Buy or Sell: Bring Oden In Off The Bench

Let him adjust to the league a little slower; take the (internal) pressure off some; allow him to pace himself; start him later in the season.

 

Sell

 

Sell. The pressure on him is that he feels he's let the team down by not playing. I don't think he'll be benefited by playing less and not as a starter.

 

Buy.

 

Sell, but I think there needs to be less focus on running the offense through him.

 

Buy it. Let him play 30+ minutes, but bring him off the bench the first couple of games back.

 

Sell. Greg Oden is no bench player.

 

I'd buy that for a while.

 

Sell. He's practiced with the starting unit all summer and will be our starter for years to come. So why suddenly bring him off the bench?

 

Sell.

 

I'll buy, but only on condition that if I am wrong the government will cover my losses.

 

The problem isn't starting.

It's that he's playing with players who don't compliment his fast-break style.

Play him with Sergio, Rudy, Batum and TO.

Starting OR off the bench, these are the guys who resemble his style of play from college and will make him feel comfortable and succeed.

 

Hold?

 

I've never understood which is buy and which is sell?

 

Maybe you should just watch ACB or Euroleague ball.

And since when is Greg a fast break player? The guy has never averaged more than 15 points in a season and has no developed offensive game outside of dunks. So what happens when they encounter a big physical team that controls the tempo and plays a half-court game and are also good defensively? My guess is that Oden gets into early foul trouble and averages less than 24 minutes a game.

But hey, let's go ahead and sit our two best players and bring them in for 15 minutes a game, 'cause that's a brilliant use of resources.

 

Sell, Greg opens up the key for LMA and Roy. If you leave Greg, he will get a dunk or find the offensive rebound. Joel is never double teamed and often rotated off of, but teams don't do that with GO. When GO rolls and the pick and roll, it seems like the entire weakside defense drops in the paint, leaving LMA and others wide open.

 

A strong sell.

 

sell - only because the second unit is supposed to run, which I don't think Oden can do yet. I do think his minutes should be limited for a while though, he's no use to the team when he's exhausted after 5 minutes.