120 Guarantees: the Nic Batum thread

thesneakysneak · Post #81 » by **thesneakysneak** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 10:58 pm

I expect maxing out at Henderson production with about 2 extra assists and an extra 3 ball per game.
Possibly for a year rental, and he is injury prone. I am skeptical at best.

mrknowitall215 · Post #82 » by **mrknowitall215** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:04 pm

Batum said that he's definitely playing for his national team this summer. That could be a good or bad thing. The possible good thing is that he'll stay in shape and could possibly carry whatever successful momentum he had from the offseason into the regular season. The more likely scenario is that he'll re-injure his wrist and may come into the beginning of the season fatigued

I'm about to look up Batum's stats early in the seasons that he has played for his national team during the offseason

DY_nasty · Post #83 » by **DY_nasty** » Fri Jun 26, 2015 11:28 pm

contract year batum is gonna be a stud

i already regret over-paying him lol

BlackOutBuzz · Post #84 » by **BlackOutBuzz** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:04 am

[tweet]https://twitter.com/hornets/status/614489697855913984[/tweet]

EwingSweatsALot · Post #85 » by **EwingSweatsALot** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:16 am

BlackOutBuzz wrote:[tweet]https://twitter.com/hornets/status/614489697855913984[/tweet]

"Ayy Boreeees, howw ees the Charleet?"

"Neec, eets wonderful. You cane suuuk un eat all you want un deee maroons will pay you to leeeve un play for suumone else"

"Boreees, I luvv eet already. Bojangles Cheddarre Booo for every meeel."

I have no clue how french people talk. I've been twice and I still think they talk like that cartoon skunk.

Post #86 » by **yosemiteben** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:45 am

Somebody needs to take Batum to Amelie's.

Eoghan · Post #87 » by **Eoghan** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 6:16 am

Batum raider is the only thing I'm looking forward to this season so far.

TheKingofSting · Post #88 » by **TheKingofSting** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 7:11 am

Is he going to keep his race car number?

chabber · Post #89 » by **chabber** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 1:20 pm

He's #5

EwingSweatsALot · Post #90 » by **EwingSweatsALot** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 1:59 pm

chabber wrote:He's #5

Lame, he coulda been in Bojangles commercials with Dale Jr.

BlackOutBuzz · Post #91 » by **BlackOutBuzz** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 2:03 pm

^and Greg Olsen.

Flip Murray · Post #92 » by **Flip Murray** » Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:39 pm

this guy is going to be such a luxury to have especially if MKG gets hurt.

mrknowitall215 · Post #93 » by **mrknowitall215** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 2:42 am

I'm uncomfortable with Clifford telling the media that he plan on expanding Batum's role from what he was in Portland. This concerns me that Clifford may give Batum too much onus of orchestrating the offense which in turn may lead to Batum struggling more than he ever have in his career by taking on more responsibility

I'm hoping it's all just media-savvy talk to get the Charlotte fans more excited about the acquisition

Vanderbilt_Grad · Post #94 » by **Vanderbilt_Grad** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:03 am

mrknowitall215 wrote:I'm uncomfortable with Clifford telling the media that he plan on expanding Batum's role from what he was in Portland. This concerns me that Clifford may give Batum too much onus of orchestrating the offense which in turn may lead to Batum struggling more than he ever have in his career by taking on more responsibility

I'm hoping it's all just media-savvy talk to get the Charlotte fans more excited about the acquisition

You have to know better by now. After all the talk about part of the reason why Lance and B-Rob struggled last year was because Cliff pushed them to do more. Cliff never builds to suit his players, he tries to get players to match his vision of the offense. It worked year one mostly because McRoberts found ways to translate it on the floor. It failed last year when no one could replicate that. We are really going to have to hope that someone finds a way to channel their inner Cliff or McBob on this roster, be it Batum or someone else.

mrknowitall215 · Post #95 » by **mrknowitall215** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 3:16 am

Vanderbilt_Grad wrote:
mrknowitall215 wrote:I'm uncomfortable with Clifford telling the media that he plan on expanding Batum's role from what he was in Portland. This concerns me that Clifford may give Batum too much onus of orchestrating the offense which in turn may lead to Batum struggling more than he ever have in his career by taking on more responsibility

I'm hoping it's all just media-savvy talk to get the Charlotte fans more excited about the acquisition

You have to know better by now. After all the talk about part of the reason why Lance and B-Rob struggled last year was because Cliff pushed them to do more. Cliff never builds to suit his players, he tries to get players to match his vision of the offense. It worked year one mostly because McRoberts found ways to translate it on the floor. It failed last year when no one could replicate that. We are really going to have to hope that someone finds a way to channel their inner Cliff or McBob on this roster, be it Batum or someone else.

