120 Guarantees: the Nic Batum thread

[TinmanZBoy]

You guys forgot the jubilance after the deal, considering he gave a little discount... and you also forgot Boris Diaw then
The 2015/16 squad is a fun group, but only Kemba is still standing, others all washed...

[Vanderbilt_Grad]

Oh, I thought that the Hornets had signed the right guys and that the cap going up would help make the deal less bad over time. I was wrong on both counts.

[yosemiteben]

Read on Twitter

[SWedd523]

Call me an ****, but I don't want to see Batum go to any team where he could fumble **** his way into a championship.

He's completely phoned it in for 3 years now. He shouldn't get rewarded

[wilson115]

Boris Diaw 2.0?

[Diop]

Boris Diaw 2.0?

I think so, I think he will be useful to another team like Diaw was

[Hornet Mania]

I don't know, he looked washed while still in decent basketball shape which is a big difference imo.

With Diaw it was clear that when he lost the weight and improved his conditioning that's what made the difference, with Batum it's hard to imagine he won't be the same floaty dude with no explosion as 9th man for some contender as he was for us. I understand why teams are going to kick the tires, and at least one will take that shot for the minimum, but I'm not very confident they'll be rewarded.

Just seemed like Batum's body has broken down a few years early due to all the mileage from international play and his heart isn't in it anymore either. Maybe being in a better situation will fix the problem between the ears but I don't know if it will rejuvenate his body.

[Rich4114]

Now that the Batum era seems to finally be coming to an end in Charlotte, can we look back and say he was the most negative asset we've ever had? When you look at the investment vs performance. Even if you look at drafting Morrison as a complete waste of such a high value asset in the #3 pick in the draft that at least didn't prevent us from doing anything else for 4 seasons or cause us to have to move on from the franchises best player of all time. We gave Batum an insane amount of money and regretted it immediately after because he just stopped trying and it was the main thing that prevented us from improving our roster.

There are plenty of other bad contracts/trades/draft busts/etc. but this is the one that probably had the biggest negative impact of the franchise all-time.

[SWedd523]

The 2016 off-season was the worst managed and most damaging few months in Horncat history

Hibbert 1/5
Batum 5/120
Sessions 2/12.5
Marvin 4/54
FRP traded for Belinelli (1.5/10)...who then became the Dwightmare

Roughly 200 million worth of money to get almost no return whatsoever. Wasted Kemba's prime and he walked for nothing.

The only benefit was getting to enjoy Marv bust his ass (which really only means we wasted his vet years where he should've been helping a contender win a title)

Possibly one of the worst FA periods of all time.

The team still hasn't recovered and, if Batum gets stretched, will be feeling the repercussions 7 years later.

[JMAC3]

The 2016 off-season was the worst managed and most damaging few months in Horncat history

Hibbert 1/5
Batum 5/120
Sessions 2/12.5
Marvin 4/54
FRP traded for Belinelli (1.5/10)...who then became the Dwightmare

Roughly 200 million worth of money to get almost no return whatsoever. Wasted Kemba's prime and he walked for nothing.

The only benefit was getting to enjoy Marv bust his ass (which really only means we wasted his vet years where he should've been helping a contender win a title)

Possibly one of the worst FA periods of all time.

The team still hasn't recovered and, if Batum gets stretched, will be feeling the repercussions 7 years later.

We let Lin walk, him and Kemba were really good together even though it meant annoying Lin fans all over the place.

Marv resigning was horrible for Frank development, wonder what he could of done if given an opportunity with the starters.

I was in the camp of keep Lin and resign Batum, but hey what do I know Lin got hurt and Batum gave up.

[BigSlam]

I was of the opinion at the time it was super important to re-sign Batum because he was so imperative to Walker's growth as Batum provided that secondary ball handler and play maker.

I was very wrong. Walker was just fine without Batum.

That was a badddddddddd contract.

[HornetJail]

there was no winning that 2016 offseason unless we completely cleared out all the FAs and replaced them with other guys. With the exception of Marvin, everybody from that 2016 team that needed new contracts disappointed on their next contract. Batum (duh), Zeller (extended that summer, injury after injury after that), MKG (extension the previous summer kicked in, was injured that whole 2016), Courtney Lee (overpaid by NY), Lin (overpaid by BRK and constantly injured), Big Al (old, game passed him by).

Marvin was the only dude who actually stayed pretty much the same for the first 2-3 years of the deal. He really only fell off in the final season.

[remi_222]

Remi, we've been down this road and it's 100% revisionist history. Nic himself talked about his role changing and him needing to provide more offense back when he came to the team and when he signed the new contract. Yes, we've all seen your posts about his recent discussions with the coaching staff about not changing his game, but that really doesn't have any bearing here. Nic knew was the expectations were when he took the deal and he failed to deliver.

Even slower, and wanting to pass more, last year Nic could have been a great floor general on the second unit if he had just played a bit harder. It wasn't just shooting either. His TRB% and AST% were both down too while TOV% went up so he wasn't grabbing rebounds and was making bad passes a lot more. All of those are independent of minutes played. His actions on the court ended up looking a lot more like he wasn't even trying than it was that he was limited by age or injury.

Yeah you said it all, i can tell you've seen and are aware of the whole thing saying with better words than mine ! just really sad honestly that he couldnt give back as much as he received ! That represent as well the way NBA goes : reward someone to make him a multi millionaire after 82 games played ! Still hope he can find some fun somehow to rebound ! 31yrs old damn it

[Rich4114]

We didn’t want to accept that we peaked with that team and the foundation of that team was built on a house of cards. So many factors made that unsustainable. At the time, I understood why they needed to pay Batum but I was worried and second guessing it because we almost won the Miami series after he got hurt. Lin was the guy we should’ve kept.

[luciano-davidwesley]

I really hope we don't waive Batum. I don't want him to be able to get his salary and chase a ring. I want him sitting on our bench all season not playing. Deal Rozier instead!

[BigSlam]

Read on Twitter

So not stretching? Just straight up waiving?

[SWedd523]

I assume the stretch is implied

[yosemiteben]

I assume the stretch is implied

Agreed. We won't have the cap space to waive and do nothing else.

[vorbis]

I assume the stretch is implied

depending on if there's actually a Hayward S&T, not necessarily implied imo

[yosemiteben]

Can we waive him, resign at a lower salary, then trade him to BOS?