Blog Batum - The return of the blog

Latest 2 blog posts from Batum on the french site Basketsession

The first one is about the World cup past summer, the second one is about the beginning of the season.

"Being Europe Champions, it must be the goal" November 15

Translated from this post.

Hello everyone, I'm back after some time off I admit. So before talking about the NBA season, I wanted to talk about the world championship with the France team.

Well of course, it's a mixed picture. We didn't do well in practice games. We know what happened with the missing players, injured ones, etc. but we really tried to work with the group we had, which was a good group nonetheless. With the missing players and the fact that there were new ones, we had to find a balance and it helped our results in training games. There were major players this year who weren't there at the Euro like Mike Gelabale. There were also players like Fabien [Causeur] or Edwin [Jackson] that we had to integrate as well. The absence of bigs like Joakim [Noah] and Ronny [Turiaf] have changed the odds a bit too. So we had to work towards many things like that but but overall I think we were really serious in preparation, when training. Everybody wanted to get better, move forward.

When we arrived in Turkey, in the first training it clicked for everyone, after the failed practice games. This was the best training we've had in all the preparation. Everyone was in mode "Well, now it kicks off." It was a good thing we played the Spaniards first, it forced us to be in right away. Right from the start we were serious, we executed and played thoroughly with the potential we had. Even though we lacked big names in the team we are players with potential, capable of doing something. And that's what we showed in the first game. You can say that Spain did not have Gasol, we were also missing a few. And they have quality players, Navarro, Rudy, Marc, Rubio...

In that game we were strong I think. I've talked about it with Rudy and he said they were surprised. They didn't think we would be at this level. They were missing Pau but they knew we were missing Tony [Parker], Ronny, Rodrigue [Beaubois], Mike [Pietrus], Joakim... So they thought it would do. But when they saw us play defense in the second half they couldn't move, they got surprised. We were behind during 3 quarters but we were in the game and we were putting pressure. We were thinking it was going to pay back, and that after 30 minutes defending like that we would make them crack. We didn't lower our intensity in the game. In offense, sometimes it was going in sometimes it wasn't but defensively it was the same all game long.

That's what made us win. When you watch Andrew [Albicy] in that game... He literally killed Rubio. And we were physical with them. At one point, Flo [Pietrus] put a hell of a screen on Rubio... But that's normal, you have to play hard against them. Do not let them play. If you allow them to run around and play, it's over. I have the example of training with Rudy. If you let him run around he is unplayable. If you play hard, if you massage his ribs then it's different. That's what we did against Spain.

Speaking of Andrew, I was pleasantly surprised. Fortunately for us ! In that particular game he showed he could be a good point guard for France. To be honest a lot of people were in doubt, considering his size and his age. But when you see the summer he had and the start of the season he's realizing now, he's proved he could !

Then, against Lebanon we had a serious match I think. And there was my broken rim, I'm proud of it ! Well I still wonder how I did it because it was a really simple dunk. I didn't see and the referee stopped me and was "Look". "Am I the one who did that ?" After that I was bragging : "We have to go hard against the rim guys, you have to break the rim." In fact you should know in Portland they still don't believe me.

Then we played against Canada, we were a little tired and a little relaxed but we won. And then Lithuania... We had a huge first quarter. There I started to think "ok, now this is serious." But then we had a decent second quarter and in the 2nd half they beat us tactically, I have to admit. They offered a match-up zone we never knew how to attack. They beat many teams this way. They got a bronze medal while missing many people. This zone did a lot of damage and we lost to it. We didn't manage to attack it at all.

Then there was New Zealand. Well, first, about that game, I heard stories, stories and beautiful stories around this game. Ohhhhhh, what I heard... Particularly the famous fight between Mike [Gelabale] and me. I heard that and had a good laugh... Well, I'm ok, it didn't hurt too much, I even dominated him :) I'm just kidding. Honestly a fight, and between Mike and me. The last two persons who would fight.

So, this game... Well, we didn't go the right way into it. We watched Greece vs Russia in the locker room, we knew that we had our fate in our hands. We started to play a certain way but not thoroughly, we calculated without calculating. It was weird, we played backwards, we probably thought that anyways we could save ourselves. Except we didn't save ourselves. And then my foul on Kirk Penney, damn... I've never rewatched it, I don't want to watch that play ever. Well he played well, I was at full speed, I couldn't stop, he grabbed the ball, he stopped immediately. That was well played he got me, royally. I don't like to admit but I ran into him after that and I told him "bastard, that was well played." I tried to run because he's a shooter and I wanted to be on him, not give him space and he stopped dead, jumped right away, straight, but I was in my track, I couldn't stop.

