3. Nicolas Batum
They’re a very real chance that Nicolas Batum may be entering the last season of his career. He’s going to be 35 years old next season and has seen his role with the LA Clippers diminish in each of the last three seasons. Even though he’s only on the books for $11 million next season, he’s a player that you could easily envision the Clippers electing to move on from this summer – and the team wouldn’t miss much of a beat.
Batum is coming off a season in which he averaged six points and four rebounds on 39 percent shooting from 3-point range. He also averaged the lowest minutes per game (22) of his career since his rookie season. Even though Batum is a valuable player to have as a contending team, he’s a player that the Clippers would much rather move on from compared to a Marcus Morris.
It wouldn’t be fair to say that Batum isn’t still an impactful player at this point in his career but it would also be overstating his impact to say that he’s an invaluable player to the point where he can’t be moved in a potential cap-saving move.
If the Clippers do make moves to save some money this offseason, I’d imagine that there’s a good chance Batum is part of those plans.