It was Blazers 103, Wizards 96 on Saturday night in front of a sellout crowd at the Moda Center.
It was another comeback win for Portland, this one fueled emotionally and physically by LaMarcus Aldridge, playing hurt, and playing on into the foreseeable, if tenuous, future.
The message from Aldridge, who wanted to play, and the Blazers, who, knowing full well their history with their star players’ health, let him play, is clear: Everyone at One Center Court wants to win now.
It’s an admirable and bold strategy; especially considering how tough the Western Conference is this season. But with Aldridge and Wesley Matthews prepared to test free agency in the summer, the Blazers’ future just isn’t secure enough to wait.
This feels more and more like a go-for-broke season.
The Blazers are prepared to go for the jugular. That doesn’t mean that the franchise will fall apart if Portland doesn’t make a conference finals appearance this year, but it will mean a lot of sweat and blood spent for nothing.
You’d want nothing less from your sports team than what the Blazers are embarking on in the second half of this season.
But here’s the situation: Without Nicolas Batum, the short and long term makeup of this franchise looks very tenuous.
Batum sat out the win over the Wizards hurt, and the chances that he’d be in street clothes with his frontcourt partner Aldridge on the court just a few days ago were almost unfathomable.
Batum has had a rough year. His numbers are down, his body language is down, and he’s beating himself up for it.
It hasn’t been an easy ride for Batum off the court ever since he ended a serious flirtation with the Minnesota Timberwolves and returned to Portland two years ago.
The Frenchman went through a divorce before this season. He was involved in an ugly incident on the international stage with his national team, and he’s averaging only nine points this season while shooting just over 38% from the field.
It hasn’t all been bad – Batum came up clutch at times last year, and he has been dealing with injuries on and off for what seems like half a decade – but, quite simply, the Blazers’ championship puzzle doesn’t fit together without Batum being his best self.
Batum’s contract is guaranteed through the 2015-16 season, when he’ll make more 12 million dollars. Behind looming free agent Aldridge, Batum is Portland’s highest paid player.
Portland has no replacement for Batum at small forward, and doesn’t figure to have any cap space whatsoever if they want to keep their stars.
But this problem isn’t just financial: Batum’s skillset is irreplaceable.
Know a lot of stretch forwards who go 6’8, shoot three pointers, and can lock down guards?
Didn’t think so.
With Batum, Portland has the tallest frontcourt in the NBA, with college’s Kentucky Wildcats the only team coming close.
Aldridge and Lillard can’t win a championship alone. Wes Matthews is increasingly beloved, valuable, and reliable, but he has a ceiling.
It’s no coincidence that Matthews’ emergence as a top-shelf NBA player in the last year and a half has coincided with Batum’s fade into near-irrelevance.
Portland has made a big commitment to Batum. They need him to get back to his best.
It’s hard to read Batum – both as a player and a person. You never quite know where he’ll be day in and day out.
It’s promising that Batum openly acknowledged his struggles last week, but as he knows, when he comes back from injury he’s going to have to start to produce consistently.
You’re still sort of waiting for Batum to come good, right?
There is a feeling that this guy, still, even at 26 years old with seven years in the NBA behind him, hasn’t reached his best.
Perhaps Batum has been so frustrating so frequently because he remains an incredibly tantalizing player.
But that potential will only get Batum so far. He knows that his next contract will look nothing like his current one if he doesn’t turn the trajectory of his career around in the next sixteen months.
It’s not just the Blazers’ future that is up for grabs. Batum’s own NBA future appears to be hanging in the balance.
Portland’s brass know they’re in a high-risk, high-reward situation right now. They have a hell of a team with a hell of a lot of moxie and a real chance to make serious noise in the spring, but perhaps nothing outside of a catastrophic injury – can’t rule that out, of course – is as troubling to that premise as a deflated Batum.
However, a rejuvenated Batum might just make Portland an outside title threat. Add a fourth elite player to the Blazers’ starting lineup, and the rest of the conference sits up and takes notice.
Batum shouldn’t rush back from his current wrist injury. But he should know that the clock is ticking and a breaking point isn’t far away. Batum needs to play with urgency.
The Blazers are going for the jugular this season. Their most enigmatic player needs to do the same.
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