120 Guarantees: the Nic Batum thread

[Braggins]

If there is any chance Charlotte can get out of Batum's contract sooner than later they should exercise that right

I wish they would try to, but I have a feeling that the front office overrates Batum and aren't interested in moving him. I think hes a solid player, but he is massively overpaid and its probably only going to get worse. I've been on the verge of giving up on Batum for a while, but I'm going to give him a while longer before judging him too harshly since hes still coming off an injury, but I'm pretty much of the opinion that we should try to move him by the deadline unless he steps it up and the team starts racking up wins.

[catch20two]

Batum was a glimmer of light compared to the dull wings Kemba had to play with before him like Hendo, Reggie Williams, Gary Neal, washed Ben Gordon, and Jeff Taylor but he’s far from the ideal 2nd or 3rd fiddle player for a team that has any hopes on contending. Batum is more like a 4th wheel, somebody you don’t depend on. I’ve always thought he was overrated by the front office and many fans. We got career-high level Batum the last 2 seasons and....hmmmmm...yea....his ceiling is pretty average. It’s a shame that he got paid like that just because Kemba was that good and everyone thought Kemba was only playing that well because of Batum.

[JDR720]

If there is any chance Charlotte can get out of Batum's contract sooner than later they should exercise that right

I wish they would try to, but I have a feeling that the front office overrates Batum and aren't interested in moving him. I think hes a solid player, but he is massively overpaid and its probably only going to get worse. I've been on the verge of giving up on Batum for a while, but I'm going to give him a while longer before judging him too harshly since hes still coming off an injury, but I'm pretty much of the opinion that we should try to move him by the deadline unless he steps it up and the team starts racking up wins.

I think you and I were the two main "don't resign nic" people. This season is mostly going as expected for me, we have a weird mix of players and few 2-way players, nic included.

Definitely don't want to see him in his 30's. Like a skinny diaw.

[Braggins]

If there is any chance Charlotte can get out of Batum's contract sooner than later they should exercise that right

I wish they would try to, but I have a feeling that the front office overrates Batum and aren't interested in moving him. I think hes a solid player, but he is massively overpaid and its probably only going to get worse. I've been on the verge of giving up on Batum for a while, but I'm going to give him a while longer before judging him too harshly since hes still coming off an injury, but I'm pretty much of the opinion that we should try to move him by the deadline unless he steps it up and the team starts racking up wins.

I think you and I were the two main "don't resign nic" people. This season is mostly going as expected for me, we have a weird mix of players and few 2-way players, nic included.

Definitely don't want to see him in his 30's. Like a skinny diaw.

I didn't like it but was ultimately ok with it because of the circumstances at the time. We kind of backed ourselves into a corner by trading value for his expiring contract right before the market exploded. I think the risk of the initial trade was justifiable since our front office already knew Vonleh sucked. Nic was also good enough in his first year that it would have been hard to walk away, but I was super worried about this turning out exactly as it seems to have and I really wanted us to look into signing someone else (like Fournier) for cheaper, even if it meant possibly losing him to another team. I don't really regret how anything went down, but I think at this point we need to be proactive about trading him sooner rather than later if his play doesn't improve considerably.

[HoopsMalone]

You guys are acting like other teams can't see Nic play. No one is going to trade for him... he's got a ridiculous contract remaining... like 3/$80 AFTER this year... we're stuck

[Bassman]

You guys are acting like other teams can't see Nic play. No one is going to trade for him... he's got a ridiculous contract remaining... like 3/$80 AFTER this year... we're stuck

Yep, he's virtually untradable to anyone other than a loaded team who needs him to complete their run to a title, AND can dump onto us a similar overpaid salary that is not needed on their team.

Not likely.

I was against signing both Nic unless it was at a cap and team-friendly rate. I didn't want Marvin unless it was a bargain basement deal. Neither salary was.

[Hornet Mania]

I've got to disagree with the sentiment that Nic will be nearly impossible to trade. It's true his contract is bad, but we've seen less useful players get moved with albatross contracts. A lot of teams have shaky management (ours included), I have no doubt a few execs truly believe Batum is a valuable complementary player who could thrive outside of Charlotte.

We probably couldn't get a great haul for him, but we could probably get a decent 1st rounder (or good-ish conditional pick) and contracts that expire much earlier. I doubt we will trade him though, at least not as long as Cho/Cliff are employed.

