a little comparison

by ripcitymilehigh on Jan 23, 2012 8:31 PM PST

By my math, Nate thinks that Wes Matthews is at least 30% a better player than Nic Batum.

Which is odd, because so far this year Nic is out shooting Wes Money, out rebounding him, and out blocking him. And frankly, I don't expect Nic to outshoot Wes all year. Wes might be a more consistent defender, but Batum is a more impactful defender (arguably of course).

When you consider what Wes' role on the team is...a defender who waits for his offensive moments based on the other guys on the floor (mostly as a shooter)...really...we're saying that Nic can't do that...we (or at least they) are saying that Nic can't take 3 or 4 minutes from Wes (who would still be averaging 30 mpg) to show a level of commitment to the kid?

Heck, I'm not even arguing that Nic should start or play more than Wes...but it is a little embarrassing that our coach is so stubborn and apparently not great at (I want to say something really mean...but I won't) balancing his rotation.

Get the kid more minutes. How is it that the management of the team is not screaming at Nate. Just tonight Nate had Wes playing the 3 for a stretch...would it really hurt the team to put Nic out there?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&p1=batumni01&y1=2012&p2=matthwe02&y2=2012

Check out positional stats Nic is top 15 in several and even top 10 in a few....not to say he is Scottie Pippen or something....but the kid has earned minutes, the team or at least the coach is screwing him and the future of the organization.

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nic just needs to be afforded

more crepes, hand rolled ciggarettes and coffee, you would think portland is the best city for him

by tevisthe4th on Jan 23, 2012 9:38 PM PST reply actions 1 recs

Contract time!

He’ll get his minutes when the deal is done.

COMCAST SUCKS!!

by shamman on Jan 23, 2012 10:38 PM PST reply actions

well yeah, but...

last night; Nicolas Batum played 19 minutes and scored 0 with but 2 rebounds.
on one shot attempt, I believe.

that seems to be at least part of the problem.
20+ points for a couple games, zero+ for a few later.

versus Sac, for example, giving him 30 mintues would’ve resulted in what more? He clearly wasn’t doing anything.

also, half the time (sometimes I don’t blame him) he looks like he’s on the verge of throwing a tantrum when he doesn’t get the ball when he thinks he should.

otherwise, yeah – I like the guy…more minutes++

by blazerblaze on Jan 24, 2012 7:28 AM PST reply actions

good point

but I wonder how much of that is his aggressiveness and how much is the role he is asked to play.

Last night Crawford and Wallace broke out of slumps…one nice thing about Nic is that he plays team ball and tries to fit the team concept….sometimes he does that too much (for which I fault Monty & Nate as well).

Crawford shot 18 times which was the game high for the team. In addition Wallace, LA, and Matthews shot double digits…sometimes the shots just aren’t there. I would have liked to see the rebounds higher…but when you are standing in the corner…

It would be interesting to see a real analysis of Nic’s production as an result of scheme vs. effort.

by ripcitymilehigh on Jan 24, 2012 10:12 AM PST up reply actions

Big difference between Wes and Nic

is Wes is much better at ball denial than Nic. I still agree that Nic needs some more minutes, and I would also agree that those minutes should be at the 2 at the expense of Wes.

I would like to see if Nic can run the pick and roll from the top of the key against second units. We saw Nic attempting to make some plays from the post earlier this season but the results weren’t so promising. I remember seeing two top of the key pnr’s with Batum so far this year, and one play resulted in the defender going under the screen and Batum hit a open 18 footer and in the other play a defender hedged off his man in the corner and Batum made the pass into the corner for an open 3. I don’t think we should let Jamal take almost every shot off the bench.

by jukelike20 on Jan 24, 2012 10:10 AM PST reply actions