to hear from this board what changed so much in Odens game tonight? I'm thinking going to Greg often and early in the low post and getting him into a nice flow, which translated into inspired play on both ends of the court! Gee I think that's what he said after the game! His play was Shaq like, but I guess he'll never be that type of player huh? HA! Your thoughts?
He wasn't in foul trouble. He only had one field goal in the first quarter. He picked it up in the second quarter though, because he actually played in it.
Good News Mixum, there aren't that many quality seven foot centers with his strength and quickness. Now he knows what he can do, he can build on that momentum!
Did you put the panic button away for now or just waiting to pull it out next time he has a 6pt/3reb game b/c he got in early foul trouble? One game doesn't/shouldn't change anything. You can't roller coaster up and down with each good and bad game because with the inconsistencies that rookies have, you'll be bald and suffer a stroke before the first round of the playoffs. Oden is still the same guy tonight as he was this morning. Each season is a long journey and (hopefully) his career an even longer journey. Give the guy some time to come into his own; he has enough pressure on him without amateur coaches assessing his progress from in front of a TV with a beer in hand.
You're going to hate this Yardape, but it was a plan implemented by our horrible, rotten, no good coaching staff that worked on a high-low game between Aldridge and Oden over the past few days. Beyond that Greg didn't change over night, he just played in control on defense and didn't get into foul trouble which means he actually got to stay on the court for more 30+ minutes for a change.
No Niko, he actually owes me. I paid off the refs to stop calling fouls on him in the first 5mins of the game. Took out most of the equity in our house to do it. If the market was what it used to be, I'd have some left over for two or three more games. But as is, I blew my wad on tonight's game just to shut some people up for a few days (or hours???). No more equity = early fouls come back next game.
Bogut was out and that made it easier for him to be active out there. And once he got active, he got more confident, and it snowballed. He HAS to be active every game. If he's active and gets 9 pts & 6 rebs, I'll be fine. It's just when he does NOTHING that it's very very depressing. I hope he builds on this. He's had big games before. He actually played really well out of the gate, getting 3 double doubles in 4 games at one point, including his 22 & 10 game against Golden State, but then he just faded, got a little better, faded, faded, faded, etc. It's good to see him back. I wish he could play the Bucks three times in a row to get more and more confidence.
They also fed him in the low post all game and he got his touches! It's great to think he could have been doing that with LA all year had that been implemented a few months ago. WOW! Glad Nate got on it now. Better late than next year. yenniedn: The first and only time I've commented on Greg or his lack of development or the poorly executed coaching blunders was in that thread a day ago that I started! One thread and that makes always for you? Wow! So you can take the panic button BS and file it under when we feed our center we win column in basketball 101 handbook. You might want to reread it as that chapter became very useful tonight! I've not flipped flopped about Greg once, read my post. Every comment about his development or lack there of it, is about better coaching. From footwork, to leaving him in the game when he's on a roll, to feeding him early and making the team make an effort to look for him in the low post. Never have I said he had no talent or attacked him as a player. Never have I wanted to trade him. It's always been about the coaching and getting him mentally and game day ready. I wish you'd get that right, maybe just once!!!! Away from that Oden did exactly what I hoped he would do tonight and the team didn't even need Roy to kill himself in the 4th to pull out a win.
Any way you want to slice and dice it, for someone to make a thread before the half way mark of the season (in which the team is play .600+ ball) proclaiming he's had enough of a 20yr old rookie center's struggles and inconsistency . . . is panic. That's a very nice basketball lesson you mentioned. At halftime, I ordered and downloaded an instructional basketball video called "stay out of foul trouble and you get to play more and be more productive" - it was really informative.
You simply can't read! Nowhere in any of my posts did you read me saying I'm giving up on Greg. The worst I've said if he doesn't get help in a hurry, he may mentally check out and turn into Kwame! I'm far from the only one that has noted he has looked withdrawen and unhappy for good chunks of this season. Hell! The announcers have said the same thing. Yet in non of my posts have I said his issues couldn't all be fixed with proper motivation and a different approach to his strengths by the coaching staff. Yet you keep saying this garbage about me giving up on Greg! You've been wrong every time you've said it! I'm done with this!
You might be over-cooked even. You probably take everything I said as a "personal attack" on you - when in fact, they're not. They are my opinions on your opinions (which, in my opinion, are wacky). You obviously don't like to have the flaws in your reasoning to be pointed out. A quick case in point: did you understand why, even though GO was having one of his best games to date, he was still on the bench at the end of the first quarter tonight? It's because that's when the starters get sub'ed out during the normal course of the playing rotation. In your other thread, one of your complaints was that he's never in the game at the end of the first quarter . . . which means absolutely nothing to me. But maybe you're right about the reading thing - English is my second language after all. ESL FTW!
People are so confused about what Yardape was saying. He says it over and over again and no one listens. He SUPPORTS Greg. He thinks Greg is a TALENT. He was pissed at HOW WE WERE USING HIM. That was it. And everyone acted like that meant he was down on Greg. He says this over and over but no one listens so I thought I'd try saying it for him.
No Eric, I, for one, am not confused. I am not saying that he's saying Oden sucks - what I'm contesting are the numerous contentions that were pointed out to be flawed at best. Well, that and his expectations of Oden and this franchise at this particular point in time. It's fairly clear that he expected Oden to come in a dominate from Game 1 and he wants to point fingers in several places as to why this hasn't happened when the plain and simple truth is that this sort of shit happens with rookies - no matter how talented they may be. All I'm trying to say is have a little more faith and patience in the guy AND the franchise in charge of putting everything together.
Don't sell Sergio short, Greg got almost all of his points with him in there. Amazing what a PG who will hit the occasional cutter and get it into the post can do for you...anyone else not that sad Blake is out for a while?
Yenniedn: You are telling me now what I'm saying? WOW!!!!! You're lost and have been since you started this thread or my other one. I have not said Greg should be franchise right now, I said he was drafted to be a franchise center and how we get him there is through proper motivation, getting him touches, and working with a big man coach that gets his fundementals better. That is exactly what you do with a rookie but don't be confused again..... Greg is a special rare talent, that will need the extra bit! I for one don't think Nate is best for getting that out of him. What I saw tonight is what I expect from Greg and his teamates. Look how well it worked, when he got the touches and in the low post? You can't dispute this! However I'm sure you'll attempt to tell me what I thinking again, and be wrong again!
dude, do us both a favor and bottom line it for us - do you or do you not expect Oden to be dominating every single opponent every single night out from the get go? Disregard everything else about him and the circumstances in which he finds himself - just answer that question for me. If you say no, then you're lying. If you say yes, then your expectations were/are unrealistic. That's all there is to it and that's what I'm trying to get at.
It had a lot to do with Aldridge and the high/low, but mostly it was just the team as a whole going to Oden more. We've been saying for weeks now that the team needs to feed him the ball more, and last night they did it. Now, look at the results and tell me Oden can't be a force on offense.
