At the start of every game, we are all eager too see Greg put up that 20-10 type performance. Thing is, Nate instructs Oden not to concentrate on offense and just rebound, block shots, & defend. My point is, how can you score many when your coach tells you not to in the first place? I'm pretty sure if Mcmillan lets Oden play 30+ minutes and instructs him to go at it in the offensive end, he will score. Don't blame Oden when he passes the ball often because it is him being obedient to his coach. It is unfair of fans to expect a guy to go big offensively without having the green light. Oden right now is looking at a "flashing yellow light" aka "slow down and proceed with caution" in offense. let the guy throw 10+ attempts on a regular basis w/o caring how many % he shoots it. I Still Believe! - bb
Yeah, I heard that yesterday during the game. Oden needs to play a complete game...if he gets more offensive, I think he'll be more defensive minded...if he's out of the offense, I believe he won't try as hard defensively...just needs to get into the flow of things.
The green light? Have you seen Greg's footwork around the basket? I'm perfectly happy to see Greg get his points through put-backs and cleaning up the garbage until he's more adept at posting up and learning how to hold the ball -- this move is to Nate's credit.
Early in the preseason, his footwork seemed fine...as did his handle on the ball. Its all up to butterflies and expectations and not wanting to mess up.....not a lack of skills.
Whatever the underlying reason for the awkwardness and "badness," the bottom line is that it's bad, and until he gets his confidence/practices more (whatever) I'm fine with Greg focusing on defense and rebounding; two aspects of the game he seems to be proficient at.
I think his post game would improve with more reps. Obviously he needs to go to a big man camp (or even take a dance class or two) in the offseason to improve his footwork. But I've seen him make that jump hook a few times now. And I've seen a nice dropstep move or two. He can always just draw a few fouls and help get the other team in the penalty. These skills can only get better with reps. My question is: who is coaching him up in these areas? Monty? Lucas? I say we bring in Hakeem and have him work on the footwork!
yeah it's ugly. he needs to attend Hakeem Olajuwon academy and have a practical exam against Joel. Maybe this is the best resolution he can make prior to new year so he can implement them in games. I also like him to do a crossover like Shaq did. Let him get his shots and we will see whether he ridicules or prove himself.
Even when he's awkward and odd-looking on the blocks, he draws double-teams. The more often he touches the ball, the easier dealing with those double-teams is going to prove to be. He doesn't have to score when he gets the ball on offense in order to be effective. Ed O.
I think a big part of it is playing with Blake in starting lineup. Blake doesn't play the pick-and-roll at that well which is holding Oden's development up IMHO. It's not like Amare had amazing footwork as a rookie, but playing with Nash really helped his game. He was delivered the ball in situations (most often the pick-and-roll) that he could succeed in. Nash just didn't drop the rock into the post and make Amare post up.
Greg looks like bambi trying to walk on a frozen pond out there sometimes. It's gonna' be a while before he gets the footwork back, which will hopefully translate into the ability to have an effective offensive game.
Honestly, I don't understand why teams double him in the post. When he gets the ball, there's three outcomes - turnover, pass, or dunk. If you double him, he's pretty good at kicking it out, the Blazers swing it around for the open 3. Leave him one-on-one with a decent defender, he's just as likely to get called for a travel or offensive foul as he is to dunk. I'm happy with how Nate's handling him, give him time to adjust and recover from the injury.
