Nicolas Batum: The Anti-Stephen Jackson

Nicolas Batum had twenty-four points for Charlotte, but the final minutes revealed that Batum needs work in the big moment.

Nicolas Batum is one of the key pieces to the Charlotte Hornets this season. Yesterday’s 102-96 victory over the Chicago Bulls showed that.

However it also showed some potential flaws in Batum’s game. Throughout the early season, we have compared Batum’s numbers to those of former Charlotte Bobcat Stephen Jackson. The comparisons are physical and numeric. Both are 6’8”. Jackson is a little heavier. Both played the role of shooting guard for Charlotte when other teams might have used them at small forward. Both had high expectations in playing that oversized shooting guard role.

The end of the Chicago game showed how much different Batum’s game is from Jackson. Jackson would take big shots, even if there were better options and even if you would have preferred him not to. I saw this first hand almost ten years when Jackson was still an Indiana Pacer. He repeated ignored Jermaine O’Neal at the end of a game against the Bobcats to miss the final shots.

Batum has the exact opposite problem. At several times late in the Bulls game, Batum could have tried to power up a shot. Instead he went out of his way to pass off the ball in those situations. Sometimes he greatly contorted himself to find a pass. His final pass like this found Cody Zeller about fifteen feet from the hoop. Zeller attacked and was fouled as a result, sealing the game.

Batum was fortunate on that one. He had cost the last couple of possessions by putting himself in compromising positions with only difficult options. His willingness to pass in big moments makes him the anti-Stephen Jackson in those situations. It also means that one of the Hornets’ better players seems scared of the big shot.

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Part of that, I get. The Hornets have Kemba Walker, who is no stranger to big shots from his NCAA Championship at UConn. Against the Bulls he buried a key mid-range jumper that was completely Kemba in how cold it was. The Hornets also made sure to get Kemba the ball when they could to start possessions in the last minute.

My guess is that Walker will miss a game somewhere down the line. When that happens, will Batum be able to be selfish for just a moment and hit the big shot? He has been really good, and he did score twelve in the fourth quarter. He just needed a bit more to close out the Bulls.

The Hornets play the Detroit Pistons on Pearl Harbor Day.

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