The only thing I'm noticing about GO is that he doesn't really roll after the screen. If he does, it's a real delayed roll after teams have pretty much completed their rotation. Do you think he's being instructed to do this, isn't comfortable make that movement, or is saving his energy?
I think it's a fair comparison. Oden doesn't look athletic at all right now. He's sluggish and slow getting around the court, and he doesn't seem to be exploding off the floor for blocked shots and dunks like he used to. This may be more a result of his conditioning and/or extra weight this year, and not the surgery, but there is a marked difference, to be sure. I'm hoping he returns to his old form by the end of the season.
I'm all on board if you want to say Oden's playing like crap right now (I disagree, but I won't argue too vehemently). But to say he's never going to be Ewing or Olajuwon, because he was hyped and hasn't showed it in his first 10 games? Short-sighted and Chicken Little-ish, imo. Seems like people want to take an observation (Oden's not playing well, looks like he has lost explosiveness, Batum's playing well, etc) and try to extrapolate a career out of 10-15 games. If you wanted to do that with Joel or Travis (I'm not even sure I'd do it with Roy or LMA yet), then I could kind of see it, b/c there's a track record that goes back half a decade. For 10-15 games? Seriously?
I thought that in last nights game he started out with a hop to his step and seemed to have a lot more agility. As the game progressed he seemed to regress. If that is true he probably was getting tired and the old body just did not want to preform. g
Dwight Howard got 11 and 11 as a rookie, didn't have any post moves, didn't win ROY, and didn't come off not playing bball for a hole year like Oden. Greg will probably get better stats than that his rookie year. He is somewhat of an impact player still, it just doesn't all show up on the stat sheet. He has played about 10 NBA games and is getting like 8, 7 and 1.5. That really isn't bad as he is just rounding into shape and dealing with some nerves. He has already shown flashes where he had a 4 games span of averaging like 15 and 11. ANd while his offense looks raw and his off. stats reflect it, we are pretty much treating him like Przybilla and not including him in the offense very much at all. I agree with the person who said he has a long way to go before his game is compared with the greats, but I do think he will get there eventually. He has ALL of the physical tools. He has some fundamentals to work on along with some tape watching. The biggest leap a player ever makes in the NBa is usually between their 1st and 2nd season (this would be Greg's first).
Main thing I notice from the video is he's lumbering a bit right now compare to the first, but I was actually encourage watching the second video. I have been concern that he hasn't got the stats the last few games that he was getting, but I think it's mainly because we don't want to throw off the rest of the team getting Oden involved. There is no rush we have plenty of time and just having Oden in for his D helps the team a lot. Meanwhile he'll get in better and better shape and get more involved on O as time goes along. Also, I'm really excited about how well he passes. I'm surprise how many assists he gets a game!
Yeah, he's moving a lot slower this year. I remember back in Summer League last year that some were saying that he's faster than Aldridge running the floor. So far he's no faster than Yao or Shawn Bradley running the length of the court. I still don't think we'll see a 100% Oden until March or maybe even next season.
Spot on. This surgery usually takes two years before a player is back to to full strength, but Oden has put on a lot of weight, so he has to get back into shape. And it's not that he's in good shape, just not game shape. He's just in really bad shape and overweight, he's not even close to worrying about game shape. Stop killing the Big Mac's big fella.
I'm far from an expert on the subject, but it occurs to me that the type of weight lifting and physical training he's been doing the past year to rehab from the surgery may also have something to do with slowing him down and making him more lumbering and less agile. You can train for strength, size, agility, quickness, or whatever. Playing ball all his life had probably maximized his quickness and agility for basketball. The strength training and pool resistence training and the like he's been focusing on may well have slowed him down. If so, he'll get it back -- by next year. No worries.
