Now I'm a very big supporter of Batum, I was all for the large contract and felt he was worth it. I have loved what he has done and think his ceiling is still a ways away...

to get to the point of my post today I took a look at the teams numbers at the all-star break and Batum's stood out to me. With all the talk of how much better Batum is playing his numbers may surprise you like they did me...

(Now obviously look at these while keeping in mind 2 things, 1-Batum has been playing the last few weeks with the wrist injury and that has definitely affected his game, 2-He got his first Triple double of his career this season and added one more, also has seven double doubles which is only one more than his career high of 6 in the '10-'11 season)

AVERAGES

Year / Min / FGM-A / FG% / 3PM-A / 3P% / FTM-A / FT% / OR / DR / REB / AST / BLK / STL / TO / PTS

'10-'11 / 31.5 / 4.6-10.1 / .455 / 1.5-4.3 / .345 / 1.7-2.1 / .841 / 1.4 / 3.2 / 4.5 / 1.5 / .6 / .9 / 1.0 / 12.4

'11-'12 / 30.4 / 4.9-10.9 / .451 / 1.8-4.6 / .391 / 2.3-2.7 / .836 / 1.4 / 3.2 / 4.6 / 1.4 / 1.0 / 1.0 / 1.5 / 13.9

'12-'13 / 38.7 / 5.1-12.0 / .424 / 2.3-6.3 / .364 / 2.8-3.3 / .859 / 1.4 / 4.5 / 5.9 / 4.9 / 1.2 / 1.3 / 2.9 / 15.3

career / 28.3 / 4.0-8.8 / .452 / 1.5-4.1 / .370 / 1.6-1.9 / .842 / 1.2 / 3.0 / 4.2 / 1.9 / .8 / .9 / 2.0 / 11.1

MISC

year / AST/TO / STL/TO / NBA RATING / SCORING EFFICIENCY / SHOOTING EFFICIENCY

'10-'11 / 1.48 / .82 / 21.12 / 1.227 / .528

'11-'12 / .093 / .63 / 23.02 / 1.276 / .534

'12-13 / 1.67 / .43 / 29.91 / 1.274 / .520

career / 1.44 / .66 / 20.01 / 1.260 / .537

(I added the '10-'11 season only because last year was the lockout year so it wasnt a full season and these 3 seasons all saw him avg at least 30 minutes a game)

You will notice a few things when looking at the numbers but a couple are blatantly obvious assists, turnovers, FG%, 3P% and NBA rating.... AST, TO and NBA Rating are Batum's most improved category's and I think his passing game is the most noticeable improvement when u actually watch him play. His Assist to turnover ratio is the best of his career. Noticeable decline comes in the form of FG% (which is the worst of his career) and 3P% (which is the 2nd worst of his career)... this probably comes from the fact that he is taking the most 3pt attempts of his career and maybe the wrist factors in a little and maybe he is being game planned and guarded a little better....

Other than those areas I just mentioned everything else seems to be getting a small boost from the roughly 8 minutes more a game he is playing than ever before. So what do you think? Sound off in the comment and vote in the poll!