Nicolas Batum Rumors & News

The NBA announced its 2013 All-Defensive First and Second Teams on Monday. No Portland Trail Blazers were included but forward Nicolas Batum did garner a vote for the First Team. The First Team selections: Chris Paul, Tony Allen, LeBron James, Serge Ibaka and Tyson Chandler/Joakim Noah, who finished tied at the center spot. The Second Team selections: Mike Conley, Avery Bradley, Paul George, Tim Duncan and Marc Gasol. Here are the voting results. The voting panel consisted of the NBA's 30 head coaches, who were asked to select NBA All-Defensive First and Second Teams by position. Coac...

The Oregonian's Joe Freeman: "He was arguably the second-best small forward in the Western Conference behind Kevin Durant. With more responsibility and a larger role on offense, I thought he finally had ditched his inconsistent label and matured as an NBA player."

Portland Trail Blazers fans discuss Nicolas Batum's role on the team next season, and his potential value as a trade piece.

Check out some of the best photos by The Oregonian and The Associated Press of Trail Blazers forward Nicolas Batum's 2012-13 season.

It's another very special edition of the Blazer's Edge Mailbag, catching up with even more of my backlog of questions. Dave, The general consensus seems to be that the Blazers need a SG and C; I agree with the C need, but I'm wondering if the Blazers pursued a SF such as Marvin Williams (or an unbalanced trade for a similar player), they could move Batum to SG and emphasize his passing, perimeter defense, and early offense. Does this approach make any sense to you? Jerry The arguments against Nicolas Batum as a shooting guard have been pretty simple: 1. He's not a great ball-handle...

Today we come to the end of our series of articles taking stock of the Portland Trail Blazers roster heading into the Summer of 2013. If you've missed prior installments you can just click through any of these links: LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard, Nicolas Batum, Wesley Matthews, Eric Maynor and Will Barton, Meyers Leonard and Victor Claver This post will cover the rest of the roster. We're not going into the same level of detail here for obvious reasons. Most of these guys won't be with the Blazers next year and thus can't be counted on to contribute to this summer's decisions s...

Here's the next installment of our Taking Stock series, accounting for the talent under the Blazers umbrella with an eye towards summer acquisitions and future plans. We've covered the Core Four already: LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard, Nicolas Batum, and Wesley Matthews. You can find those lively discussions by clicking each name. Today we venture into the murky waters of the Blazers bench, taking a look at two players who came on late in the season, Eric Maynor and Will Barton. Eric Maynor's story is well-chronicled. Drafted by the Utah Jazz in the middle of the first round in ...

Today we continue to take stock of the Portland Trail Blazers' current roster with the last member of the "Core Four", shooting guard Wesley Matthews. In case you missed it we talked about LaMarcus Aldridge, Damian Lillard, and Nicolas Batum last week. You can click through those links to participate in the conversation. Assessing Wesley Matthews' performance, let alone future, requires healthy dosesof perspective and context. If you take a short-term view of his performance, comparing last year against this, Matthews did quite well in 2012-13. Like Nicolas Batum, Matthews has becom...