Nicolas Batum is entering the final year of his contract this year. He's coming off the worst shooting year of his career for both 2-pointers and 3-pointers, and by necessity, FG%, TS%, and eFG%. However, the rest of his rate stats for things like rebounding, assists, steals, and blocks were all at or near his career averages. Furthermore, his shooting picked up after the all-star break -- his post-break TS% would have been the second-highest of his career. As he was reportedly dealing with a thumb injury in the first part of the season, it seems very possible that this poor year overall was the outlier, and not the beginning of a trend.
However, Portland is going to have some difficult salary decisions to make, and Batum seems like he's becoming a bit of the fall guy for their disappointing season. If we strike out on the big name free agents this summer, he seems like someone who could be had pretty cheaply, or even for free depending on the situation. He has the chance to be a significant improvement at the SF position for a team on an upward trajectory, while not costing us future salary cap opportunities in 2016.
He counts $12.3 million against next year's cap. Given our cap space, we could acquire him and still have room for a free agent in the $8-10 million range, and/or keep one or both of Bass and Jerebko around. As a plan C or D type of acquisition, would you be willing to give up a couple 2016 2nd rounders for him?