Mavericks at Blazers 12/25/2008 Game Thread

He looks like a guy who has a coach who has him switch on pick and rolls and sit on the perimeter or pick up ticky tacky fouls trying to guard guys 6-8 inches shorter than him who are driving right by him.

And everyone can keep saying oh his knee sure whatever it should be fine now it isn't that big of a deal.

Every single player who has had microfracture surgery has said it takes at least a year after returning to trust it again - for it to feel right. Kidd, Webber, Amar'e, Zach, hell it took Darius two years to come back, Grant, the list goes on and on.

Just for a minute objectively look at what he is going up against:

1. Major knee surgery.
2. A rookie big man (pretty sure the first player who had microfracture before his rookie year started and had to miss an entire year of it. Those other guys got to at least play in the nba first and know what to expect while dealing with the additional year on their knee).
3. A coach who has a defensive scheme that leaves him out on the perimeter far too often.
4. Sitting an entire year where he couldn't start playing five on fives until September of this year. That's a lot of time off without playing any basketball in between. There's going to be a lot of rust and timing issues.

 

One could say that this comment of yours is lazy way to make an excuse for him and sound smart.

 

You could except julius is a guy who seems to watch the actual game instead of just looking at numbers and reacting off those.

 

I've been wondering that too this whole time. My only worry with getting a vet is that Nate won't know how to use him and our D will still suck.

 

1) You're right. He deserves some slack for the surgery. But I saw him play at Ohio State 15 times and it's not like he looked explosive then either. It was his hand then, it's his knee now. I guess I can agree to listen to people make excuses for the guy for another year. If he hadn't of gone 25/12 against Florida (Noah/Horford) I might have favored Durrant. Durrant might have been the best college freshman I've ever seen. But a good big man is more valuable than a SF . . .

2) I'll give you that.

3) No way. That's not been the majority of Greg's fouls. He flat out got handled by Shaq & Nene (2) this last week. It's a variety of things really. Sometimes he gives up post position too early. Sometimes an athletic big like Nene faces up and Greg doesn't (or can't) move his feet. There are times (as you pointed out) where he comes out too high on the pick/roll or is forced to help out.

4) Maybe I'm too impatient. But, I thought we'd see some of that rust chipped off by now. He's been back from the foot injury for 23 games. He doesn't seem to retain anything game to game - he makes the same mistakes over and over.

 

3). I didn't see that has a been a majority of his fouls, but he has gotten fouls out there. It's very counter-productive for Nate to be running that scheme. It also got Aldridge burned tonight a couple of times.

He did get handled by Shaq for the first three quarters of the game in Portland, but in the 4th he completely negated him and that tickled me to death. He banged pretty well with Nene actually but again got some fouls (legit and ticky tacky) and had to sit.

4). I think we'd see the rust chipping off at a faster pace if he had gotten his knee injury in his second or third year and then was coming back. He's pretty much having to adjust to playing at nba speed, against very big and skilled nba post players who know all the tricks, while shaking off the rust and learning to trust the knee again. That's pretty much going to lead to a lot of things going on at once and a lot of overthinking. I'm confident he'll get over it.

As for not retaining anything I'm going to have to disagree. He's gotten a lot better at not getting stripped when going up with the basket, and his jump hook move looks a lot smoother than it did at the start of the season.

 

Let me ask you this - what it is you think Greg is going to be? You think 15/10? 20/12?

I'm sure he will improve some, but I don't see anything super special. I think 15/10 is more realistic. It's just not what I had hoped for when we picked him in front of a for sure 25-30 ppg guy in Durrant (which he will be in his prime)

 

I don't mean to sound like a broken record if someone has already said this, But Durant is a pretty piss poor defender. Our perimeter defense is already bad as is, With Durant it would be even worse. Oden was the right choice.

 

I think that depends on the coach. I think 20-12 once he gets his legs under him, the rust off, and trust in his knee again is possible with the right coach. However, I'd gladly take 15/10 if he lives up to his defensive potential (and I have every faith he will).

 

Well Sebastian I hope you're right.

Frankly, that is very hard to imagine for me. I think of some of the biggest improvements I've seen a player ever make - Greg at 20/12 would be monumental. When Dwight Howard came into the league, he got 12/6 on his raw ability - made a ton of mistakes but showed dominating flashes. I haven't seen much of anything jaw dropping from Oden. Now, if 15/10 and solid D is what the new expectation is . . . I'll adjust. You certainly can't call him a bust. But I thought we were getting a 20/12 guy who could ALSO dominate a game defensively. A guy who was the catylist for a couple of championships. A future MVP candidate and perenial All Star.

Otherwise, why didn't we pick Durrant? EVERYBODY knew KD was a future 25/ppg guy and a fierce competitor.

I'll eat my words if I'm wrong, but GO doesn't look like the guy we thought would bring titles to Rip City.

 

Idk, It seemed to me this loss wasn't on Oden, it was on Trout, and the guards inability to defend. 5'11 PG killed us, how?

 

This is the exact moment that Nate threw in the towel on this game, reverting back to last year's sub patterns.

Less or no Sergio in the 2nd half = predictable basketball/predictable loss every time.

Sergio is the only guy who can actually direct a team game out there.

Absolutely the only guy we have with this capability.