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Nicolas Batum

Blazers Rumors: Aldridge, Matthews, Hickson

December 27th, 2012 at 8:19am CST by Luke Adams

A home win last night over the Kings ensured that the Trail Blazers surpassed the Jazz and Timberwolves in the Western standings, making them the eighth seed in the conference. It's still very early in the season, but Portland has outperformed most expectations so far, and now the team will have to decide whether its performance will affect the way it approaches roster moves as the trade deadline approaches. Jason Quick of the Oregonian has the latest updates on that front, so let's round up the highlights….

  • After a veteran reporter told Quick that he'd heard the Blazers are shopping LaMarcus Aldridge, the Oregonian scribe asked Blazers GM Neil Olshey directly whether that was the case. "It was as if I had told Olshey the best joke he had ever heard," says Quick, who adds that the Blazers haven't made a single call about Aldridge, though they did field one exploratory inquiry from another team.
  • Olshey has identified a handful of core players in Aldridge, Nicolas Batum, Damian Lillard, and Wesley Matthews, and it would be a huge surprise if any of those guys were moved. "The players on our roster who are no-brainers are not going anywhere," Olshey said, referring to that core.
  • Of those four players, Matthews represents the most likely candidate to be dealt, but the Blazers GM has come to value the guard more than his stats suggest and wants him around during the rebuild, making a trade very unlikely.
  • The Blazers may still make a move before February 21st, but it's unlikely to be a deal that "moves the needle."
  • Quick speculates that Portland's top trade candidate could be J.J. Hickson, who has been outperforming his one-year, $4MM contract so far. The Blazers may want to get something in return for him before he hits free agency next July.
  • Portland is expected to pursue a center and shooting guard in free agency or the draft next summer, when the team should be working with eight figures in cap space.
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Odds & Ends: Batum, Gallinari, Kabongo, Lee

December 20th, 2012 at 10:08pm CST by Ryan Raroque

Jason Quick of the Oregonian looks at the friendly rivalry between the Trail Blazers' Nicolas Batum and the Nuggets' Danilo Gallinari that has stemmed from their days as young Euroleague stars hoping to make it into the NBA. Most notably, Quick mentions that Batum's salary negotiations this past summer were influenced by the type of deals that Gallinari, Marvin Williams, and Arron Afflalo had received with their respective teams. With that aside, here are a few more rumblings from around the Association tonight:

  • Derrick Rose took part in the non-contact portion of Bulls practice today, although coach Tom Thibodeau has not yet placed a timetable on the superstar's return (Seth Gruen of the Chicago Sun-Times reports).  
  • Despite a strong start to the season, the Warriors' upcoming stretch against teams that have a notable inside presence will help determine if their interior defensive struggles against the Kings were either minor or a sign of a major problem, writes Marcus Thompson II of MercuryNews.com.
  • Rookie Royce White is "hopeful" that he'll play for the Rockets again sometime this season (Mark Berman of Fox 26 tweets).
  • 1500 ESPN's Darren Wolfson confirms earlier speculation via a team source that Timberwolves guard  Malcolm Lee will be sidelined for the rest of the year (Twitter link). 
  • Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune tweeted that Chris Douglas-Roberts is another top option available for the Timberwolves in addition to Michael Redd. 
  • In his Nuggets Mailbag, Benjamin Hochman of The Denver Post discusses why he thinks Gallinari has shown the capability of being a clutch All-Star type of player, why Carmelo Anthony isn't necessarily the clear-cut MVP right now, and the Nuggets' decision to commit to a long-term deal with Ty Lawson.

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Neil Olshey On Trades, Lillard, Batum, Stotts

December 11th, 2012 at 9:32pm CST by Chuck Myron

Blazers GM Neil Olshey dished about his team with Justin Termine and Mateen Cleaves on the "Off The Dribble" show on SiriusXM Sports, revealing details about his plans and some of the moves he's made since taking over the Portland front office in June. Part of the agenda for the team is to address its rebounding deficiencies at the trade deadline and in the offseason, Olshey revealed. Casey Holdahl of Blazers.com put together a transcript of the full interview (hat tip to Ben Golliver of Blazer's Edge), and we'll run down some of the juicier material here.

