120 Guarantees: the Nic Batum thread

catch20two · Post #1141 » by **catch20two** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 3:37 pm

Joest2003 wrote:That's nothing. I remember the GSW game few weeks ago. The first few possessions were the worst defense I have ever seen on my life. Didn't even fight through the screens he literally gave up and left Klay open for a few 3s I'm the first few minutes. Cliff wold have blew a gasket

mrknowitall215 · Post #1142 » by **mrknowitall215** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 4:08 pm

I think it's beyond obvious at this point in Batum's career that he shouldn't be chasing wings around the perimeter primarily. Batum would be better suited as a small forward that can occasionally play power forward. He has no speed advantage at shooting guard and he's too apathetically impartial on offense to legitimately exploit his height advantage as he should

Joest2003 · Post #1143 » by **Joest2003** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:22 pm

catch20two wrote:
Joest2003 wrote:That's nothing. I remember the GSW game few weeks ago. The first few possessions were the worst defense I have ever seen on my life. Didn't even fight through the screens he literally gave up and left Klay open for a few 3s I'm the first few minutes. Cliff wold have blew a gasket

Props for putting those clips together.

Honestly that is some of the worst defense I ever seen. Just pure laziness and he wasn't even trying. Pathetic. Glad cliff is coming back he wont put up with that. He would have had a heart attack of he was coaching for that game and see how lazy batum was on defense.

catch20two · Post #1144 » by **catch20two** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:42 pm

Joest2003 wrote:Glad cliff is coming back he wont put up with that. He would have had a heart attack of he was coaching for that game and see how lazy batum was on defense.

I don’t know about that. Clifford got his picks. Batum is one of his favorites that can barely do any wrong in his eyes. I’ve never seen Cliff bench Batum yet and this isn’t the first time he’s played lazy defense so I wouldn’t expect it. We’ve watched Belinelli consistently get 25-30 minutes off the bench playing defense like that every night last year lol.

DY_nasty · Post #1145 » by **DY_nasty** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:48 pm

catch20two wrote:
Joest2003 wrote:Glad cliff is coming back he wont put up with that. He would have had a heart attack of he was coaching for that game and see how lazy batum was on defense.

I don’t know about that. Clifford got his picks. Batum is one of his favorites that can barely do any wrong in his eyes. I’ve never seen Cliff bench Batum yet and this isn’t the first time he’s played lazy defense so I wouldn’t expect it. We’ve watched Belinelli consistently get 25-30 minutes off the bench playing defense like that every night last year lol.

Marco's always been clueless on D though.

Batum was one of the better defensive wings in the league for most of this career. He absolutely knows better.

316Hornets · Post #1146 » by **316Hornets** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 5:57 pm

Conspiracy theory: We made Batum skip the French league this past offseason and now he's playing lackadaisical because of that.

Post #1147 » by **fatlever** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 9:33 pm

Read on Twitter

catch20two · Post #1148 » by **catch20two** » Fri Jan 12, 2018 10:52 pm

Batum being a “4th option” at the moment was a generous statement.

HoopsMalone · Post #1149 » by **HoopsMalone** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 2:36 am

For the life of me I cant figure out why he's not coming off the bench.

Even Treveon Graham would give us the shooting and spacing that we desperately need to give Kemba driving lanes and more room for Dwight to work down low. A unit with Treveon, Marvin, and Kemba can really light it up from the outside while MKG/Dwight can screen, cut, and hit the offensive glass.

What does Batum bring to the starting unit? Go ahead, I'll wait....

I

Vanderbilt_Grad · Post #1150 » by **Vanderbilt_Grad** » Sat Jan 13, 2018 3:03 am

HoopsMalone wrote:For the life of me I cant figure out why he's not coming off the bench.

Even Treveon Graham would give us the shooting and spacing that we desperately need to give Kemba driving lanes and more room for Dwight to work down low. A unit with Treveon, Marvin, and Kemba can really light it up from the outside while MKG/Dwight can screen, cut, and hit the offensive glass.

What does Batum bring to the starting unit? Go ahead, I'll wait....

I

I'm not defending Batum here, but I still maintain that the reasons Batum starts are:

1. Cliff's offense demands that a 2nd ballhandler play in the starting lineup. That means that either Batum or Frank must be on the floor. This is based on the Orlando offense where Hedo Turkoglu was that guy.

2. Cliff favors vets.

3. Batum is the highest paid guy on the team. We've already had one coach fired this year for benching a guy like that in the 4th quarter.

4. Batum showed loyalty to the team by not playing on the French National Team this year. He chose to play injured over having season-ending surgery. He has put the team first, and in return the team is still putting him first and allowing him to play himself healthy.

And Silas knew that Cliff would likely be back ... that his role was temporary at best. He wasn't going to shake things up too much. And in no way could he afford to risk #3.

The ideal resolution now would be for Batum himself to ask to come off the bench until he is healthy. If he's not going to do that then IDK what happens next. I don't expect Cliff to bench him, but the actual head coach is far more able to do that than Silas was IMHO.

Snidely FC · Post #1151 » by **Snidely FC** » Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:40 am

Nic has a $27 Million Player Option in 2021

catch20two · Post #1152 » by **catch20two** » Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:50 am

And you know he gonna exercise his right to get paid.

316Hornets · Post #1153 » by **316Hornets** » Sun Jan 14, 2018 1:02 am

Snidely FC wrote:Nic has a $27 Million Player Option in 2021

If there was ever a reason to tank, this would be the reason.