[Rich4114]

This isn’t just about Nic. It’s about the combination of players we have. Nic would thrive with other players who could make shots. MKG and Nic and Marvin shouldn’t be on the same team together. It’s a bad fit. We should be surrounding Dwight and Kemba with great shooters who can spread the floor. Nic isn’t a great shooter but having clean spacing and guys who can shoot open would make him look a lot better than our clank city crew of MKG, Marvin, Frank, MCW, etc.

Individually, these are good players but collectively it’s a bad mix and it needs to be adjusted even if we don’t get great individual return on whoever we trade.

[HoopsMalone]

I simply can't imagine ANYONE would see Nic as valuable right now. The dude sucks. And he's got too many years left on his deal.

Teams are in cap hell. I can't see it.

[Diop]

It's so easy to crap on Batums deal but it was praised at the time for being under the max as several teams were chasing him.

That was just an insane offseason

[JDR720]

It's so easy to crap on Batums deal but it was praised at the time for being under the max as several teams were chasing him.

That was just an insane offseason

Even when we win we lose

[Braggins]

Its possible a borderline contender would give us useless expiring salary for Nic, but its hard to imagine us getting a pick for him. I would absolutely take simple salary relief and nothing more for him, though. I might even do partial salary relief + a worse but playable player that doesn't expire, essentially 20-24 mil in salary split between two contracts with one expiring.

[JDR720]

Its possible a borderline contender would give us useless expiring salary for Nic, but its hard to imagine us getting a pick for him. I would absolutely take simple salary relief and nothing more for him, though. I might even do partial salary relief + a worse but playable player that doesn't expire, essentially 20-24 mil in salary split between two contracts with one expiring.

The only team that makes sense is spurs. He is definitely a pop player.

[Diop]

I thought Utah might like him to fill Haywards shoes, Ingles is doing a great job though

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

I think that Nic is an OK fit here in a number of ways. What's made him more expendable is Lamb's development & growing chemistry with the starters. If traded there are a number of teams that would seem to benefit from his skillset. Spurs are obvious. Pop would find a way to keep him on the floor. I think that the Clippers could use him if they try to avoid tanking this year. He could be really interesting in Toronto.

Here in Charlotte, he's OK with the starters, but I could easily see him coming off the bench. Leading that 2nd unit would be a really good role for him. MCW/Monk/Nic/Frank/Cody might work.

[euphorbus]

Has anyone here seen Nicolas Batum set an honest-to-goodness screen this season? I am not talking about his wraparound handoffs, either. This is a serious question. He has played 11 games so far.

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

I have not.

[Benjamin Linus]

I wonder if we would have been better off signing Harrison Barnes instead of Nic. Both got around the same amount of money (Barnes is one year shorter). Play him at PF and then instead of resigning Marvin, we resign Lin. Barnes might just be posting empty stats and I know Lin has been injured, but who knows if they were playing with us. We'd have a younger, better fitting team.

Starters: Kemba-Lamb-MKG-Barnes-Cody
Bench: Lin-Marco-Graham-(Ilyasova?)-Frank

[Hornet Mania]

Trade this bum asap. I'm so damn tired of watching our max player play lazy defense and force tough jumpers on bad percentages. I don't even care that he's a nice facilitator, the sweet passes he hit MKG with last night don't make up for the lackadaisical play he exhibits basically 90% of the time.

If we can scam some other team into trading for an underachieving 4th-best player on a contender who gets paid the max we need to jump on that opportunity. I have absolutely no belief in Batum's play. He doesn't seem to help or hurt, he just drifts in the dead middle and gets paid $30m to do it. The best we've ever looked during his tenure here (when we went on that sweet run late in 2016) he wasn't even playing, I don't think that is at all coincidental. He has no fire, is inefficient, play bad defense, and puts us in cap hell. The fact he's a skillful player masks a lot of that, but that's gone for me, I just see him as a negative and my opinion has been thoroughly soured by this point.

[euphorbus]

He has no fire, is inefficient, play bad defense, and puts us in cap hell.

Well put. Plus he is marshmallowy soft. I rue the day the team let Lin, Lee, and Hansbrough go. Those guys are warriors, like Kemba. They are skilled, team players, for a coach that knows how to use them. The Hornets could re-signed all three for not much more than what they are paying Batum.