The Hornets signed Nicolas Batum to a five-year, $120 million contract in 2016.
Given his leverage, I thought he could have gotten even more – maybe even the max.
The Hornets had just traded a promising-looking recent lottery pick (Noah Vonleh) to the Trail Blazers for Batum. Batum played well in 2015-16, helping Charlotte to its best season since re-emerging as the Bobcats. The Hornets called Batum their top priority entering the offseason. The salary cap had just skyrocketed. Plenty of other teams had cap room and interest in Batum.
But Batum turned into an anchor, not a bargain.
His production declined. Charlotte hasn’t return to the playoffs. Kemba Walker left.
Batum, via Scott Fowler of The Charlotte Observer:
Where’s the apology from former Hornets general manager Rich Cho, who signed Batum to this deal? Where’s the apologizes from Hornets owner Michael Jordan, who approved the deal?
Nobody forced anyone to sign Batum. He took the offer put in front of him.
It’s funny how we tend to blame players for bad contracts. Heck, it says something that we call them “bad contracts.” For Batum, this is a great contract.
Even in this paradigm, players rarely apologize for not producing commensurate with their salary. Batum is an outlier.
He also has a $27,130,434 player option for next season. When he says he won’t be part of Charlotte’s future, does he mean he’ll decline that option? I highly doubt it. He’s sorry. Nobody is that sorry.
More likely, the 31-year-old Batum will collect that salary and just continue not to fit the Hornets’ vision. They’re clearly rebuilding around younger players. Perhaps, Batum will get traded as an expiring contract. If not, Batum – who hasn’t played in six weeks – will continue to ride Charlotte’s bench and collect checks.
At least, as he says in the interview, he’s not making waves about getting demoted. If nothing else, all that money got the Hornets someone who understands professionalism.