Heading into Friday night’s game against the Atlanta Hawks, Nicolas Batum’s availability was, once again, up in the air. For the second straight game, Batum entered the day as a game-time decision with pain in his right wrist. He initially injured the wrist during the Portland Trail Blazer’s matchup with the Milwaukie Bucks in mid-December. Since the injury, Batum has worn countless combinations of compression sleeves, tape, braces and wraps to alleviate pain, and to protect the wrist of his shooting hand.
According to The Oregonian‘s Jason Quick, the injury is significantly impacting Batum’s shooting mechanics.
The right side of his hand and wrist are stiff. He can't bring his wrist all the way back. It's causing his shot to veer right.
— Jason Quick (@jwquick) January 20, 2015
However; the statistics paint a more complicated picture. Batum is shooting a mere 27.6 percent from three-point range for the season. Not only is that figure well below his career average of 36.1 percent, but if Batum’s shooting woes continue he will be in real danger of finishing the season shooting less than the league average from beyond the arc—something he has never done as a full time starter in the NBA.
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Interestingly though, Batum has actually shot a better percentage from the floor after injuring his wrist. In the team’s 19 games since—of which he has played 17—Batum is shooting 33.8 percent from 3-point range and 41.0 percent overall. Compare this to the 23.3 percent from three and 37.1 percent overall that Batum shot prior to the injury. Not only has his scoring efficiency improved, but over those 17 games his points per game have increased from 8.8 to 9.5. Quite unexpectedly, Batum is scoring more points, more efficiently after suffering what appears to be a fairly significant injury to his shooting hand.
Nicolas Batum re-injures wrist
– Via
Though his shooting has improved—odd as that may seem—Batum has struggled to find consistency. Outside of his 27-point, 10-rebound outlier against the Phoenix Suns on January 21st, he has only managed doubled-digit scoring in one of the Blazers’ last 10 games.
Batum’s post-injury efficiency is largely a function of his shot selection. Batum is taking it upon himself to create better scoring opportunities for himself, in light of his injury. Not only is he taking a higher percentage of his shots within five feet of the rim, but his rate of unassisted field goals in that range has nearly doubled.
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Batum is opting to attack the rim rather than flare out to the wing for the spot up 3-pointer, and, as always, scoring well in transition. He is running more purposeful cuts after dumping the ball into LaMarcus Aldridge in the post. He’s looking to create higher percentage scoring opportunities within the Blazer’s offense. That should be an encouraging sign to Portland fans.
Whether Batum’s shooting struggles will continue for the remainder of the 2014-15 season remains to be seen. But, it is promising to see that he is diversifying his offensive game, finding new and interesting ways to score the ball in spite of the nagging wrist injury, while not abandoning his pursuit of his lost jumper. This Trail Blazer’s team needs Batum to find some semblance of the offensive consistency he displayed last season in order to be successful, and he appears to be moving that general direction.