There is a question I get from Charlotte Hornets fans even more than “What would it take for Kemba Walker to stay?”
“What would it take for Nicolas Batum to go?”
I get the widespread frustration. Batum is by far this team’s highest-paid player, and he’s not close to its best one. He was placed in a variety of roles this past season, and nothing quite changed the pattern. It got to a point late in the season when coach James Borrego briefly stopped playing Batum altogether.
So, naturally, Batum was a major topic of conversation when the players, Borrego and general manager Mitch Kupchak met with media post-season.