. I think without Batum it might take away maybe one or two wins due to the defensive presence that he brings. But the Blazers will be okay.

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Nic provided the answers in his blog

McMillan is crazy pissed off. He came after practice and told me: “It bothers me because you’re now a big, big part of this organization. You’re my starter at that position, I have confidence in you. But if that’s what you have to do, do it. I don’t like it, but do it anyway. But come back quickly. Because like I told you, I want to see you on the court with Brandon, I want to see you on the court every night. We’ll miss you a lot.” It really made me happy that he said that. So voila, the official starting 5 will be Blake, Roy, Webster, Aldridge, and Oden. This morning, McMillan talked to me in his office and told me: “When you come back, you have to be ready, because I’m going to put you back in the starting lineup on your return.” I was happy to hear that as well.

Nate wants his starting SF to defend, not be another scoring threat (unless they have an open shot, then they’re encouraged to take it) No, Webster can’t “replace” Batum as a perimeter defender, but he can body up to larger SFs better than Nic could, even if his shoulder was 100% healthy

The main problem Portland will have is defending penetration. I suspect they will have to play more zone than ever, until Nic gets back

When reached 40 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Oct 26, 2009 11:28 PM PDT reply actions

There goes the two unit theory!

If there is anything good in this it’s that we will get to see a lot more combinations (without Nic, of course) as Nate tries to find lineups that work.

by LaoTzu on Oct 27, 2009 12:01 AM PDT reply actions

i for 1 am not worried in the least

dante might turn out to be as good as nic this year. Just remember all the improved martell is based on what weve seen in practice or preseason ONLY, in reality it is the same guy who had alot of hustle but never really played very smart defensively or just wasnt ever that great. i hate playas who shoot alot of 3s and dont hustle for rebounds steals assists etc. i want more than one dimension players. positive side is i have drunk the juice and believe martell can be much improved this year starting tonite. mo minutes for everyone else will be good also

by riccc_l on Oct 27, 2009 12:39 AM PDT reply actions

Bahhhh!

It’s just a ploy by the organization to keep Nic or Martell down at all times. Now all of are problems with rotation have become the exact same issues as last year except now there wont be so many silent consonants in the comment sections of the gameday threads. Just watch, when Nic comes back one of them is going to come down with chronic shin splints or something.

If that doesn’t work, KP’ll have one of them taken out. He and Nate have to stick together.

Or something.

It wasn't the first time I'd been kicked in the cherries and called a rat by a woman, but it was the first time I didn't mind.

by shenanigans on Oct 27, 2009 3:36 AM PDT reply actions

no one can really replace batum

He has such great fundamental skills and smarts, this will help get martell going, but batum was a big part of what made this team good last year. Just not a very obvious part. I can’t wait until he gets back.

by twggyy on Oct 27, 2009 6:31 AM PDT reply actions