FRA - Batum in transition

BROOKLYN (NBA/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Nicolas Batum has taken off his France shirt and put his Portland Trail Blazers jersey back on, with the NBA season starting in less than a month.

It's going to take a while for the 24-year-old forward to shift his thoughts away from the national team, though.

No player in the French team set-up is ever going to forget what happened last month in Slovenia, when Les Bleus achieved a first.

France won a EuroBasket title.

"Maybe my biggest memory of my basketball career so far, to win this for my country," said Batum, when asked to rank the experience.

"That was the first time for France to win a big tournament. That's pretty huge right there."

A star with France since EuroBasket 2009, Batum underlined his importance to the French cause yet again in Slovenia, especially on defense.

"I know that's my job," he said.

"Even if I wasn't on a good day on offense, I didn't stop my job on defense."

Batum will now try to ride the momentum of France's greatest moment on a basketball court to a solid start in the NBA.

The Blazers' first game will be on 30 October, at Phoenix.

Portland must improve as a team on defense if they are going to have a good season, which 2013-14 will not be if the franchise misses the play-offs for a third straight year.

"If everyone does a good job on defense, we can have a good team," Batum said.

"If we want to be in the play-offs, everyone has to play defense."

For some international basketball players, there is a transition that has to take place when they return to the NBA.

Batum says he will have to make an adjustment in one area.

NBA players are hit with a defensive three-second violation, or an illegal defense, when they are in the lane for more than three seconds while not actively guarding an opponent.

The penalty is a team technical foul, and a technical free-throw for the opposition.

The offense then keeps possession.

"The only rule I struggle with either way is the three-second defense," Batum said.

"(In Europe), we can stay as long as we want in the paint. In the NBA, sometimes I'm late on defense (getting out of the paint)."

Batum will soon enough be able to fully concentrate on the Trail Blazers.

It's unrealistic to expect him or his teammates to switch off the national team experience right now, though.

Not only did they win the title, but also qualified for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain.

"We played the final a week ago," he said at Portland's media day (on Monday).

"What we've done wasn't easy. We had the media tour, saw the president, all the things.

"(But) I'm glad to be back."

FIBA