Q. Why is Nic Batum starting?
A. The short answer: Because warts and all, he’s still a better option for now at small forward than Dwayne Bacon or rookie Miles Bridges.
The long answer: Is Batum performing like you’d expect from a player making $24 million this season? No, and that’s a problem. But as then-Hornets coach Steve Clifford said after Batum signed that contract, the salary wasn’t going to transform Batum into a 25-points-a-game scorer. That stuff was all fan expectations, not reality.
The Hornets offered him that contract because they felt competitive pressure to retain talent after Batum had a career season, his first after the trade from the Portland Trail Blazers. The Hornets weren’t the only team prepared to pay him that way.
This season, in order to get scorer Jeremy Lamb into the starting lineup, new coach James Borrego is asking more of Batum defensively. The opposing team’s better wing scorer is now Batum’s responsibility, rather than Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s.
I don't like this framing. No one had anywhere near those kind of expectations and we aren't disappointed because he didn't turn into a 25ppg scorer. We are disappointed because hes averaging 9/5/4 and barely looks like he has any interest in playing basketball 2/3 of the time.
