Former Portland Trail Blazers legend Nicolas Batum recently said in an interview with BeinSports that "there's a very, very good chance that the next season will be my last."
Batum is 36 years old and has a $4.9 million player option for the 2025-26 season that he is expected to opt into with the Los Angeles Clippers. He just capped off his 17th season in what has been a long and productive career. But his numbers have declined as he's neared the end of his career, averaging just 4.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.1 assists in 17.5 minutes per game with the Clippers.
Nicolas Batum’s underrated career deserves its flowers
To Batum's credit, he became an unexpected X-Factor during the playoffs, averaging 24.4 minutes and shooting 39.4 percent from beyond the arc in their thrilling series loss to the Denver Nuggets, which was key in pushing them to a Game 7. That's nothing new for Trail Blazers fans, who have had the luxury of cheering on Batum for seven seasons.
He played some of the best basketball of his career with Rip City, averaging 11.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 3.0 assists on 45/36/83 shooting splits during that stretch. The scoring doesn't jump off the page, but Batum is the type of player whose impact on winning goes far beyond the box score. He was the Trail Blazers' original Deni Avdija in terms of a versatile two-way wing that is good but not quite elite at every facet of the game.
But unfortunately, the Trail Blazers were never able to get over the hump during the Batum era. In 2015, Portland attempted to get out of purgatory by trading Batum to Charlotte; that turned out to be a massive mistake, considering they turned him into Gerald Henderson and Noah Vonleh. The Trail Blazers were looking to retool their roster following a disappointing first-round exit to the Memphis Grizzlies, but things got worse before they got better following that head-scratching move.
One trade Portland did get right was acquiring Batum after he was selected with the No. 25 overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets, trading away Darrell Arthur and Joey Dorsey. Thankfully, they did, as Batum has quietly been one of the most underrated players in recent NBA history. Think about what is a premium in today's NBA -- wings, size, versatility, and shooting. He checked every single one of those boxes as one of the league's elite role players.
At least we'll get one final farewell tour in 2025-26 to give Nicolas Batum his flowers.