Great comeback by the Blazers in the fourth quarter. Rudy Fernandez was the key, along with Roy. This team has a quiet confidence that is wonderful to see. They never panic, and they never give up. Regarding Oden: My God, he looked bad. Has any #1 pick in Blazers history ever performed this far below expectations? LaRue Martin, perhaps, but not many others. Oden not only missed two wide-open dunks, he lumbered up and down the floor the whole time and could barely get out of his own way. Every time the ball was passed into him, he threw it back out to someone else. He literally couldn't wait to get rid of it. The guy seems to have zero confidence right now. I'm wondering if Oden is suffering from depression. When the starting lineup was introduced, he walked out to the court instead of running like everyone else. He doesn't smile, and he looks extremely sad most of the time. I really feel for him. He's got to be extremely disappointed in himself. But there's a silver lining to this cloud. The team is performing extremely well without any real contribution from him. When he finally gets his head on straight, and his game together, the Blazers are going to be scary good.
He had a pretty crummy game offensively, but he didn't look that bad. He's no Larue Martin, that's for sure.
Oden needs to get it together. He doesn't try on defense and barely makes it up the floor. He lacking confidence and motivation, IMO.
Yao Ming makes it up the floor better than Oden. It's sort of sad. Idk what Oden's deal is, but he just looks awkward out there. Lumbers up the court and just sort of stands around. A couple times he'll set a pick or post up, but that's about it. On defense he really becomes less active. He'll literally just sit there with his hands in the air around the basket. He's supposed to be a shot blocker. What Greg Oden is supposed to look like on defense: [video=youtube;MUOL7ohUSFA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUOL7ohUSFA[/video]
That's a bs excuse as far as I'm concerned. Oden isn't the first #1 pick to feel a huge amount of pressure. How do you think LeBron James felt? He was it for the Cavs. Oden came into a situation where he was 1 of 3. He doesn't have to be the main man here. He couldn't be if he wanted to because he isn't taking it away from Roy, that's for sure. I'm going to cut Oden slack because he sat out a year, which is hard enough when you consider the rust factor. Put a MF surgery on top of that and that's just a tough situation. Still, though, the guy just looks awkward out there.
Christ we're a fickle lot. What was it 2 days ago when everyone was oohing and ahhing over Greg's dominance against the Pistons, blocking and altering shots, and pulling down a career high in rebounds, getting his fifth double-double in 12 full games of action? Greg looks like a rookie who hadn't played competitive ball for 18 months and rehabbed from MF surgery for 12 of those months.
Put me down as one who believes in Oden. At least at the start of the day, Greg had the best PER of any current rookie (including #1 pick Derek Rose), and will only get better. Until then, have patience.
Greg is fine, as long as he's contesting shots, and fighting for rebounds, I"m happy. His development will take time. I did like the shots he was taking. Two missed hooks, but those will come with time and are high percentage shots. The two missed dunks are just kind of unlucky.
Oden has had a few good games, and a lot of poor ones. I'm really not concerned about his numbers--what bothers me is the way he looks on the court. He seems disjointed and awkward, and doesn't even look like a natural athelete when he runs. Even my girlfriend, who is no NBA expert, noticed it tonight from the stands. At one point she told me, "I don't know about Oden. He doesn't look right."
Oden will be fine. This was a crappy game against a gimmicky offense. You could tell he never been in this situation. The Knicks were running all kind of crazy double teams, and defensive rotations. This is Nellie ball. Big guys have trouble with it. Let him get accustomed to the league and step aside. Give the guy a year to get use to everything. He will be a force. Big guys take longer. Five hours ago everyone were talking about how he is top 5 rookie. Let him play.
2 blocks in 19 minutes is not "doesn't try on defense". If you watched the game at all you'd see how hard Oden was playing. He played hard and showed good footwork on defense. Confidence and motivation? Do you even listen to yourself talk? Oden's reason for a subpar game was that he only got 19 minutes and the team avoided giving him the ball. He got about 5 touches in the 1st quarter and one for the rest of the game. The point guards ignored him on offense! Although, to the Knicks credit, the gimmicky defense confused Oden. I really don't know why you're so quick to jump on a player who played slightly below his averages for one game, Mr. "Aldridge is no better than Channing Frye" Fez.
He rebounded and defended. Micro-fracture surgery + inexperience with a run-and-gun tempo = Struggle WTF
He's always looked like this though. (Minus the awkward running-MF surgery might have something to do with that) College, preseason, regular season. It's his game face.
I was at the game, and I didn't see that at all. The blocks were fine, but he didn't have to do much except go up in the air when a guy drove the ball against him. He doesn't rotate very well on defense, and he is slow to react. He also doesn't run down the court very fast. Nonsense. The ball was passed to him multiple times, and he always passed it right back out. He was afraid to take a shot, and said so himself after the game.
It's his body language. He's almost 7'1" and if he just so happens to put his hands in the air he'll get a block or two. He's moving like he doesn't want to play. He had MF surgery but it was, according to various doctors, to be very minor compared to Kidd and Amare, ect. He's had an entire year! I expected him to look sluggish as he learns the NBA game but I didn't expect a very uninterested Oden on the floor. Watch him run. Watch him move. It's not encouraging at all.
Oden would look better on offense if someone would get the ball to him quicker, before he is double-teamed. He's not a half-court guy.
He's a rookie, he's been out of basketball a year prior to this season. Do we really need to make every single a game a referendum on whether Oden is living up to expectations? His per-minute efficiency suggests he's playing well. Observationally, it's pretty clear that he's having a large effect on the team defense (and the team defensive efficiency numbers bear that out). If next season at this time, he looks awkward and lost and lumbering, there's a problem. Until then, let him get into shape. He's having a major effect on games when he's in, which can be verified observationally or statistically.
