Would someone explain to me why Oden was so ineffective tonight?

Dallas shot 14 3s tonight; the Blazers shot 13. JJ Barea ended up with one less rebound than Greg Oden.

 

It's apparent Oden is a rotation-player at best. We should trade him now, and at least salvage some of the value he still has. I'd settle for a late-lottery pick.

 

Yeah, I've said he needs to be given time and that he isn't completely healthy. I've been flamed for posting it.

 

I assume this is sarcasm, but my literal side would agree since the guy seems to disappear on some nights. You can't measure intangibles.

 

Is this a serious post? I can't tell....

 

On defense, I can see the argument that he's hitting the rookie wall. Slack should be cut there.

On offense, it's all on the coaching staff and team to get him involved. He's getting deep, he just needs the rock. If he were on the Suns, he would be averaging at least 15ppg.

 

Trading Oden at this point would be just plain stupid.

 

No, it would be a steal at this point and would make the Blazers a title contender for years to come.

Find your fire, Greg.

 

Do you REALLY think we're going to get someone like Dwight Howard for Oden? No. We're going to get a collection of young talent, or an older All-Star. I doubt we'd get a Bosh, Wade, or even a Devin Harris. Oden is an unproven commodity at this point, and it behooves us to hold onto him and keep developing him. In terms of potential, Oden is through the roof. Very few players have come along like him, and very few will come along after... we need to cultivate this. Trading would be impatient and foolhardy.

 

A straight from HS player who can't shoot FTs for a "once-in-a-generation center"? Seems like a steal for Orlando.

 

He's not even to the all-star break in his rookie season....

The point that you speak of, to me, won't come until 2 years from now. Then, if he still plays like he is now, I can clearly call him a "bust", or to a lesser extent, unworthy of a #1 pick. But lay off the kid for now.

And it's not like he has Steve Nash, CP3, Deron Williams or Jason Kidd feeding him the rock. He has Blake, Bayless, and Sergio. Not exactly the top level guards who see the floor.

I would imagine if we had Kidd, CP3, Nash, Deron, Parker, Billuos, the list goes on....we would see a much improved stat-line for Greg at this point in the season.

I hate to say this, but let it bake; he's a rookie.

 

I love GO and think he'll be great, but to simply say we need to get him the ball more doesn't make any sense to me.

Greg is only a threat when he catches it deep in the post, which is a position he doesn't easily obtain, nor does anyone in the league. When he gets it anywhere outside the block, teams know to just show a double team, then back off because GO is thinking pass first and he'll pick up his dribble and kick out with little advantage being obtained by the Blazers.

Until Greg is able to do anything more than dunk, and make 40% of his hook shots, we can't run our offense through him. I don't understand how the people who complain that Nate's offense is too slow, now want us to feed Greg the ball, which almost always results in a perimeter jump shot near the end of the shot clock.

He'll develop in time...

 

Well said

 

I get the feeling that CP3 would have Greg at an All-Star level this season.

 

Easy to say, but we'll never know. I'd love to see GO get his mobility back and move around like Tyson Chandler does. To this point, Greg has struggled to catch ally-oops and rarely rolls hard to the hoop after any screen. I can't imagine the play is designed for a slow half heart roll to the hoop, but it hasn't changed all year, so maybe it is...

 

Sometimes it seems like this is the first season of watching basketball for some people. Why is it complicated to understand that rookies are often inconsistent as they get used to the NBA game?

It's like every week some people make that discovery for the first time.

Even great prospects often are inconsistent. James wasn't, but Kobe was. Dwight Howard had an almost identical rookie season to the one Oden is having, and he wasn't coming off an injury.

 

Not true. DHo averaged 12 pts, 10 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks. If Oden was doing that, I don't think anyone on this board would be complaining. I certainly wouldn't. 12/10/2 is exactly what I want from Oden. But we don't get it. At all. 7.2 rebounds per game? Not even close to Howard.

 

No, but Howard played more minutes and his coach didn't have a switching defensive scheme that left him on the perimeter guarding quick veteran guards while recovering from knee surgery.

 

Whatever the reasons/excuses may be, Oden is nowhere near what Howard was in his rookie year.

 

Oden: 17.6 PER
Howard: 17.2 PER

The main difference is playing time. Some of that is fouls, but McMillan also chooses not to play Oden as much as he could, even though Oden is effective.