What is "his game"? I'm pretty sure Greg doesn't know. Not sure his teammates do either. Hitting both free throws would have been HUGE for his confidence and his bonding with his teammates. Sucks that he couldn't at least make one.
LMA is loosey-goosey. That is his thing. When I would follow the team on the road, I would be devastated by a loss and he'd come out from the locker room after smiling and in a good mood. I think this is actually good though. The guy is never down. In a tight game, he's always smiling, having fun. I think this keeps him level and makes him valuable in tough situations when we're all at home going crazy. If only, Oden were like that.
Hell, even hitting one of them would have been huge in terms of confidence. Saturday suddenly becomes a pivotal game for Oden. I do wonder what the "run the offense through Oden" crowd is thinking right now.
Great teams can shoot 35% from the field and still find a way to win. And we would've done that if Oden had merely knocked down two free throws.
I'm only guessing of course - but what kind of chair are you sitting in? Like everyone here, we are all arm-chair quarterbacks....at least any of us who care to post an opinion! I never have a problem if Roy misses a shot! I just can't figure why we had Miller (can't shoot); Oden (can't shoot); with (clearly from my chair) the only real play was "Roy-on-5" - with his only outlet being a dump into a crowded lane to an inept Oden? Pryz can rebound? For purposes of an offensive set with 10 seconds to play - I might rather had seen Pryz "keeping the Nuggets biggest defender glued to him...." In fact, you tell me: If you were coach Karl, would you tell your boys to worry about the ball going into Oden? Worry about Miller? What might Karl have told his players had Pryz, Roy, Rudy, Blake, Webster and Outlaw all on the floor for that play?
oden is the best offensive rebounder on the team and may be the best offensive rebounder in the entire league. down by one taking a close to last second shot, oden absolutely has to be on the floor in case the shot misses.
yeah, it does suck but shit happens. plenty of great players have missed huge free throws down the stretch.
I'm thinking that the people advocating for more Greg involvement in offense are laughing that some people are still misunderstanding their argument.
Lots of bad players have also missed FTs down the stretch. Not saying Oden is a bad player, but I'm just pointing it out.
I want to understand it better, because I may have it mis-characterized in my head. What's the basics of the argument?
Ah, but... usually, the bad players aren't in down the stretch. See Lawson vs. Rudy. This whole thing reminds me of Buck Williams missing a FT with no time remaining against Seattle that deprived us of a win against a division rival.
how many times have you seen them run a pick and roll with oden? how many times do you see oden with what appears to be great position but he gets ignored? it seems like the blazers miss most of the good high percentage opportunities that oden has and instead dump him the ball in the post not in great position against a set defense.
Yeah, a player like Oden could really feed off that kind of attention. Hell, i remember in 2004, when we had Blake the first time, Przybilla and he would play that game, and Joel had a couple of 18-point nights. It certainly can be done if you know to look for the big man while you're rolling. However, I notice that Oden's really bad at setting picks, and our guards aren't patient enough to wait for him to get set. He's just not quick enough to catch a defender off guard and set a pick. Without that, the spacing isn't right to get a good roll off the pick. And usually, Oden's setting picks for Roy, and when Roy drives, he's not always going to consider Oden trailing behind when he has an and-1 in his mind's eye. But, given time and proper spacing, I can see this pick-and-roll relationship develop. It's a long season, and a level of trust has to be established. I'm not concerned yet.
A great offensive rebounder versus a great offensive scorer remains two different qualities. I'm only speaking of two issues: Noting, we had 10 seconds; The play: Roy-on-5 do we all agree this was the case? Oden: 63% foul shooter / low confidence / even if he were to have grabbed a rebound, what are the odds of a put-back? Did he get any put-backs all night? He did have (1) on Tuesday night! Pryzbilla: Experienced in similar scenarios. Miller: Can't shoot (but Webster, Blake, Travis, Rudy....all can hit an outside jumper) Noting we had 1.9 seconds left, down by 3: Did ANYONE in the building think it was / could go to anyone else besides Roy? Did we insert our group of 3-point shooters to even cause Denver to "guess?" Final thought: JVG
