Portland Trail Blazers: Nicolas Batum and Thomas Robinson's Big Block

关于波特兰三个船尾的三个邮袋问题是如何最有趣的球员？

Dave,

Nicolas Batum.让我发狂。布拉泽尔边缘去年对他进行了延长的辩论，现在我们将再次做同样的事情。不要让我错了。我喜欢他在他的时候带到地板的东西。但他不一致，不会每晚带来它。它让我坚果。燃烧者是否应该在仍有价值的同时交易他？我不明白为什么他们付钱给他并保持他。

Morris

Yes, Batum can be frustrating. But that's not enough to condemn him. You have to understand why he's frustrating, what can be done about it, and what things we need to just let lie.

Let's start with the contract thing. Batum is making $11 million a year. That's a healthy figure but not out of line for a starter. Let's say you replaced Batum with Decent Small Forward X. DSFX starts, plays 30+ minutes per game, fits well enough with his teammates. How much would you be paying him? Somewhere between $7-9 million wouldn't be shocking. So even if you think Batum is overpaid you're talking about a total difference of $2-4 million in salary. What exactly are you going to do with that extra money? The Blazers are $4 million over the salary cap right now. Slash that amount off of Batum's contract and you'd still wouldn't be able to afford a single extra player.

一旦这个球在空中我不看到它matters what Batum makes. Sure you can talk about greater salary equaling greater expectations but you have to differentiate by tens of millions if you want to make that point, not just a couple mil. In the summer when you're comparing trade possibilities and free agent opportunity costs salary matters. During the season not so much.

I'm not sure "inconsistent" is the best word to describe Batum either, particularly if you take a long-term view. True, he disappears for quarters, sometimes games, sometimes longer. But he's been doing that since he was a rookie. He'll peak and regress, making his stat graph looking like an EKG. That's an old story too. This is Nicolas Batum. This isconsistentlyNicolas Batum., right down to the early-season magic, the mid-season nagging injury, and the corresponding statistical drop. There is no mythical, All-Star version of Batum who gives you near-peak production all season. There's just Nic, good and bad.

Though his effectiveness remains a point of debate, most of the time Batum plays hard on defense. That helps the Blazers more than his statistical fluctuations hurts them. When Batum does go off he makes the Blazers difficult to handle. By contrast his dud nights don't equate to automatic losses. That means the Blazers are in a pretty good place with him right now. They've constructed the starting lineup well enough that they can benefit from the good without getting hamstrung by the bad. On balance his stats this season are in the middle career-wise. That's probably good enough.

即使好的还不够好，外燃人现在不能在一个赛季中间交易巴塔姆。您可以弥补每场比赛的13分，6个篮板，5次助攻，但您从未发现另一个小型前锋捍卫并促进了BATUM的特定方式的罪行。在这个系统中，他是独一无二的。它的设计，部分地利用了他的特定礼物组合。最终，燃烧者可以改变系统，使他不那么必要，并使交易更加实用。但他们不能在2月中旬在季后赛括号竞赛中做到这一点。

That's not to say things are perfect in Batum-land. As you've identified, he doesn't do everything he needs to do every night. Part of that is his price of admission with Nic but part of is wholly preventable and shouldn't be happening to an NBA player of his caliber.

Ironically one of Batum's biggest problems is over-passing, rejecting open looks in favor of dishing the ball. Some nights his style is just as selfish as the guy who shoots at every opportunity no matter what's going on around him. For Batum the pass replaces the shot in that equation but the result is nearly the same...in some ways worse. At least a bad shot has a chance of going in. Ill-timed passes don't.

No doubt some will clamor, "5.3 assists per game! More dimes than most any small forward! How can you call him selfish?!?" Consider the real definition of "selfish" though. Selfishness is doing what one thinks one should do (or wants to do) regardless of whether it's of benefit to the greater group or not.

让我们说，200人西装外套的边缘读者在一个大派对上排队了蛋糕。当我们站在前面的那个人说“不，不，不，不！我不可能先走。拜托，下一个人排队......你也去了。你也是，第三人。我也会。我只需在中间的某个地方挤压。在轮到我的转弯期间，我会一定要拿一个小蛋糕，因为别人在你身后的时候，这是不礼貌的。哪个切片有最少的卷？我'd更好地检查......“

Everything that guy is saying is technically unselfish. Letting others go first and taking a small piece are good manners! When 199 people are waiting behind you in line for a slice of cake, though, that behavior isn't good. It's an odd form of grandstanding...showing off just how "charitable" and "concerned" you are and holding up the line by doing so. What would actually be best for the group in that situation? Just go to the table and take your damn slice of cake like everybody else! Nobody really cares if the slice is big or small or if you went first or 154th. This isn't rocket science. It's cake! Take it! Eat it and let the rest of us get some too!

