Quick Link and Rookie Tweets
Alexis Harper | Monday, July 9, 2012 at 9:32AM 
We won’t sully Erik’s work last season by calling this a Pick & Scroll, but just a few notes before the rookie press conference this afternoon.
Zach Harper (no relation that we know of) over at A Wolf Among Wolves has a great look at whether or not Batum is worth the reported $12.5 million a year. Of course, whether a player is worth the money to the Blazers might be a different answer than whether he is worth it to the Wolves. It’s a lengthy post with a ton of fun stats and charts and analysis. You should really read the whole thing, but in terms of comparable player salaries, this is the key:
Getting back to the list of 11 players who seemed to match Batum’s PER-WS/48-3FG% criteria, let’s talk about where their contracts currently are.
Based off the contracts we know from these guys (Anderson, Ilyasova, Nash, Manu, Iggy), they’re averaging $11.76 million per season for their current deals. If you factor in the rough estimates of what Irving, Curry and Harden will make in the first year of their next deal (let’s just say $14 million per), then the average raises up to $12.6 million per season.
Granted, this isn’t a completely scientific way to measure what a guy should or shouldn’t be paid, but it seems like Nicolas Batum’s production has the correct market value for what he’s being offered by the Timberwolves right now. It doesn’t mean he is or isn’t worth that much money necessarily, but it seems to be the fair market price for what a guy like Batum does on the basketball court. Now we just have to wait until July 11th to see if Portland will allow him to join the Wolves or whether the Wolves will be sent searching for a good wing player once again.
The Portland reactions to the contract have ranged from “Match anything anyone offers” to “Eh, more than $10 million doesn’t seem worth it.” Of course, what a player is offered is what he’s worth to that team.
Batum’s agent made more noise over the weekend, but it doesn’t seem that any amount of whining is going to convince Paul Allen and Neil Olshey to let Batum walk. Though, if Kevin Love is unhappy in Minnesota I’m sure the Blazers and a third team can work something out.
Speaking of Blazers in Wolves clothing, welcome back Brandon Roy.
Many Blazers fans will be pleased with the high caliber Tweets of the rookies and their family members. If you’re not following Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard yet, get on that. Leonard is also on Instagram. Damian’s brother Houston is a professional athlete and good follow, too.
The rookie introduction is today at 1pm.
You can, of course, follow the endlessly charming and witty PRS crew: Rob @futurehorse, Sean @shighkinNBA, Erik @ErikCAnderson, Maddison @maddisonbond, Scott @scottleedy, Danny Nowell @dmnowell and myself @pdxlex. The venerable Andrew Tonry’s thoughts cannot be limited to a paltry 140 characters, so he abstains.
Alexis Harper
UPDATE: Mike Wells of the Indianapolis Star reports that the Pacers will match the Roy Hibbert offer.
Reader Comments (2)
As much as I hate the stuff Batum's agent is saying, it makes sense that he is saying it. The only way Batum gets to Min is through a sign and trade or if Min trades/releases half their team. So why not say what you can about Portland to try to turn them off. Also, note that it is his agent and not Batum actually saying the stuff. But am I the only one that has a hard time believing that anyone actually told Batum 'you just stay in the corner and shoot, don't even think about playing on the break or moving"
yes he deserves to get more than this..