I guess you missed him lobbying for the Timberwolves GM job - seriously. The guy has a hugely overinflated opinion of his knowledge of the NBA. He thinks he can actually jump right in and run an NBA team based on his background as an occasionally funny columnist. What's next, Andrew Dice Clay for Secretary of State? Rosanne Barr as the CEO of IBM? BNM
Oden was not dominate this year. That much is not really debatable. But to say he showed no flashes of good play is pretty ignorant. This shows all of Oden's games. To me, 24 pts and 15 rebounds is a pretty significant flash. Or the game where he got 6 blocks. Or the fact he scored in double figures in almost half his games despite tremendous foul trouble. The argument that he did it against sub-par competition is also ignorant. A large number of players don't play well against anyone, ever. Simmons has a blind spot when it comes to Oden, and he always will.
Well we can always get his mailing address, and send him a bubble wrapped envelope with a nice steamy log in it for him.
Since when does an injury plagued disappointing rookie season == bust? Yes, Oden's stats were less than what most expected for a No. 1 overall pick, but IMHO: one disappointing injury plagued season = lots of room for improvement bust = no hope for substantial improvment At this point, I think Oden is definitely in the former catagory, not the latter. Two more seasons of single digit scoring, rebounding and massive foul trouble and we can start bandying about the "B" word, until then, it's premature (or in Simmon's case, immature). BNM
PTI said that its the Blazers 2 year anniversary when they won the lottery/Gregory. They mentioned that he missed his entire first year and in his second year he averaged only 9 points and 7 rebounds... which is uncharacteristic of a number one draft pick. However, Michael Wilbon ended it on a positive note saying something to the tune of "but I don't think we've seen everything from him yet".
Oden's only played one NBA season. It is WAY too early to call him a bust or to even say that is where he is headed. This season was underwhelming for him, but I definitely saw flashes. It's not just Oden that needs to work on his game, but the rest of the Blazers need to work on how to get the ball to Oden when he is in good position. The media needs to wait and see how he improves his 2nd year in the league. I still have big hopes for Oden and frankly I am a little shocked at everyone being so ready to jump ship on him.
Based on what, pray tell? The kid wasn't even a dominant scorer in college. Expecting him to turn into Hakeem, Shaq, or Jabbar is pure wishful thinking. If he averages 15 PPG, I will be pleasantly surprised. Why can't people just accept that Oden was drafted for his potential as a defensive stopper?
Because even without his athletic ability and very raw offensive skills he showed the same (actually slightly better) production per minute as D-Howard did his rookie year - Howard was not recovering from a MF surgery at the time nor was he more than 12 months away from basketball activities. Heck - Greg's rookie year per-minute production is just a hair behind Howard's 2nd year in the league... and while Howard is not Shaq (nor do I expect Greg to be, offensively) - Howard is a 20PPG this year. The only thing we can see from Greg when he was Howard's age (as a rookie) and had his athletic ability was from his college year - and even playing with basically one hand (his none-dominant one) - his stats at the same age were better than Howard (granted, against worse competition). Heck - he is not likely to be the greatest offensive center ever - but given the raw numbers and the circumstances - I find 15PPG as his ceiling offensively to be very very conservative...
I understand your point, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment. Howard is sharing the ball with Hedo and Lewis - both good offensive players. Are either of them as good as Roy? Are they even really better than LMA? If Rudy and Batum reach their full potential, and Outlaw sticks around, that is a *lot* of offensive firepower. In that context, how many shots do we actually want Oden taking?
Absolutey as many as he can get. His shots come close to the basket and that menas: They are high percentage shots. He is more likely to draw fouls on the opposition than somebody jacking up 22 ft. jumpers Shooting close to the basket means more offensive rebounds and fewer long rebounds - that lead to fast breaks going the other way. The more shots Oden gets in the post, the more it will open things up for our perimeter shooters. He will command double teams, which means someone else is left unguarded. Any time you have a low post player, you need to pound the ball into him. It wears down the defense and gets them in foul trouble. Oden's low post game will continue to improve. On strength alone, he will get points, draw fouls and grab offensive rebounds. Once his pre-surgery explosiveness returns and he improves his footwork, he will be a dominant low post offensive presence. BNM
"9/7 in 22 mins, that's not over all #1 worthy just yet, right Wilbon?" "No it's not, he's had all those injuries you mention, but I think he can be worth it down the road." I tivo PTI so that is from closed captioning, not sure of the spelling on the name.
So......take the ball away from skilled offensive players, and give them to a guy who just happens to be taller? Do you also favor getting Joel as many shots a game as possible? And please, don't try to tell me "that's different". BTW, how many teams have centers as their leading scorer? Seriously.