On whether the team will make moves to try to salvage this season:

"We need to see what we have, we need to develop our assets, we need to continue to groom Wes Matthews and Nic Batum and LaMarcus Aldridge and get them to get to the next level, but look, next summer we're going to have $13MM in cap room, we're going to have a first (round pick), three seconds, we have an aggressive owner who's willing to spend whatever it takes to win. So the only thing we want to do is we don't want to race to the middle. We want to make moves that put us up at the upper echelon of the Western Conference when this thing comes together for a sustainable period of time, not make a bunch of incremental moves that maybe let us slide into eighth to go get swept in the first round and then be back to the drawing board again."

On the drafting of Damian Lillard:

"I just really felt when I met the kid and spent time with him and watched him interact with my staff, my owner and our coaches at the time, that he was the kind of guy you could hand the ball to day one, just like a Kyrie Irving or a (Russell) Westbrook, a (Derrick) D. Rose. I'm not comparing him to those players, but that's what those organizations did as well, and I really felt like he had the kind of gravitas and composure where opening night he could take the ball. And there were going to be some bumps in the road, but once we lived through them, he was a franchise-caliber point guard."

On the decision to match the Wolves' offer sheet for Nicolas Batum:

"Well look, he's a dynamic wing player. He's clearly far better than anybody we thought would be available on the free agent market had we not matched the offer sheet. We have an owner that,. he wants to build. He doesn't want to rebuild; he wants to build and he doesn't want to take a step backwards basketball-wise. We just felt like Nicolas was just coming into his prime; it's the first year he's going to be a full-time starter. He makes a huge impact on the defensive end of the floor, he can go for big numbers, and I really felt like the kind of system that Terry Stotts was going to run was absolutely suited for his skill set. He's off to a career year as well. Nicolas is a part of the core."

On the hiring of coach Terry Stotts:

"I think we took a little bit of a different approach. We put the roster together first and then hired the best coach we thought would fit it. I thought Terry would be a great partner; he and I had a relationship prior to this. We'd been on the floor together working with players. I think he has a great … he gets great respect from his players. I thought he would know how to utilize LaMarcus (Aldridge) to the best of his ability, and I think I felt like we have a lot of pieces very similar to the Dallas team that won the championship in terms of skill set and style of play. And we really felt like when he implemented that offense, it was going to heighten the value and production of guys like Wes Matthews and Nic Batum, which was really important to us, to make sure those guys took the next step in their development as players. I also knew he'd be open to playing younger players. That had been his history."

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Odds & Ends: Gasol, Billups, Batum, Heat, Cavs

November 23rd, 2012 at 11:08pm CST by Chuck Myron

Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni had some harsh words for Pau Gasol in response to a question about the thought process that led him to keep Gasol on the bench in the fourth quarter of the team's loss to the Grizzlies tonight. "I was thinking I'd like to win this game, that's what I was thinking," D'Antoni said, as Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register tweets. The coach also questioned Gasol's conditioning, Ding also tweets, and this will seemingly reignite the off-and-on trade speculation that's surrounded Gasol for the past several months. While we wait to hear more about that, here's the rest of the buzz from a 12-game night in the Association:

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Timberwolves Rumors: Williams, Finley, Roy

November 23rd, 2012 at 3:37pm CST by Luke Adams

The Timberwolves got an unexpected lift on Wednesday when Kevin Love returned earlier than anticipated from the broken hand that had sidelined him for the last few weeks. Although reports suggested Love wouldn't be back until December, he looked to be in midseason form in his debut, racking up 34 points and 14 rebounds against the Nuggets. It wasn't enough to propel the T-Wolves to victory, but the team will get another shot to get its first win with Love on the court tonight vs. the Trail Blazers. In the meantime, here are a few rumblings out of Minnesota:

  • Derrick Williams tells Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune (Twitter link) that he was preparing to become a Trail Blazer this summer when rumors involving a Nicolas Batum sign-and-trade were swirling. Asked if he was just listening to speculation or if he had inside info, Williams replied, "I guess you could say inside information" (Twitter link).
  • With Michael Finley attempting to make an NBA comeback, the Wolves received a call from Finley's camp, but said no thanks, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities.
  • Brandon Roy's future is still to be determined, tweets Wolfson, who says the idea of possible retirement came up when Roy spoke to GM David Kahn last Friday.
  • Earlier this afternoon, we heard that the Timberwolves briefly signed Demetris Nichols and Troy Hudson before the season in order to hang onto the duo's D-League rights. Both players are now on the roster for the Sioux Falls Skyforce, Minnesota's D-League affiliate.
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Odds & Ends: Lin, D-League, Ilyasova, Batum

November 22nd, 2012 at 10:05pm CST by Luke Adams

Let's round up a few more Thanksgiving Day notes from around the Association….

