Re: Time For Oden To Sit No, the best thing for this season is to get Greg, Brandon and LaMarcus used to eachother. The best thing for us in the playoffs is to have a starting center that the opposing team has to watch on offense (they don't have to watch Joel despite his 75% shooting that comes mostly from one or two putbacks a game or hey those times where he gets the ball on a roll which never happens to Greg apparently except that one Phoenix game) because then Brandon can penetrate better because they won't double or triple team him. It'd also help with the pressure thing if his coach actually knew how to use him on an offensive end so Greg is actually getting rewarded while getting left out to dry on the defensive end because we switch on every play.
Re: Time For Oden To Sit A bit of history: Mutombo's "best" offensive season was his rookie year, when the Nugs force-fed him the ball and he averaged 16.6 PPG. The team won 24 games. After that, he focused more on defense and rebounding...his team got better and he became a very valuable player (albeit not on the Hakeem/DRob level) Those who forget hostory, are doomed to repeat it. The focus should be on developing Oden as a dominator on the defensive end. If he can develop into an offensive threat - great - but he isn't there yet!
Re: Time For Oden To Sit Greg is leading all rookies not named Marresse Speights in PER. He is leading in FG%. As the previous poster put it (better than I can), he's getting over half of his shots without being assisted (that means that the number-y stat-things prove that he's not being passed the ball in a position to score). He's not getting rebounds or playing defense? That rebound rate number is a pretty solid indicator, even if somedon't quite understand it. Top 10 (at last check) in the entire league. Here's another one: 20% more blocks per game than either LMA or Przy. (1.1 to 0.9) How about on offense? Here're the totals for games where Greg has 7 or more shot attempts: 11/15 @Min W 88-83 24min 4-8 8reb 13pt 11/18 @GsW L 111-106 30min 8-12 10reb 22pt 11/19 Chi W 116-74 17min 3-7 .10reb 11pt 12/7 @Tor W 98-97 28min 3-10 10reb 10pt 12/12 Lac L 120-112 42min 6-10 15reb 15pt 12/27 Tor W 102-89 28min 5-7 10reb 16pt 12/30 Bos W 91-86 36min 5-9 11reb 13pt 1/4 @Lal L 100-86 35min 3-7 4reb 10pt 1/10 Gsw W 113-100 26min 4-8 8reb 10pt 1/12 @Chi W 109-95 26min 5-7 13reb 17pt 1/17 @Cha L 102-97 18min 3-7 3reb 8pt 1/19 Mil W 102-85 35min 9-14 15reb 24pt 1/24 Was W 100-87 39min 6-10 14reb 18pt 1/26 @Lac W 113-88 26min 7-7 6reb 16pt 1/28 Cha W 88-74 30min 4-9 14reb 14pt 15 games with 7 shots or more. 11-4 in those games (losses to L*kers, bogus Clippers and Warriors loss, CHA). 10 double-doubles, averaging 14pts and 10 reb on 71/132 (55%). Contrarily, Steve Blake has only 8 games all season where he DIDN'T shoot 7 times or more, and on 43% shooting. Blake isn't Roy or LMA. Same with Travis. 8 games where he didn't shoot 7 times or more. Also shooting 43%. Rudy's had only 10 games where he didn't shoot 7 times or more. He's shooting 42%. Sergio's had 7 shots or more 7 times. As far as his defense goes? Fine. If he fouls out in 10 minutes, so be it. Wouldn't it be useful (I don't know), to utilize him on offense while he's out there? The number of fouls he has doesn't matter as much on the offensive end. With respect, ABM, it's time to pass Greg the effing ball, not sit him.
Can we please stop it with the "force feed Oden" stuff. He isn't our best offensive weapon and should not be the focal point of the offense! This is the same carp Denver tried with Mutombo as a rookie. They forced the ball into the post to "get the big guy going". He had the highest scoring average of his career - and the team won 24 games! They tanked the season in an effort to "develop" Mutombo....and it didn't even work. Dikembe went on to make his mark as a defender/rebounder, not a scoring machine. If Oden dominates on the *defensive* end, we only need him to score 10-12 a game.
Re: Time For Oden To Sit Goes to show PER doesn't matter much because Speights won't finish in the top 10 of the Rookie of the Year race. As for benching Oden, I think that would be horrible. That would be like giving up. He has to start and he has to start swimming.
Re: Time For Oden To Sit Please merge this with "Starting Oden is a joke." It's the same subject obviously.
oldmangrouch- you are absolutely correct. The guy needs to focus on defense and rebounding That's why we got him. If we wanted scoring, we would've drafted Durant.
4 rebounds is terrible for a 7 footer. There were so many that were right there for him to grab, but he got pushed around and didn't get them.
the blazers shouldn't "force feed" oden. they should force the offense to go through any player. however, oden needs to be getting more touches inside and used like a guy that is a legitimate post threat because he is one. when oden gets the ball inside, he gets the better of one on one matchups most of the time. and if teams double, he's good at getting the ball to where it needs to be. disregarding oden in the post makes the defenses job much much easier. and no, people aren't saying to force the ball to oden every possession so that he'll play defense and rebound and to get him going. they are saying get him at least a few touches in the post early in the game because they helps him become more active. when he has the other big guys in foul trouble instead of him being in foul trouble, it changes the game. he doesn't need to post up looking to score every possession. he needs to get the ball in the post a few times early in the game and then if that's working, they need to go back to it at times. there is no reason not to use him as an offensive weapon in the post. there is no excuse for the long stretches in which oden is on the court and the only offensive touch he can get is off a missed shot.
