https://youtu.be/vEnRlLPN7EE
Though his first eight games as a Clipper, Nic “The Fraudulent Frenchman” Batum has already scored more points than he scored all of last season with the Hornets. Granted, “all of last season” for Batum was just 22 games (he got perma-benched at a certain point), but, still, he’s doubled his scoring rate between last season and this season, putting him roughly in line with his career scoring rate.
I wonder what Hornets fans feel right now. Certainly they must be a little bit annoyed that Batum went to a “contender” (notice the deliberately applied scare quotes) and immediately started showing signs of life that he was decidedly NOT showing during his last season in Charlotte. There’s a trend of French players not giving full effort in Charlotte and then immediately finding success somewhere else that must be eternally irking. But they must also feel some relief that Batum’s presence isn’t weighing down the team anymore. His contract is still on the books I think (they waived him and his $27 million buckaroonis), but he’s just numbers on a spreadsheet at this point. The only people in Charlotte who have to worry about him are the payroll people who have to make sure his paychecks are still getting direct-deposited.
Now that Batum’s contract isn’t so eye-wateringly appalling (he’s getting paid 2.5 mil to ring-chase), we can all go back to hating him for the original reason he was hated in the first place, which is the fact that he once punched Juan-Carlos Navarro in the ballbag for absolutely no reason at all other than he was frustrated by losing.