Portland Trail Blazers: Nicolas Batum Continues to Improve

Nicolas Batum has quickly developed into an all-around player. Whether or not casual fans of the NBA know it, Batum is an extremely important part of the Trail Blazers success. After Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge, no other player is more important to the success of the Trail Blazers than Batum.

Nicolas Batum is arguably a top 10 player at his position. There are only two other players who have nightly triple-double potential in the NBA. There are few players who are as dynamic as Batum on both ends of the court and he’s still showing remarkable improvement. Batum ranked third for small forwards in double-doubles with a whopping 18 of them. Two of those were triple-doubles.

Nicolas Batum is a player who can do it all and is one of the few Trail Blazer players who is a legitimate two-way player. Between Lillard and Wesley Matthews, there isn’t much defense being played by the Blazers’ starting lineup on the perimeter. Nicolas Batum is a different story, however. Batum is a good man-to-man defender. He is a terror in the passing lanes and isn’t too bad blocking shots either.

Batum had by far the most Defensive Win Shares of the perimeter players, registering in a solid 3.1 Defensive Win Shares. Wesley Matthews was second with 1.9. Batum also had the best Defensive Rating between the perimeter players, with 107. It’s not a spectacular number, but when your team has Damian Lillard playing extensive minutes, expect those defensive metrics to take a hit.

With his solid-as-a-rock defense out of the way, we can finally talk about the most exciting aspect of his game: his offense. Nicolas Batum is not a great scorer. He won’t put up 20-plus points and carry a team. He can and will shoot the lights out from deep and he can create penetration and finish at the rim. However, Nicolas Batum is an incredible passer at his position. Batum finished third in assists per game with 5.1. That number was right behind, you guessed it, Kevin Durant and LeBron James.

More from Portland Trail Blazers

Whenever the team was stagnant without Lillard or Aldridge, the team went right to Batum. He wouldn’t score that much, saving that production for 3-pointers within the starting lineup so that Lillard and Aldridge had room to operate. But he would make sure everybody else scored via his spectacular passing ability.

But Batum doesn’t only excel at passing. He is an extremely good rebounder out of the small forward position. His 7.5 rebounds per game were second in the league behind only Carmelo Anthony. He uses his size and his incredible length entirely to his advantage and completely cleans the glass.

Nicolas Batum is a very good small forward. It’s hard to imagine that he’s getting better. He definitely is. He shot the highest percentage of his career (while qualifying on the leader boards) with 46.5 percent. He averaged the most assists of his career with 5.1. His previous high was 4.9. His extremely good rebounding average of 7.5 was the highest of his career, easily beating out his previous high of 5.6. Nicolas Batum also got his highest Win Share total with a very high 7.9 Win Shares.

This is a player who is showing increased improvement as he goes through his prime and that’s a scary thing for the rest of the NBA. If he improves even further next year, the Trail Blazers could easily contend for a championship, as he could be making himself into a legitimate star player.

The Trail Blazers were simply better with Nicolas Batum on the court. The team passed the ball better and stretched the floor better when he was out there. Without him, the team wasn’t as smooth on either end and they lacked a true defensive stopper.

Nicolas Batum is one of the few truly complete players. Nobody else on the Trail Blazers comes close to doing as much as he does on both ends of the ball, and indeed, he is one of the reasons the Trail Blazers kept their offense running as brutally efficient as it was, while maintaining some semblance of defense. If the Trail Blazers want to win a title any time soon, they won’t be doing it without Nicolas Batum.

Home/Portland Trail Blazers