has heard the whispers from the naysayers. And he knows the ones who haven’t yet announced their critiques are laying in the weeds, waiting for an opportune moment to pounce.

Yes, Batum has lived up to that

— and then some — during a season-opening 11-game stretch in which he is playing the best basketball of his career. But, the NBA season is only three weeks old. There’s plenty of time for this feel-good story to go south.

“It’s what people say about me and what people too scared to say it think about me: ‘Yeah, he’s been good, but it’s only been 11 games. We’re going to see the old Nicolas Batum soon,” the

’ starting small forward said. “But I’m going to try to avoid that. I’m not the old Nicolas Batum.”

He certainly doesn’t look like the old Nicolas Batum. In a span of 22 days, Batum already has established new career highs in scoring (35 points, twice), steals (six vs. Houston), blocks (five vs. San Antonio) and field goals made (13 vs. Houston). With averages of 20.1 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.09 blocks per game, Batum isn’t just averaging career highs in nearly every statistical category, he’s also

.

Batum ranks 11th in scoring, seventh in steals, third in three-pointers made (32) and fourth in minutes played (38.9 per game). All while shooting an incredible 48 percent from the field, including 40 percent from three-point range. He’s been efficient, balanced and — for the first time in his career — consistent. As Batum’s offseason crush, the Minnesota Timberwolves, prepare to visit the Rose Garden on Friday night, he’s justifying their aggressive offseason pursuit.

“He’s such a unique player that you can do a bunch of different things with him,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “His ability to shoot, his quickness to the rim, his length. As a coach, you see all the possibilities and you know it can’t happen all at once, but ... he’s doing a little bit of everything right now.”

A combination of factors are contributing to Batum’s breakout season. First, Stotts, the Blazers’ new coach, is challenging and featuring Batum in ways former coach Nate McMillan never did. Batum is playing with the ball in his hands more than ever, initiating offense through pick and rolls, postups and pin downs, and he’s become a go-to weapon in Stotts’ flow attack.

There’s no more deferring to Brandon Roy. No more playing second-fiddle to Gerald Wallace. No more standing in the corner hoisting threes. Batum is no longer a complementary player, he’s a focal point. And out of necessity, Batum is playing more aggressive than ever.

“I’m more free,” he says, simply, about what’s changed in his game.

But to merely say Batum is excelling because of opportunity would be an injustice to how well he’s playing. In his fifth season, the 23-year old is at the point in his career where his maturity, ability and progression have allowed all his potential to become a reality. After the Blazers defeated the Chicago Bulls last week, Batum left the Rose Garden seething at himself. He had scored 21 points and made five three-pointers, but he was angry that he had done little else, contributing just four rebounds, two assists and zero steals, while playing shaky defense.

The old Nicolas Batum would have relished the strong scoring night. The new Nicolas Batum longs to do it all.

As he judges his play this season, he doesn’t delight in the surprising statistics he’s producing or the attention he’s receiving, which might have happened in the past. Instead, he’s focusing on his deficiencies. The 30 turnovers he’s committed. The assists he’s squandered. The shots he’s missed.

“I know I do some good things, but I’m working on my weaknesses,” Batum said. "I work on what I can do better. Turnovers have been an issue for me and I’ve got to work on that. I have to be more aggressive every game. I have to be better. I know teams are going to adjust. I know they are going to start looking at me.”

In fact, they already have. Against the Bulls, Luol Deng, an All-Defensive Second-Team selection last season, stuck to Batum like a wet blanket, denying him when he didn’t’ have the ball and harassing him when he did. Batum said it was the most physical, most determined and most aggressive defensive attention Deng or anyone else has given him in his career.

“For the first time of the year, somebody was, like, guarding me,” Batum said. “So I have to adjust that to different ways to catch a ball, to score. December, the next road trip, are going to be interesting for me. People are going to be looking at me different.”

In some ways, Batum is starting to get a little star treatment.

“I feel some respect,” he said of Deng’s defense. “I take that as respect. It’s good. I have to keep working, find other ways to produce. Great players in this league, like LeBron (James), Carmelo (Anthony), (Kevin) Durant, they have game plans on them every day. But they find a way to score 25, 30 points, anyway. So I have to find a way to do that, to find my way and do something even when teams are trying hard to stop me.”

When looking back at the first 22 days of the season, it was the one time Batum has been stopped that has made the biggest impact on his game. After recording 26 points, six rebounds and three steals in a dazzling season-opening win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Batum vanished one game later, finishing with just three points, two assists, one rebound and one steal — while shooting 1-for-11 — in a loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

At the time, it felt like a movie Blazers fans had seen before, another box-office-bust-of-a sequel in his hit-and-miss career. But, in hindsight, Batum said, it was a defining moment, the point when his season and his status were solidified.

“The OKC game was a great game for me,” Batum said. “That’s when it all hit me. I can’t have those games any more. Because I’m The Guy on this team, with (LaMarcus Aldridge) and with (Wesley Matthews). If I have a game like that, it won’t be good for the team. And in those games, if I don’t have a good shooting night, I’ve got to do like I did in Houston — I’ve got to give rebounding, steals, blocks, assists and make sure that my guy doesn’t score. I’ve got to do it all.”

And, for the most part, Batum has done it all this season. So far, this is definitely not the same old Nicolas Batum.

“Where I am right now is where I should be,” Batum said. “I just need to try to keep playing, be aggressive and try to produce every night. I’m a different player.”

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