将比喻转换为篮球场，当Batum通过打开的外观时，他可以使球扔进一个4-15个局面，即使通过自身寄存器作为“无私的寄存器即使是”无私“ 行为。燃烧者需要Batum成为一名促进者，但他们也需要他成为一个篮球运动员，就像所有其他球员一样了解他的位置。Damian Lillardis not a more selfish player than Batum because Lillard will pop a three when he's capable. It'd be more selfish of Lillard to think, "As a point guard I cannot possibly take this shot. I must pass so I can fill my role and be a good teammate." Just take the cake and everybody wins! Instead Batum picks up the cake and tries to hand it to people behind him, spilling it all over their suit jacket in the process. Now not only are his teammates not getting cake, they have to help clean up the mess. When a player gets an open shot in his range in the flow of the offense he has to take it. Passes exist for the sole reason of setting up those good percentage shots he's passing up.

波特兰的罪行旨在让Batum比联盟中大多数其他小型前锋更有协助机会。最佳地运作他也必须聪明地这样做，而不是助攻作为他成功的唯一晴雨表，而是像一个正常，功能的专业射手一样，当机会出现时储蓄很好地剥离岩石的好处。

如果巴图姆更加了解这种动态 - 如果他能够用这种情况混合他的本能而不是给我们盛宴 - 或饥荒，“我攻击艰难”或“我今晚传递一切”的方法 -对他的挫败感将成为可管理的水平。他看起来更加一致，咄咄逼人，不太容易发生“消失”。

Dave,

[Thomas Robinson's] block!OH WOW! Was that the best block in Blazer history in your estimation?

格雷格

If you follow my Twitter account@DaveDeckardyou'll know that I gave due credit to the rejection following the game. (And if you don't follow my Twitter account, what are you正在做?!?) Best Buys across the state of Minnesota did record business today asTimberwolves粉丝流入替换他们破碎的电视屏幕。NBA试图将一张海报从戏中作出，但是纸张在恐惧中保持卷曲。Corey Brewerhad to go into witness protection. He now lives in Boulder, Colorado under the name Guadalupe McShamey. It was a masterpiece and a half.

All-time history, though? I'm not sure.Theo Ratliff和Joel Przybilla.had some mighty swats, often multiples on the same night. I still remember a young Jermaine O'Neal rejectingKevin Garnett在a 1v1 breakaway. That was significant not only because of O'Neal's talent finally coming to the fore but because Garnett was one of the breakout stars of the league. You know KG. He had bad intentions for poor Jermaine. But O'Neal said, "Nope! Don't care who you are. Get that out of here." The physical block wasn't as spectacular as Robinson's but the symbolic significance and impact were pretty high.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some impressive championship-era and vintage Jerome Kersey blocks as well.

Dave,

Are we finally going to admit now that T-Rob deserves playing time? More importantly will [Coach] Stotts admit it and play the guy? All he's been missing is minutes to prove himself.

瑞安

Nope.

We've seen great moments from Robinson before. We've even seen good games from him. These are followed by two weeks of near-clueless play when he barely looks like he's seen an NBA play drawn up. That does not take away from his accomplishments last night...though it may inform us why he was able to succeed so radically. The 'Wolves didn't respond to him well, allowing him the benefits of being T-Rob without making him pay for being T-Rob. But a single game does not a season make. Nor does a single stretch of success mandate that a player be handed similar stretches without proving that his success is sustainable.

Robinson has gotten chances this year. He's appeared in 48 games, earning nearly 12 minutes per appearance. He's seldom been used as blowout fodder. (For one thing the Blazers haven't experienced that many blowouts.) When he plays Robinson gets a standard second- or fourth-quarter slot...sometimes both. The nights when he's been unimpressive have outnumbered the nights when he's impressed. The nights he's been awful have outnumbered and muted his flashes of brilliance. Until that changes, feeding him more minutes isn't going to do anything but expose him.

Hopefully this will change someday. But that transformation has to come first, extended minutes second.

Robinson's first step to rotation glory would be performing well (and on a consistent basis) with the 5-6 minute stretches he's already getting. Every time that's happened Coach Stotts has left Robinson on the floor longerthat very game。罗宾逊也在下一场比赛中呼吁或在他的美好夜晚之后。他被提供了多次机会，击败了他周围的大片。罗宾逊不可避免地通过糟糕的戏剧回馈这些分钟。一旦他停止这样做，他会在旋转中找到一个常规的地方。

You can throw your question into the Mailbag ring by writing "Mailbag" in the subject line of an e-mail and sending it to blazersub@gmail.com. You can also check out an interview with the Phil Naessens show right below. We do plenty of interviews but Phil is from Greece and has a pretty interesting thing going. Consider him an international version of a Mailbag question-poser and enjoy!

--dave（blazersub@gmail.com）