  • With Jeremy Lin and the Rockets set to face the Knicks on Friday, most Knicks players don't have much to say about their former teammate, as Howard Beck of the New York Times writes. "I thought he made a great decision for himself, his family and his basketball career," Tyson Chandler said. "I thought the Knicks made the right decision. At the end of the day, it worked out for both parties."
  • Lin, for his part, believes he and Carmelo Anthony could've thrived playing alongside each other with the Knicks, according to Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com.
  • When Jorge Sierra of HoopsHype asked a number of D-League executives and coaches which D-League players would next be called up by an NBA team, JaJuan Johnson's name topped the list.
  • Ersan Ilyasova is at a loss to explain his early-season slump after signing a long-term deal with the Bucks this summer, writes Charles F. Gardner of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
  • Another player that signed a lucrative long-term contract in July, Nicolas Batum is living up to his new deal so far, and tells Joe Freeman of the Oregonian that he wants to keep that up. "It’s what people say about me and what people too scared to say it think about me: ‘Yeah, he’s been good, but it’s only been 11 games. We’re going to see the old Nicolas Batum soon,'" Batum said. "But I’m going to try to avoid that. I’m not the old Nicolas Batum."
  • Darko Rajakovic, who is currently coaching the D-League's Tulsa 66ers, could be just the first of many European coaches to arrive stateside, says Jenni Carlson of the Oklahoman.
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Northwest Notes: Wolves Injuries, Blazers, Williams

November 20th, 2012 at 9:13pm CST by Sean Highkin

The latest news and notes from the Northwest Division on Tuesday night:

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Western Notes: Petrie, D’Antoni, Collison, Batum

November 20th, 2012 at 4:10pm CST by Luke Adams

Here are a few of today's noteworthy odds and ends from around the Western Conference:

  • If the Maloofs are serious about trying to keep the Kings in Sacramento, they need to cut ties with team president Geoff Petrie, argues Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee. According to Voisin, the repeated mistakes made by the NBA's longest-tenured head of basketball operations have "stripped the once-proud franchise of its passion, its identity, its collective soul."
  • Coach Mike D'Antoni will make his official debut on the Lakers' bench tonight, he confirmed today to the media, including Mike Trudell of Lakers.com.
  • As the Mavericks prepare to face former Dallas point guard Jason Kidd and the Knicks tomorrow night, the Mavs' new point guard, Darren Collison is struggling, as NBA.com's Jeff Caplan writes.
  • Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com details how Nicolas Batum's offseason trip to Cameroon gave him a new-found perspective on life during his free agent negotiations.
  • Andrew Bogut, who has only appeared in four games during his Warriors' career, will miss at least three more contests before hopefully returning to practice next Monday, the team announced today in a press release.
  • Another injured star in the West, Dirk Nowitzki, is now aiming to return to the Mavericks in mid-December, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
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Cavaliers Offered Batum $52MM

October 28th, 2012 at 8:23pm CST by Sean Highkin

According to a new report by the Oregonian's Joe Freeman, the Cleveland Cavaliers made Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum an offer of four years and $52MM when he was a restricted free agent this summer. That offer is significantly higher than the offer sheet Batum signed with the Minnesota Timberwolves, worth $46MM over four years. Portland matched that offer after it was signed.

In Freeman's article, Batum discussed the free-agency process, which was contentious at times between the Blazers and Timberwolves:

"The thing is, I wanted to challenge them," he says. "Because I'm European. And when people say, 'We love you,' they show you they love you. That's a stupid European, French thing. But it's true. After what happened in January, I wanted them to show me they loved me."

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Odds & Ends: Batum, Turner, Mavericks, Deng

October 28th, 2012 at 4:48pm CST by Michael Pina

Here's a look around the league this Sunday afternoon. 

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