I already know. I'm just trying to be cautiously skeptical before ridiculing Clifford about something that hasn't happened yet. I'm hoping I don't have to see Batum try to channel Magic Johnson because Clifford gave him the utmost freedom to facilitate the offense with Kemba being his Byron Scott. I just think that'll result in a disaster personally

Post #96 » by **JDR720** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 10:23 am

he tweets everything in french. appears to be doing some kind of basketball camp in France this summer

Post #97 » by **JDR720** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 11:43 am

Soon as Nicolas Batum learned he’d been traded to Charlotte, he called fellow Frenchman Boris Diaw for the low-down.

Diaw told Batum where to go and where to eat . So Friday at Batum’s introductory news conference, someone asked Batum if he’d start riding around on a Segway as Diaw did.

“Yes!” Batum joked. “I think I’m going to do the very same thing.”

OK, now we know new Hornet Batum is playful. Coach Steve Clifford thinks can be a lot more than that, a lot more than he was as a Portland Trail Blazer.

Clifford told Batum this trade will expand his role. He’s no longer playing with stars LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard, standing in the corner waiting to take a 3-pointer.

Batum, by his own description, is coming off a bad season. He had a wrist injury and shot 40 percent from the field and 32 percent from 3-point range, the worst such statistics of his seven-season NBA career.

Batum says he was ready for a change. He seems delighted to get a fresh start with the Hornets.

“I know my role is going to be different and I like that,” Batum said. “I know I can do a lot of things on the court; I’m a very versatile player. So me and Kemba (Walker) can do great things together.”

Clifford has major plans. He envisions the 6-foot-8 Batum, who will start at shooting guard, as a primary scoring option next season. Clifford imagines running offense through Batum similarly to how the Orlando Magic did with small forward Hedo Turkoglu when Clifford was an assistant there.

The Hornets gave up a lot for Batum, sending shooting guard Gerald Henderson and power forward Noah Vonleh to Portland Wednesday night. But with the NBA’s worst 3-point percentage last season (31.8 percent) and the failed Lance Stephenson experiment over, the Hornets had to do something dramatic to fix this.

“I was very excited when I heard Charlotte was interested in me. I felt like I could take this in another direction,” Batum said. “This is going to be a good, good team. Jeremy (Lamb) is a good player. We’ve got Kemba and Big Al (Jefferson) already. And Frank (Kaminsky) was the best player in all of college.”

Batum believes the Hornets will be back in the playoffs next spring and his play will be a big factor in whether that happens. That’s not just about his career 36 percent 3-point shooting. He says he’s good for five assists and six rebounds per game here and he prides himself in being able to guard every position but center.

“Back in the day (against the Dallas Mavericks) I guarded Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd in the same game. Jason Terry, too,” Batum said.

Batum’s development in basketball was quite different than it would have been had he grown up in the United States. At 15 he was essentially an apprentice pro, practicing against adults every day. He signed with a French team at 17 and was drafted into the NBA at 19.

Batum was recruited by Georgia Tech and Arizona, but decided he was better off in Europe playing against the pros.

“When I was 19 I wasn’t afraid of older guys because I’d gone through it. That’s why at 19 I started 77 games” as a Portland rookie, Batum described.

“When you’re a young guy in college there’s an adjustment (to the NBA) because you’ve never played with grown men. I’d made that adjustment two or three years earlier. So that first training camp, when (veterans) would hit me, I knew what to do.”

Now, changing teams for the first time in the NBA, Batum again knows what to do.

“I’m easy. I’m coachable,” Batum said. “I’m able to adjust.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nba/charlotte-hornets/article25668130.html#storylink=cpy

Post #98 » by **Walt Cronkite** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 5:40 pm

^ Was going to give props for working in a "Boris Diaw is fat reference" and the Segway thing in the first two sentences of a made up article until I clicked the link and saw it was real. Oh boy.

Radu_Hornets · Post #99 » by **Radu_Hornets** » Sun Jun 28, 2015 6:08 pm

If you want any translation about batum tweets I can do it !

KembaWalker · Post #100 » by **KembaWalker** » Mon Jun 29, 2015 1:49 am

How would you guys compare/contrast Batum/MKG wing combo versus Jack/Crash in 2010? As much as I love MKG and what Batum can bring to the line, it's hard for me to come up with anything I think the current duo is superior in. Our wings were so good that year