He's the best center prospect since, at least, Shaq coming out of college. He was considered the best high school center prospect since Lew Alcindor. Stop it with the "people like you" comment when we're just seeing the same things that others have seen for several years now. Ed O.
Here's a link to Joels 18 17 6 game http://www.databasebasketball.com/teams/boxscore.htm?yr=2004&b=20050216&tm=ind
Oden hasn't proven to be a great offensive player at any level. I happen to think Cowherd is wrong, but how did Oden disprove him tonight?
This was a very encouraging game to me. Oden played well, was productive in limited minutes and the Blazers took a top team to the end on the road...and didn't even play their best game. Based on this game, Portland is as good as anyone other than the Lakers. Of course, I think the Blazers will have pretty high variance, so they could easily lose to a bad team. In the end, I think they could compete for a 5/6 seed. But really, the emerging cheer of this early stretch, beyond the quite strong record, is the emergence of Rudy and Batum and the development of Oden. If those three players develop as hoped, Portland will be fearsome.
I'm not disappointed with the loss tonight. New Orleans might be the second-best team in the West... and maybe the third-best team in the NBA. And Portland was just as good as them tonight, in spite of not shooting well. Oden was very good, of course, and I'm thrilled to see what he does tomorrow night on his first back-to-back. LA actually shot the ball very well and I was impressed with his rebounding. It was too bad we didn't steal this game, but I'm very encouraged overall. Ed O.
A friend told me my head explodes and reassembles itself a million times a second. It does it so quickly that it doesn't impair my ability to live and the atoms disperse so it doesn't impact my environment. I happen to think my friend is wrong, but how do I disprove him tonight? ... Please. You're defending Cowherd calling Oden BENOIT BENJAMIN. It's ridiculous. Ed O.
Good game despite the loss. It is going to take some time for this team to learn how to play together. Too many new players, too many different styles of play - but we are starting to see exactly what the big deal is. This is a rookie, in his "3rd" game, after more than a year off and coming off MF surgery. Yah, He is going to be a beast. We did not see Rudy taking over and shooting enough this game. We will need to think about that. We will need to have Roy run only 66% of the plays in the 4th, not 100% of them - this will make it harder to guard him - and it will open others when he as the ball. We will need to go down to Greg a bit more - he can hit his FT and can put whatever clown that guards him in foul trouble. It's going to take a bit of time - but this is going to be one kick ass team...
My bad. I didn't know he scored 14 in that game against the Clippers and I was there! Courtside! How could I forget?
I agree with the above. I just don't think Oden needs to be viewed as the next Shaq right now. Sorry for upsetting you, Joker.
What I think was most encouraging about Oden tonite was that he played so many mins and didn't look as tired as he did at any time tonite than he did in his last game. He seem to find his pace or whatever tonite.
I'm not defending that at all. It is wrong and stupid. The OP never posted anything other than vulgar acts that Cowherd and Dawson should perform on him. I found that a bit vague and offensive.
Seriously, why the Greg vs. Joel comparisons? They both played well and kept us in the game tonight. Together in 45 minutes they combined for 19/18/4 on 7/8 FG and 5/6 FT. I'll take that kind of production out of the center position any night whether it's 45 minutes for Joel and 0 for Greg, 0 for Joel and 45 for Greg, or any combination in between. And, concerning Joel never putting up 11/11/4, during his first year with the Blazers, he had a four game stretch where he went for: 14/11/5 19/17/3 18/17/6 15/10/4 He also had these games that season: 13/21/8 19/14/5 16/13/3 13/9/7 10/14/4 10/14/4 (again) 17/16/0 17/22/0 Those are some pretty big games by anyone's standards. So, no need to put down Joel to make Greg look good. Greg will eventually be putting up games like those on a regular basis. BNM
One of the first posts I made about Oden was after watching him shoot free throws in the McDonald's All-America game... you could tell that he had good form and that, unless something drastic changed, he was going to be a good free throw shooter. It might seem odd, but I remember being more excited by that than anything else I saw him do that game. Ed O.
If that was all NO had to offer? Then fucking bring it! They looked pretty week tonight. We just got stagnant at times and are still figuring out how to use the big fella. 30+ minutes of Oden= W. Due to the Wet not being as stacked as we all thought, if Oden keeps progressing we could be a top 3 team in the West. NO doesn't win tonight without their plethora of tear drops that fell in the paint, we'll smoke em in PDX!