Then we scored. They were still in sight regarding their lead. But then there was the 3 pointer with the board from Abercrombie who killed us royally. I told myself "It's not possible." To be honest, I always thought "the day I make it to France Team senior, I will never live the France vs Greece style scenario, I will do everything not to live it." Bah here it is, I got it. But it's the last time it happens.

So in the locker room, Vincent [Collet, French coach] yelled at us really good about the last play, as you may have seen (Interieur Sport from Canal + [in French]). This is normal, but we should also have done the work before : this play should never have happened. And Vincent has told us about that too. OK, we could have fouled, we didn't. But we didn't lose the match on these 5 seconds, but 39 minutes before, when we had to get the job done. We can't put ourselves in that situation. If you do the job, it's safe. Maybe at this point, late in the game, we can think of calculations but we should not have done in the beginning. But here we've kind of disgraced the French basketball on that game because we did not show values like combativity, competitiveness.

Anyways, there was ample space to dominate New Zealand, let's be honest. And they added a New Zealander for me in Portland, they really want me to mess my season... Though we haven't talked about it yet. Not yet but I fear the day he does. Patrick Mills and Rudy mocked be about that, that was extraordinary. Patrick, I saw him on the same day at the hotel, he taunted me right away. But hey, he couldn't talk too much because he just had a huge loss against Slovenia. In fact, with Australia, he's never lost against New Zealand and he was telling me they were so easy to play.

In eighth-finals we had to play Turkey. We tried to fight and wrestle with them but it was a tank driven by 70 million people. We had a good start, in the first quarter we were with them. But they have Asik, Erden, Savas inside, Hedo who had a game of the Turkoglu from 10 years ago. 25 points in the middle of the 3rd... I thought "He's been sleeping for two years and he has his big game against us." We went back on the court in the second half saying "ok, we come back, we have a run, we put the pressure on all the court" and he just scored 3 consecutive 3-pts right away, stepback and all, shots where he had a hand on the face and scored... Guler came out of nowhere, Arslan had a good game too. And the atmosphere was crazy, with ministers in the first row. It was hot ...

But well, we've learned, we're a very young team. And it may do next year. I often hear "it's going to be hard, you must be in the top 2 to go to the Olympics." But personally, I don't think about that when I'm told that, I don't think "qualification for the Olympics". I think of being European champion. You're Europe champion, you go to the Olympics. I know it's hard but it must be the goal. But anyways, it's going to be really crazy. In addition, I've learned that Serge Ibaka became Spanish. I yelled at him last week : "Asshole, come with us. What are you going to do with them ? You can't even speak Spanish, you can speak French, right ? Go with Belgium, Congolese is Belgian in the worst case." :)

It's gonna be huge next year. I really hope we have the full team. Last year guys like Tony and Ronny had to not be there because they had summers in a row. Joakim someway I understand him, you must be in his position, there's the risk of an injury. I've talked to Joakim and I can tell you he really wants to come in the France team. But really, with the full team, it can be beautiful. We all have the same goal : to reach London with the European title. But we know that there will be real teams. Lithuanians at home, Serbs, Spaniards, Turks, Slovenians, Italy who will return, Greece, Great Britain, with Luol Deng and Ben Gordon... there's people ! But it can be even nicer. One of the toughest events in history.

But before we get there, there's a long NBA season. I'll talk about the preparation with Portland in the following post, tomorrow. To be continued.

"They tell me I have Pippen's potential" November 18

translated from this post.

In my previous post I left you with the France team. After the world cup I had a little rest, I've stayed for about 10 days in France. After the game against Turkey I had McMillan on the phone who told me to come back as late as possible to Portland. The opening was on the 28th, he told me not to return before the 26th, to rest, to stay with my family. I had a good break : at first complete rest, then I've run a bit the last 5 days. There were ten days I did not touch the ball. I needed it because I had a month and a half, two months with the France team and there was a season following up.