Eoghan · Post #1154 » by **Eoghan** » Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:11 am

Yeah, I hate to say it but if Batum is going to be a ghost, it's probably less damaging to the team for him to do that with the starters than the bench. Still wish Lamb could get some starts though.

316Hornets · Post #1155 » by **316Hornets** » Sun Jan 14, 2018 2:53 am

I noticed more boos when Batum missed some shots in tonight's game. A wide open 3 that he missed from the corner generated a lot of boos and then there was a turnover too.

I'm not sure how we can keep him starting and playing if the fans are turning against him in year 2 of his 5 year contract. Does anyone have an opinion on this? How have other teams handled it when a player underperforms so badly that the fanbase turns on them this early in a contract?

mrknowitall215 · Post #1156 » by **mrknowitall215** » Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:09 am

Nicolas Batum wants more involvement in Hornets offense

Fans want Batum to play more aggressively, and according to Batum, he does as well. Batum spoke with the media following Friday’s win over the Utah Jazz. Asked by Locked On Hornets own Doug Branson how important it was for him to get involved early in the game in order to play well offensively, Batum expressed it was very important, but explained that it’s been “different” due to the makeup of the roster.

“It’s different right now because you know, we have new players,” Batum explained. Citing an earlier conversation with associate head coach Stephen Silas, Batum stated, “We talked about the last game and [Silas] told me he didn’t run stuff for me because Kemba had a good night and Dwight was rolling. So he wanted me to give the ball inside to Dwight and increase space for Kemba.”

https://www.lockedonhornets.com/nicolas-batum-wants-more-involvement-in-hornets-offense/

.
Sounds like Batum is not necessarily blaming but subliminally pointing his finger at Dwight for some of his offensive woes this season, and even though I'm not the biggest fan of Batum I do think he has a point. The overall offense of the Hornets come to a halt and loses it's pace to keep opposing defenses on it's heels the more they run the offense through Dwight in the post. However with Zeller being injured I understand that it may be tough, but that's where coaching comes into play. They have to convince Dwight that it would be in the team's best interest for wins if his role on the team was rim protection and rim runs similar to Clint Capela of the Rockets

I know I don't frequent the game threads the way I once did, but I also know I can't be the only one that face palm often whenever I see them feed the ball into Dwight during offensive possessions

The addition of Dwight Howard in the offseason has added new wrinkles to the Hornets offense including post-touches and putback plays that Batum isn’t always a part of. Howard is being used much more on offense than Cody Zeller was last season and that’s meant a subtraction in usage for Nic Batum. He’s seen his usage percentage dip from 22.1% last season to 17.2% this season.

https://www.lockedonhornets.com/nicolas-batum-wants-more-involvement-in-hornets-offense/

I haven't noticed that Batum's usage in the offense has dipped that much. It's not a licit excuse for how bad he's been playing this season but it's something to consider when we look at his overall regression on offense

DY_nasty · Post #1157 » by **DY_nasty** » Mon Jan 15, 2018 2:36 am

That's so petty... Dwight turns the ball over, sure, but missing him and then throwing the ball late once the defense identifies it is setting the guy up to fail and he's the number one guy guilty of that.

Dude could really own up. Its always something with this guy. And what has he done to warrant more touches himself? At least Dwight will go out there and bang it out knowing he's gonna get mauled under the rim all night. Dwight has faults but no one is gonna question his effort. Nic though? That's been a constant thing... Batum gets any kind of contact and he abandons driving the lane for the rest of the game. And he wants more shots? How about hitting the ones you do get. He acts like he doesn't have the usage when he's out there but he doesn't even want to shoot.

That's straight up scapegoating from Batum. And it really makes me appreciate all the years Kemba never threw any of the guys under the bus, even when things were much worse. Batum can kick rocks man...

HornetJail · Post #1158 » by **HornetJail** » Mon Jan 15, 2018 3:53 am

mrknowitall215 wrote:
“We talked about the last game and [Silas] told me he didn’t run stuff for me because Kemba had a good night and Dwight was rolling. So he wanted me to give the ball inside to Dwight and increase space for Kemba.”

WOW NO **** SHERLOCK. Play better and they'll run some plays for you. I know it's not really Nic's fault his elbow is **** up and he can't shoot right and that kind of takes him out of his element (obviously part of that is mental) but seriously... the fact he's indirectly blaming Dwight for his struggles annoys me more than anything else he's done this season.

HoopsMalone · Post #1159 » by **HoopsMalone** » Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:07 am

mrknowitall215 wrote:
I know I don't frequent the game threads the way I once did, but I also know I can't be the only one that face palm often whenever I see them feed the ball into Dwight during offensive possessions

I'm not sure if I'm capable of beating this drum any louder. I've been on it all season as having the potential to completely wreck our year and it has.

I would say most people have moved on from face palming and have settled on "no longer watching the game"

DY_nasty · Post #1160 » by **DY_nasty** » Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:57 am

a bad turnover by dwight is just a dumb shot that someone else could be taking... its not like he's derailing high powered offense out there lol. and after taking over a few games here and there, i can't fault the guy for it. its not his fault that we suck so bad that we default to him so much

one more thing is that even when lance stephenson was midway into one of the worst seasons of all time, no one on the team badmouthed him and he didn't say anything regarding anyone else (until he left at least). that's the one thing this franchise hasn't really stepped into like other teams.

this guy needs to get it together