I'd go that far. The Blazers have pretty consistently been ranked second in offensive efficiency all season long and trail only the Phoenix juggernaut by a scant half a point. http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl...//insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats
You're not part of the group who thinks Nate doesn't run more than 2 plays all season and we should give the ball to GO more? Good... ...can I join whatever group you are in? We have solid talent, a good coach, and we're growing. I love it!
the offense (and defense) would be even better if oden saw some more touches in the post. two plays isn't a problem as long as it's two plays that work. nate has done a good job though.
I 100% love Greg, and I 100% disagree. I would love to see a percentage breakdown of when we give GO the ball on the block, what the results are. Most the time he's going to make the safe kick out before he's double-teamed and it doesn't help anything. The rest of the time I feel like it's an equal amount of dunks, missed hook shots, and turnovers. I think in time he will become comfortable, but I don't think this is the time to work on it. If he starts dominating Joel in practice, then fine, give him more looks. Here is how I really look at it. We have at minimum 4 clear cut better go to options on offense, and another 2-4 you could debate. I understand you can't go to Roy every play even though he's our best option, but I don't think we are going to Roy, LMA, Travis, and Rudy too much right now. We have balance in our offense, and any play we go inside to Greg is one less possession we are going to our top options. Greg's offense will improve in time...
We run a screen across for Greg every time Rudy comes in the game. We usually run it again in the 3rd quarter. So that's two plays right there. Usually he's open once. We also run roughly 6-12 pick and rolls with Greg in a given game. If Greg sets a good pick, rolls hard to the hoop, and is ready to catch the ball, he'll be open plenty here. To me, that's a play where Greg is a major option, but if he doesn't roll hard, that's his fault. This pick and roll situation is where I really see a difference in Greg post microfacture surgery. He is unable to catch the ball, take two giant steps, and elevate over everyone. Early in the year I recall Roy, Blake, Rudy, and Sergio all throwing a variety of bounce passes, lobs, and ally-oops to Greg, but he struggled to get to any of them that weren't in his bread basket. When he did catch it, he had difficulty getting on balance and going up in a powerful way, and most importantly, finish. You're asking a lot of our guards if you expect them to throw a perfect chest pass to his hands in a congested key when they are being double teamed by some of the best athletes in the world. Greg is going to improve on all these things and his teammates will learn how to get him the ball and where he likes it. I said it in the last post and I'll say it again, playoff games or games with playoff implications are not the time to experiment with stuff like that.
