but his agent asking for 9 mil a year is a complete joke. Who does he think he is?

I bet that’s 90% of why no agreement yesterday.

to improve, but also to stay the same or even regress. This ballclub needs toughness,defense, ballhandling and shooting. Batum’s only got one and a half of those, in my opinion (shooting and defense when he feels like it). He pulls too many disappearing acts. I question his intestinal fortitude, his ability to overcome whatever dislikes he has about rotations or offcourt issues (and I’m giving him a pass about his mother’s immigration harrassment, as we all should) and get his head in the game.
Chorlotte’s FO and particularly Larry Brown took a lot of flac for letting Felton go to New York. People said Larry Brown stifled him and D’antoni set him free. Well, Charlotte’s looking smarter now. My point is that beyond the huge problem of our unbalanced roster, and Nate’s rotations, maybe Batum just isn’t starter material on an elite team. The FO apparently didn’t think so when it signed Wallace. I think a lot of people are forgetting that the new CBA is going to force even mega rich owners like PA to think harder about signing role players. Stars will still get their money but the pie is smaller now for the likes of Batum. He and his agent are going to find that out next summer.

in those 4 games:

49% FT, 50% (11 of 22) 3p%, 5 FTA/game, 6.8 rebs, 1.5 ast, 0.8 stl, 1.0 blks, 19.0 pts.

While other players of similar talent and potential in their 3rd to 5th years in the league are seeing starter-quality minutes and consistent playing time with established roles, and thus having an opportunity to prove themselves, Batum has essentially seen his playing time, role, and ability to carve out a place for himself on this team and in this league wither on the vine. He is averaging a paltry 24 minutes per game, down almost 25% from last year and lowest since his rookie year.

Hard to expect him to continue to improve and develop in that scenario.

Establishing a hard line and playing the game. It’s not unreasonable, and in fact it IS reasonable, to wait and see what others are willing to pay for him. Batum hasn’t exactly done much to prove that he’s not just a talented wallflower.

Wallace in 10 more minutes a game averages roughly 2 more points and 3 more rebounds. Wallace is going for 13pts to Batums 11. Minutes 34 for Wallace and 24 for Batum. Batum is second to Aldridge in PER. Batums PER is 17.5 to Wallaces 15.3. At per 36mins, Batum is third in scoring behind Aldridge and Crawford – Wallace comes in at 13.9.

Prior to looking at this I thought for sure keep Wallace. They are obviously keeping one or the other – right? It would be ridiculous to have both and then let both go. So they have to keep one of the two, and after looking at the stats I would have to say Batum.

Batum may actually be in the midst of a break-out season but it just doesnt seem that way for whatever reason. I think the change has happened and he has progressed. Sometimes when your so close to something you cant really see it in focus.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2012.html

Batum has also taken and made more threes then Wallace and Batum is actually the only one on the team shooting the 3 at 40%….the only one – I never see him hit a three, but apparently he shoots them pretty good. He has also scored only 30 less points total then Wallace despite playing over a hundred less minutes. Batum has twice as many blocks as Wallace. And the Blazers only really have 4 shot blockers with the twin dinosaurs of Camby and Thomas being two of the four with Aldridge being the fourth.

Batum is young with experience isnt that what you want to build around?

I say with Deng hurt – you trade Wallace to the Bulls for Asik and CJ Watson.

To pave the way for Batum in the future. I just don’t see a scenario where Batum leaves if Wallace does get traded.

we know, and part of what they and they know is that we’re not a serious contender with this line-up, and they have a lot of work to do to rebuild a team that was only a year ago structured around an all-star in Roy, a viable second option in Aldridge, and the possibility of Oden. Take Roy and Oden out of the picture, and we’re playing cut and paste with role players to remain entertaining and reasonably competitive – but little else. Allen, Buchanan and Macmillan know this. They certainly aren’t going to advertise it loudly to the public, but they have set up their contracts to enable them to make some significant decisions about their direction over the next year. Keeping or trading Batum or Wallace, or both for that matter, is a decision that needs to fit into this reality. So, don’t fall in love with the roster we have. We didn’t just lose Roy and Oden, we lost the ability to convert them to other players at the value they at one time had for us. That is irreplaceable. A roster of role player’s does not get you another Roy, nor give you a player that matches what we thought Oden would bring.

Batum wants to much!!!!!! let him walk at 8 million

I think it is probably the wrong move to let Batum go and try to resign Wallace to a longer contract. Wallace is a great player, but his style of play is not conducive to a long career, and he may already be on the downward slide. The Wallace you have now, is going to be as good as it is going to get. The Batum you have now may also be as good as you are going to get, but I doubt that. Batum is young, he seems like a hard worker, and he will continue to improve. Whether or not Batum ever develops into a better player than Wallace is now, I don’t know. But I do believe that the Batum 3 years from now will be better than the Wallace 3 years from now.

1) the player gives you a discount in order to lock him up long term;
2) the player is an obvious superstar, and you want to lock him up as long as you can as early as you can.

(borrowed from a recent Hollinger article, but this should be pretty obvious from the way the rules are structured)

Neither of those things are true here. Batum obviously was striving for fair market value. And he’s no max player superstar.

The team holds all the cards here—Batum will be a restricted free in the summer, but everyone knows that the Blazers will match any reasonable offer, so most likely, no one will offer that much.

Teams are incentivised not to offer mid-tier restricted free agents who their teams will definitely match like Batum a contract since all that accomplishes is to put a cap hold on that team while they’re looking to add bodies. Mostly restricted offers only go out to players who their old team is done with for whatever reason.

So chances are really good that the best offer Batum gets will be below market value. Which we can then match. Easy peasy. I don’t really like Batum at 8 mill per year, but I’d like him better at 6 mill/yr. Would have a lot more trade value too.

It’s also possible that teams will lose their minds and offer huge money. I don’t think that’s too likely in this instance — Batum’s a wing, not a center (who tend to get oversized offers), he plays off the bench and therefore doesn’t have great per game numbers (meaningless to hoopsheads but a PR problem with fanbases). If he gets a 4 yr 48 million offer out of some insane GM, I say “good job and good luck” and shake his hand on his way out the door.