Nicolas Batum

Nicolas Batum
Nicolas Batum in 2011
No. 88   Portland Trail Blazers
Small forward
Personal information
Date of birth December 14, 1988 (1988-12-14) (age 23)
Place of birth Lisieux, France
Nationality French
Listed height 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
Listed weight 200 lb (91 kg)
Career information
NBA Draft 2008 / Round: 1 / Pick: 25th overall
Selected by the Houston Rockets
Pro career 2006–present
Career history
2006–2008 Le Mans (France)
2008–2011 Portland Trail Blazers
2011 Nancy (France)
Career highlights and awards
Stats at NBA.com

Nicolas Batum (born December 14, 1988, in Lisieux[1]) is a French basketball player with the Portland Trail Blazers of the NBA. The Blazers acquired his rights during the 2008 NBA Draft for the rights to Darrell Arthur and Joey Dorsey. Prior to the draft, Batum was considered one of the most talented young players in Europe.[2] He was voted the most valuable player in the U-18 Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Mannheim 2006.

The 6 foot 8 inch (2.03 m) Batum[1] primarily plays the small forward position, although he is also capable of shifting to the shooting guard position.[3]

Contents

Career

French youth teams

Batum won the 2004 FIBA European Championship with the French national team.[1] The French team repeated as champion in the 2005 European Championship. Batum won the most valuable player award.[1]

Albert Schweitzer Tournament

Batum was named the most valuable player of the 2006 U18 Albert Schweitzer Tournament in Mannheim.[1] He won the tournament with the French national team.

Batum's averaged 19 points, over 5 rebounds and over 2 steals per game over the seven game tournament.

French league

Nicolas Batum averaged 3.4 points (65.9% FG), 2.5 rebounds, 0.5 assist per game in 13 minutes for the 2006–2007 French league season,[4] and 12.3 points (52.3%), 5.0 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game in 28 minutes for the 2007–2008 season.[5]

Nike Hoop Summit

He delivered an impressive performance[6] at the 2007 Nike Hoop Summit[7] scoring 23 points (9/13 FG, 3/5 for 3 pointers) in 28 minutes. He also grabbed four rebounds and recorded four steals.

NBA career

After coming off the bench for the first three games of his NBA career, Batum moved into the starting lineup in the place of Travis Outlaw in Portland's fourth game of the 2008–09 season, a 103–96 loss to the Utah Jazz. On March 13, 2009, Batum recorded a season-high 20 points to go along with a clutch three-pointer with 29.9 seconds left, en route to a 109–100 victory over the New Jersey Nets.[8]

Batum missed the first 45 games of the 2009–10 season due to torn cartilage in his right shoulder. He played in his first game of the season on January 25, 2010.[9]

Batum scored a career-high 31 points along with 7 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals on February 27, 2010, against the Minnesota Timberwolves.[10]

On March 25, 2011, Batum helped rally the Trail Blazers to a win over the San Antonio Spurs. Batum scored 4 points in the final 0.9 of a second, hitting two free throws and then sinking a buzzer beating lay in on an in bounds pass from Andre Miller, giving Portland a 98-96 victory.

In August 2011, during the 2011 NBA lockout, he signed a one-year contract with SLUC Nancy in French Basketball League which was valid until the NBA lockout ended.[11][12]

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2008–09 Portland 79 76 18.4 .446 .369 .808 2.8 .9 .6 .5 5.4
2009–10 Portland 37 25 24.8 .519 .409 .843 3.8 1.2 .6 .7 10.1
2010–11 Portland 80 67 31.5 .455 .345 .841 4.5 1.5 .8 .6 12.4
Career 196 168 25.0 .464 .364 .835 3.7 1.2 .7 .6 9.1

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
2008–09 Portland 6 5 10.5 .556 .500 .000 .5 .2 .2 .3 2.0
2009–10 Portland 6 6 23.2 .459 .429 .750 3.2 .8 .3 .0 8.2
2010–11 Portland 6 0 25.2 .413 .269 .750 1.7 1.3 .8 .8 8.0
Career 18 11 19.6 .446 .353 .750 1.8 .8 .4 .4 6.1

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Nicolas Batum at the Nike Hoop Summit, lequipe.fr
  2. ^ Ranking of international players born in 1988, draftexpress.com
  3. ^ Nicolas Batum NBA Draft Profile, http://nicolas-batum.blogspot.com
  4. ^ Nicolas Batum statistics in the French League, lequipe.fr
  5. ^ "Nicolas Batum stats". http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Nicolas-Batum-537/stats/. Retrieved January 19, 2009. 
  6. ^ 2007 Nike Hoops Summit recap, usabasketball.com
  7. ^ 2007 Nike Hoop Summit, usabasketball.com
  8. ^ "Trail Blazers cut down the Nets". OregonLive.com. March 13, 2009. http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/03/new_jersey_nets_at_portland_tr.html. Retrieved March 13, 2009. 
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ "Trail Blazers 110 Timberwolves 91". ESPN.com. February 27, 2010. http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=300227016. Retrieved February 27, 2010. 
  11. ^ SLUC Nancy announces Nicolas Batum
  12. ^ SLUC NANCY lands Batum

External links

1 A. Johnson | 2 Matthews | 3 Wallace | 4 N. Smith | 5 Felton | 8 Babbitt | 9 E. Williams | 11 Crawford | 12 Aldridge | 17 C. Johnson | 23 Camby | 40 Thomas | 52 Oden | 83 C. Smith | 88 Batum

Head coach: McMillan | Assistant coaches: Bickerstaff | Canales | Greer | Ociepka | B. Williams