The come back was fine. The coach had tweaked the trainings a bit for Rudy and me for the first week. But he still made me do his famous test I told you about [french, the test is 5 series of running coast to coast back and forth in less that 1 minute with a 2 minute break between the series]. I was asking "Why do I have to?" And he was just replying "do it". I succeeded but I suffered, unlike the first year. Last year, I didn't have to do it after the Euro. This year, the first two series were fine, the third one so-so, and the last one, wow... I looked like a tall guy running slow... I thought I should have run a bit during my ten days off. Then I went back on track smoothly, but the first week was not easy to come back in.

The coach's attitude towards me has not changed since the exit meetings : I have to do in defense what I'm used to doing, and on offense I have to be more and more present. I had to work on my offensive game. Already In the France team I've worked hard on it. In the national team I played a lot on pick-and-rolls and I've worked it in situation. And the other thing that we insisted a lot on with Portland this year is the inside post-up. For example last year in the playoffs the Suns put Nash on me and we didn't take advantage of it. And this year's objective is whenever there's a little guy on me we need to play him right away. The entire month of October I have almost only worked that. First game, they put me on Nash : inside right away. In New York they put Felton on me, same, the first two plays of the game were straight away post-ups. Against the Lakers it was Fisher, same. These are players they don't put on Andre Miller who's very offensive and very good at the post-up. They don't put them on Brandon Roy either. So guys like Nash, etc. will defend on me. The guy who's only defending or almost. Except now I'm trying to be an extra option.

On post-ups, the move I've worked the most is the fadeaway. With my size, if I can perfect this shot then it will really be useful. Moreover, the big 3s, guys like Durant, Carmelo, Granger, they still have a good "midrange" shot and a good fadeaway. So if I can work that and add it to my game, it can look good. I haven't only worked this shot. I alternate to create a complete post-up "package". I also try to go to the rim, etc. If I can develop this game already at 21, it can look really nice.

I've also worked a bit on the perimeter game, on things I already knew before, but that I want to do better : working on pick-and-rolls, off the screen, curls... In Le Mans I was often in this kind of situations, unlike the post-up. So on the outside game I had the basic knowledge that I'm trying to improve and refine.

In short, I'm working a bit of everything ! I'd like to have a wide offensive arsenal. Like Pippen did. He was a big defender, but on offense he kind of knew how to do everything. There are many people in Portland who were there when he was playing, they tell me I have the potential, with an extra shot. Well he had a shot but I'm a bit more of a shooter than him. But he had a toughness, a science of the game, that were crazy. I still watch videos of him now. I watch them all alone, to learn. I also asked the staff some videos of when he was in Portland. He really is a player I try to inspire of. People often ask me why my favorite player is not Jordan. Bah, I try to inspire of someone who can be immitated ! Jordan, well ... even Kobe Bryant will not succeed. Though he's very good, very, very good. He's the one who comes closest to Jordan, but he's a copy in the sense that he can be nearly as good, or as good, but not quite the same, he's not the same. But for me he's the best player in the world. LeBron James is super good, but for me it's Kobe Bryant.

To talk about this season I think I've worked a lot, and I find my first games interesting. Promising. But well, people say "yeah that's good, you did a nice little season start". Yeah, but we had a dozen games and there are 70 remaining. So I don't day-dream. But it's true that there is change from last year. I can see that in the playing time. I'm at 29 minutes per game, but there are two games where I messed up and almost didn't play, 13 and 18 minutes I think, against Chicago and Milwaukee. These two games, I was not in at all. In fact, it's the morning of the Chicago game that we'd learned the death of Maurice Lucas. He was in the staff since McMillan's arrival. This year was the first year he wasn't with us because of his illness. Last year, he wasn't there all the time but he was often present. And the first year, I've always said Monty Williams helped me move forward but Maurice Lucas helped me tremendously to fit in too. Initially during trainings, I was on the side, I wasn't getting in, and he has talked to me a lot. He was telling me what to do. He was a wiseman in the way he was talking. He was someone I respected and I still respect, that I loved and still love. When we've learned that he was leaving the hospital, that the doctors couldn't do anything anymore for him, we were told it was a matter of days or even weeks. And we didn't think it would just be a matter of hours... We were all very touched. That's why in Chicago we were completely absent in the match from A to Z. We gave 30, we were completely lost. I'm someone emotional and it's true that this game and the Milwaukee one (the next day), I was completely elsewhere. I managed to pull myself together then, but it felt strange to lose someone like him.

