Nic Batum To Sign w/ Clippers After Clearing Waivers

[TheNewEra]

Wonder if we sign him to a two year with second year team player option

[RonMexico915]

Not bad. Just not sure how much better this makes the team. Still behind the Lakers and a healthy Warriors

Behind the Lakers how? DHoward, Rondo>> Gasol, Trez, Matthews, Schredor


And the Warriors are expected to fight for the 7th and 8ths seed.

Drinking that Clipper kool-aid I see. Clippers didn’t get out of the 2nd round and the Lakers pretty easily won the title. The Warriors have won championships, we can’t get past the second round. I wouldn’t bet on this team with PG scoring 10 points in playoff games.

[madmaxmedia]

Hope they aren't spending more than the league minimum. he isn't any better than any player we could get off the street.

https://www.latimes.com/sports/clippers/story/2020-11-30/clippers-nicolas-batum-free-agent-hornets

Yet even if Batum is no longer the player who shot better than league average from deep five times in his first six seasons, his career 35.7% three-point shooting suggests an ability to keep defenses honest — and not only because of his shooting. Batum isn’t turnover-prone, and his assist-to-pass percentage last season ranked second for Charlotte and would have ranked fifth for the Clippers.

...

JaMychal Green, the versatile forward who left for Denver in free agency and essentially would be the man Batum is replacing, was valued for his versatility. Batum doesn’t have Green’s ruggedness to hang defensively with centers. (Offensively, Green was also a superior three-point shooter in recent seasons.) Still, Batum’s 7-foot wingspan allows him to defend multiple positions around the perimeter.

Batum signed at the league minimum. J-Myke never did a thing for me and he just signed with the Nugs for $7M/yr. IMO, JaMychal only took care of his numbers and disappeared for long stretches and sometimes for entire games.

I can't remember when he won us a game. And if he did, it wasn't a memorable game or else I'd remember it. Looks like we just replaced 75% of him at 25% of the price. I'm good.
.

Batum is more skilled, yes, but health and fitness are the deal. As long as last season was an outlier and not a sign of things to come in terms of his health and play, he's a better player than Green, but not better at C obviously. Right now all we can say is "we'll see"

JaMychal was a good minutes filler who could defend a couple of positions pretty well, and when he was hitting his 3's was a positive asset on the floor (he was on fire for significant stretches of his first season with us.) But he has slow form on his shot so can never be even a secondary weapon on the floor. He did always seem to play hard and we got him for peanuts, I wish him well.

The big question with Batum is exactly that- is last season an outlier? He had a broken finger and didn't play many games, if it's healed 100% then I will at least be hopeful for a decent season from him. He's coming up on 32 and only a year and half older than Green. Maybe he's not able to play quality starter minutes again, but that's not what we're expecting from him. His upside is definitely higher than Green, his downside is likely lower as well but hey he was cheap.

We are generally optimistic about these sorts of signings, because why not be at least hopeful? Some work out, some don't, we won't know until well into the season about Batum.

[BenchOnaQUEST]

Not bad. Just not sure how much better this makes the team. Still behind the Lakers and a healthy Warriors

Behind the Lakers how? DHoward, Rondo>> Gasol, Trez, Matthews, Schredor


And the Warriors are expected to fight for the 7th and 8ths seed.

Absolutely agree... The Warriros will suck bug time. I don't see them finishing higher than 7th.

[TheNewEra]

Happy about the Batum/Kennard/Ibaka portion so far. Reggie I can buy if we flip Lou for something on defense

[nickhx2]

totally agree.

we should be thrilled about those guys. this team is tremendously improved over last season. and that's not even counting probably the biggest change of all, the coach.

[TrueLAfan]

So … count me in on Batum in a big way. I think we’re almost getting to the point where we underestimate longetivity and call people injury prone for no reason. Batum is 31. He’s not an “old” 31 nor is he an often injured player—in 7 of the last 9 years before last season, he played over 70 games, and played 59 and 64 in the other two. His injury last year was not a chronic injury--what it messed with was his shooting--and he probably would have come back and played well. But the seasons was shortened and the Hornet s had pretty clearly shifted to a youth movement, and dropped him from the rotation. He’s a plus defender. He can run an offense and isn't turnover prone. He’s a very good rebounder. He can score. He can play multiple positions. I absolutely expect him to give us 20-25 mpg and play 70 games. And that, combined with Luke, is worth (a lot) more than Sham and Lou. With Reggie on board as our 4th/5th guard, Lou is really trade bait now.

[og15]

You're likely correct. There's nothing about him being a bad teammate or not being professional, the "rumours" are more in tune with whether his urgency and drive decreased after the big contract, but that might also be because people were expecting star performance from a versatile role player.

So as long as that's not the case, and as long as his hand injury doesn't have any lingering effects which makes him still scared of shooting anything inside the arc, and causes him to shoot poorly, it's all good.

I'm going to be cautiously optimistic because the Clippers haven't had the best luck with these situations, but I do feel like he should bounce back on a better team. He was benched while healthy in February last season, because of the youth movement, so he's not unhealthy.

There's certainly a great upside to him.

[KL2]

Looks in good shape at least.

Read on Twitter

[MarxyLebronist]

So … count me in on Batum in a big way. I think we’re almost getting to the point where we underestimate longetivity and call people injury prone for no reason. Batum is 31. He’s not an “old” 31 nor is he an often injured player—in 7 of the last 9 years before last season, he played over 70 games, and played 59 and 64 in the other two. His injury last year was not a chronic injury--what it messed with was his shooting--and he probably would have come back and played well. But the seasons was shortened and the Hornet s had pretty clearly shifted to a youth movement, and dropped him from the rotation. He’s a plus defender. He can run an offense and isn't turnover prone. He’s a very good rebounder. He can score. He can play multiple positions. I absolutely expect him to give us 20-25 mpg and play 70 games. And that, combined with Luke, is worth (a lot) more than Sham and Lou. With Reggie on board as our 4th/5th guard, Lou is really trade bait now.

