I think it is because Nate is wrapped up in trying to win the game and there are times Joel brings more to the court than Oden.
I'll take it a step further: The offense needs to go through Greg. Meaning on almost every possession, he gets the ball in the low post or its a pick and roll or whatever and then the offense goes from there. He will get those double teams if he is in the post. He's getting more comfortable. We can't have him stand idly at the top of the post just to draw his defender out while the everyone else just jacks up a jumper.
And, there are also times when Greg clearly brings more than Joel, and is clearly dominating the opposition, but Nate inexplicably pulls Greg out for 12 minutes at a stretch. BNM
Yes, the Blazers need to develop and inside-outside game. Kick it into Greg and let him punish his defender, or kick it out when the double team comes. That would be much better than our current outside-outside game where all the offensive sets originate 25 feet from the basket and usually lead to an outside jumper. That's great when the team is hitting those jumpers, but a real killer when they aren't. Teams that rely too much on jump shots are inconsistent and don't usually do too well in the play-offs. To succeed in the post season, you need to be able to score in the low post and draw fouls by attacking the paint. BNM
Travis is in his 6th NBA season. He doens't need any more development time. Rudy is 24. LaMarcus is now an established player. Who is more important to the future of this franchise, Greg Oden, Nicolas Batum or Jerryd Bayless? Agreed. Greg has always had better offensive skills than most give him credit for. His problem earlier in the year was adjusting to the speed of the NBA game. He was an out of shape, inexperienced big man coming off microfracture surgery. Now that he's made that adjustment, the team really needs to start to take advantage of having a dominant low post presence. BNM
Good Post and 100% correct. Nate needs to make it a priority to get Oden the ball more times per game.
I've pretty much said my piece about this topic in other threads. I think Greg needs the ball. I don't think this team will reach the next level until he becomes a bigger part of the offense.