So, then I managed to come back to a good level, and all in all, it's true that I am having a good start of season. Things have changed, I also feel that they're more looking for me offensively and in the systems. Apart from the two games, I'm taking 13 or 14 shots on average. And I warn you no greedy shots... Well, it's true that against Detroit, I only took 11 shots and I told myself "I didn't shoot a lot today." The time I was happy was against Phoenix, we were down by 1 with 3 minutes to go, and I scored 11 points in our 14-2. In fact, now, whenever it's hot in the last quarter, I'm on the court. Whereas before, I was just coming for defensive sequences, like in handball. In offense I was going out, in defense I was going in. So it's really positive, I'm playing more, I have more responsibilities on offense, including in the late game.

On the other side, I'm fortunate Monty is gone, he'd have crushed me on some sequences. Because I admit that, as a result, sometimes I lose focus. For example against Toronto, Roy was out early in the game and offensively I was fine. I must have had 8 pts in a row and there were three minutes in the quarter. So I told myself "well, he's out, you're fine, that's three systems in a row they announced for you" and I began to relax in defense, I admit. That game, if Monty had been there he would have crushed me. At the end of the 1st quarter I thought in my head "Wow, you have to get a bit back in"... Because at the end, the score was like 18-17 and we had led like 16 to 9. But I started to mess up. Anyways, I always take it for myself when we get rebuked because of defense. It's my job ! To take the example of Pippen, he could score 17 pts per game, he's the one who defended on Magic. He might score 25 pts against NY, he was the one to take John Starks, who would rotate on Ewing and that would do all that stuff. I have to be good on both sides, and not lose focus because it's starting to get nice on offense. That's how I can become a special player. That's what McMillan wants from me. He says "counts the number of players who play on both sides of the court." And consistently, we're not talking about guys who are strong in attack and can play 5 minutes of heavy defense. The guys who do that during the whole game offense and defense, they are not many. And I want to be this kind of player, who does his job in defense and who can bring offensively.

But even if Monty Williams is gone, there's now McMillan who makes remarks immediately when I did not defend enough. Sometimes a tap on the hand with an eye that means "come on, now please you're going" is enough to understand. And then there are games like Oklahoma that we've lost in overtime, where I wasn't really in offense mode, the goal was just to defend on Durant. I had played 47 minutes on 53, I was KO after that. In addition we were playing a back-to-back next, Toronto and the Lakers, I was dead.  Against the Lakers at home it was my fifth game in seven days. We were dead, we've been holding for a quarter, then we got crushed.

So to finish this first long post, I'll conclude with our objectives. We want to win our division (Minnesota, Denver, Oklahoma, Utah). There may be not be any particularly scary team but I think it's the most balanced division. Last year, we were the only division with 4 teams with 50 victories. I'm not saying we will do it, but we can try to win the division. That would allow us to be in the top three in the West and have the homecourt advantage on one or two rounds. Then the goal is to go as far as possible. I say this every year, but when you're there, why not play for the big trophy.

Individually, I want to keep progressing, be stronger than last year, stronger than yesterday. But my main objective this year is very stupid, it's to play 82 games. The first year I've played 79, and last year... well. By the way my shoulder, it's forgotten ! So it's not worth to talk. By the way I mentionned the MIP title, but I said it without saying it. A journalist asked me my goals and I told him, like here, that I wanted to be one of those who have progressed the most and become a better player. But I never said I wanted the MIP, I just wanted to be one of the guys who made the most progress this year. And actually, if you're the one who progressed the most, well you get the MIP title. Well, if I get it I won't sniff at it either, but I mostly want to be better than before. I want to pass a step. I am no longer considered a youth, I am not a rookie anymore, I'm not a sophomore. I'm an NBA player now. It's been two years since I came here, I'm in the 5, I am the starting winger of a competitive team in the Western Conference, they're counting on me. So I really have to progress, pass a step to remain at that level. I must be better than before because last year I was not at the top of what I could do. I'm playing 30, 35 minutes. Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster aren't there anymore, we aren't 3 anymore for the position 3, so I have to take the responsibility. I'm the 3, whereas last year we did not know if it was Martell or me. This year it's me, so I have to pass a step and to be better than before.