Batum is a great player. It's a great pickup.
He has a complete game that folks will hopefully have lots of opportunities to remember this season-- the guy can lead an offense for long periods, not just play great defense and score a bit.
Adding Batum to the Clippers should go way further than adding Oubre to the Warriors, for 20-21. It's more like adding RoCo to the Blazers, though I like RoCo best out of the three on an individual basis and expect the Clippers to the better than the Blazers (and I'm a big Dame fan with Oregon ties, admittedly, so that's saying a lot for me lol).

[esqtvd]

Happy about the Batum/Kennard/Ibaka portion so far. Reggie I can buy if we flip Lou for something on defense

Likewise. Here's the thing, N.E.--

Besides Zubac, do you like ANYONE who was on the Clippers roster at the beginning of last year? Stand up for them? Because I haven't met anyone here who will.

And frankly, after last year I'm one of them. Straighten me out, bro. Give me a lifeline. Give us some hope.

[KL2]

Interview with Batum. Some good stuff. When you click on the tweet thread just hit the translation button. Well worth the read.

Read on Twitter

[TheNewEra]

Happy about the Batum/Kennard/Ibaka portion so far. Reggie I can buy if we flip Lou for something on defense

Likewise. Here's the thing, N.E.--

Besides Zubac, do you like ANYONE who was on the Clippers roster at the beginning of last year? Stand up for them? Because I haven't met anyone here who will.

And frankly, after last year I'm one of them. Straighten me out, bro. Give me a lifeline. Give us some hope.

I’m fine with everyone. I don’t even dislike Lou just the fit is shaky unless Lou can work some magic

[esqtvd]

Happy about the Batum/Kennard/Ibaka portion so far. Reggie I can buy if we flip Lou for something on defense

Likewise. Here's the thing, N.E.--

Besides Zubac, do you like ANYONE who was on the Clippers roster at the beginning of last year? Stand up for them? Because I haven't met anyone here who will.

And frankly, after last year I'm one of them. Straighten me out, bro. Give me a lifeline. Give us some hope.

I’m fine with everyone. I don’t even dislike Lou just the fit is shaky unless Lou can work some magic

Well, that's one of you. Good man.

[TheNewEra]

I’m excited the most to see Batum play and I’m not sure why

[KL2]

I’m excited the most to see Batum play and I’m not sure why

Same here along with Kennard. I know what Ibaka provides so no concerns there.

If Batum can play/provide a similar role as Diaw did for the Spurs that would be phenomenal. He looks to be in good shape again and sounds motivated too. It’s such a low risk/high reward type of move. It also sounds like he’s built a rapport with Leonard and George as well.

[nickhx2]

i'm somewhat in the same boat. it's because if he's at all still playable he's going to be making a really big difference. and i think we kinda know what we're getting with ibaka.

[ejftw]

If Batum does regain form, I'm just thinking of a potential five man unit of Kennard/Batum/PG/Kahwi/Ibaka.

They'd be able to switch everything, have good spacing, no true facilitator but everyone's decent enough at it.

[clipperlover]

Happy about the Batum/Kennard/Ibaka portion so far. Reggie I can buy if we flip Lou for something on defense

Likewise. Here's the thing, N.E.--

Besides Zubac, do you like ANYONE who was on the Clippers roster at the beginning of last year? Stand up for them? Because I haven't met anyone here who will.

And frankly, after last year I'm one of them. Straighten me out, bro. Give me a lifeline. Give us some hope.

Kawhi and PG are a great combination. Two of the best two way players in the game. Nothing is going to change that. Love PB's fire, but the guy needs to shut his trap this year unless he can back it up. You certainly don't go running your mouth when your are on the sidelines injured again.

The biggest change on this team is the coach. I am not enamored with the guy, but Lue is a new voice. Phil Jackson, Nick Nurse, Avery Johnson, and Steve Kerr are just some examples of coaches that took over and took their team to an NBA Finals. Since his 1 NBA Title in the 1st year of the big 3, Doc's teams have a history of blowing 3-1 leads, 3-2 leads and his teams not scoring in Games 6 and 7. So, to place blame solely on the players when history shows otherwise is unfair. Can't wait to see these guys do better this year, Philly fail and then Doc try to take credit for the Clips.

[esqtvd]

Happy about the Batum/Kennard/Ibaka portion so far. Reggie I can buy if we flip Lou for something on defense

Likewise. Here's the thing, N.E.--

Besides Zubac, do you like ANYONE who was on the Clippers roster at the beginning of last year? Stand up for them? Because I haven't met anyone here who will.

And frankly, after last year I'm one of them. Straighten me out, bro. Give me a lifeline. Give us some hope.

Kawhi and PG are a great combination. Two of the best two way players in the game. Nothing is going to change that. Love PB's fire, but the guy needs to shut his trap this year unless he can back it up. You certainly don't go running your mouth when your are on the sidelines injured again.

The biggest change on this team is the coach. I am not enamored with the guy, but Lue is a new voice. Phil Jackson, Nick Nurse, Avery Johnson, and Steve Kerr are just some examples of coaches that took over and took their team to an NBA Finals. Since his 1 NBA Title in the 1st year of the big 3, Doc's teams have a history of blowing 3-1 leads, 3-2 leads and his teams not scoring in Games 6 and 7. So, to place blame solely on the players when history shows otherwise is unfair. Can't wait to see these guys do better this year, Philly fail and then Doc try to take credit for the Clips.

Yup, that's the official narrative all right. Otherwise they'd have had to fire the whole team, fire the front office, and fire Ballmer too.