I completely disagree with the catching passes part. That dude is fargin high. Oden has good hands, and if anything, the problem was last year nobody threw the ball to Oden when he was wide open. Game after game, guys would look right at him open by the hoop and not throw him the ball.
This is my concern because we've all noticed it. Hopefully as he becomes more comfortable, he'll be able to catch passes on a regular basis. The guy has great hands rebounding, so it's not like he's a total clod with his hands.
We don't see the practices, and we don't know how he was catching those passes in practice. You have to earn your teammates trust; if you don't do it in practice, don't expect it in the game.
Please stop talking about GOD. Let him be and don't worry about it. Start talking about hm opening night. You have been warned
I recall only seeing him go down once in the last video I watch and that was going for the ball. And the part about when people fall it goes slow for them but fast for Oden is obvious pure speculation. This smacks of how just seeing him and Durant watlk statement a writer wrote in the past.
I didn't notice that. What I notice was him keeping the ball low and it being stripped which is easy to remedy.
Seemed a bit reactionary to me, but that's often part of being a fan and Henry Abbott is a fan. The video neither thrilled me nor depressed me. Oden is in the process of getting into the shape he wants to be and this coming season will be his first at full strength. If he hasn't made major strides by the end of the season, I'll be worried.
That too, but I recall him fumbling the ball out of bounds a few times. Hopefully it was just a matter of him being not fully healthy and unable to move as fast as the game.
The videos showed me that Durant is ready to become a superstar. I say that as a staunch Oden supporter before the draft and today. I hope he turns it on this year.
This is the only part that makes it a question for me. For all the times I'd scream at Blake to throw him the ball, you could tell that it wasn't even on his radar to do so. Good point to bring up that maybe it WAS b/c of things that went on in practice. But I submit that the few times plays were drawn up for him (Rudy's bullet pass from the corner; LMA's high-low) it worked out pretty well, especially later in the season. I'm willing to give the B.o.D. to the Blazer guards if that was the case, though I don't remember seeing as much "butterfingers" as "ball getting stripped as he was hacked mercilessly and no foul called" turnovers.
I was a little depressed watching the video BUT: 1. It was the culmination of the "International Week of Oden" and was a bit of a damp squib. 2. A lot of very solid players (e.g., Millsap) also looked very ordinary, while a lot of players who are volume scorers on crappy teams looked good (Rudy Gay). That sounds like All-Star-Itis to me. (How many All Star MVPs has player-of-the-decade Tim Duncan won?) Think about it: this game was very close to OKC (Durant, Green, Westbrook) vs. Memphis (Gay, Mayo). Not a marquee attraction! 3. It sounds like Oden's +/- would've been off the charts, and the converse of super-flashy JaVale McGee's. 4. I imagine Patrick Ewing in that setting. It would not have looked any different, except he wouldn't have made it past half court on most trips.
Last season showed me that. What does being an "Oden supporter" have to do with evaluating Durant's talent? I'm clearly a big Oden supporter and I always expected Durant to become a star or superstar. I considered both Oden and Durant to be special talents. Oden was set back by his injury, but I expect him to make big jumps over this season and next. Whether or not that happens, Durant is clearly a fantastic player. I think Oden was the right selection on draft day, and I'd still rather have Oden, but it was always possible that Durant would end up the better player.
It was more of disclaimer than anything else. I never said that being an Oden supporter clouded my objectivity in evaluating Durant. My stating that the video showed me that Durant is ready to become a superstar could be viewed as a slam on Oden; hence my disclaimer. I didn't want 3 pages of "you think Oden suxxx??" or "Durant doesn't make his teammates better!!!" this afternoon.
Henry Abbott once called Oden the most awkward professional athlete of all time. So take anything the man says about Oden with a giant grain of salt. Will provide the link when I get home from work. Don't have time to look for it now.
To be fair, Abbot did say "might", although I'd just as soon forget about the comparitives you used because they don't exactly reflect well on Oden. "Oh well, at least he's not Jack Haley"!
Sometimes I wonder if Henry doesn't just use Greg's struggles to try to prove to the espn readers that he isn't a homer like he's often accused of being in the comments.
