2020-2021 ROSTER TALK: Archived

[DanSchwartzgan]

In the spirt of this thought, which I think is astute, I feel like we need to remember that Batum's resurgence seems to be tethered to him being used as a small ball center. 

I agree with your point about Markkanen/Batum with KP/Gobert re play styles, don't get me wrong. And, I'm a little intrigued by the idea of Batum, especially at the right price. 

But, half the people who want him seem content to say "he's still got it" as if his role hasn't totally changed this season with the Clippers. Maybe he COULD play the 4 here mostly and be effective. Just saying. It seems like some people even see him as a 3. My thought is that many of the people who like this idea (not you, specifically, Dan) would HATE how he was being used here if he came here and played the same, exact role he has played for LAC in these playoffs.

I think the playoffs may be coloring that.  He had a very nice regular season and played more SF than C.  B-Ref has the SF/PF/C split at 14/84/2.  82games has it at 31/19/0 (82games is percent of team minutes.  B-Ref is percent of player minutes).  If you look at lineups, there really aren't many minutes where Batum wasn't playing without either Ibaka, Zubac or a few minutes wit Cousins.  During the few that occurred without those guys, you'd probably call Morris the C.