geez was it really that high??? I'd put the figure at about 5-10% but maybe I missed several pig pile bashing threads? How many posters do we have here anyways? In the big picture he is the most important/valuable guy on the club and stands a good chance of being the best Blazer ever. Thats been my opinion throughout this season as it's obvious to me that he has physical abilities other Bigs just can't match. I just don't feel the need to continually restate this even when a small group of posters start pointing at the sky. STOMP
He is going to get better, probably a lot better. But these things take time. I guarantee at some point this season, he will "regress" a little.
If by regress you mean continue to be inconsistant, I agree. But every young big man goes through the same thing, like Bynum is still doing, and Dwight did his rookie year, etc... Consistancy is one of the main things I would love for him to work on. It will come w/ time, but damn I love watching Greg. He is becoming more and more active, getting in better shape and has slimmed down a lot. I think him slimming down has a lot to do with him looking like he has regained some spring in his step. At the very least we know he has it in him to be a all-star quality big man. I remember hearing some people lowering their expectations and saying that hopefully in his prime he can become a 16ppg and 12rpg play but I think that he has much more than that in him. His offensive game is underrated, and I still crack up hearing that Cowherd clip.
It's also "smarter" to predict negatively (assuming you have no talent to make founded predictions), because if you predict negatively and things end up going well, most people are too happy to track you down and cut you to pieces for your poor predictions. If you predict positively and things go sour, there are no end of disappointed people all too happy to point out how your predictions failed.
You know what else has happened the last 5 games? Steve Blake has played only once. What else has happened? The Blazers slow starts have stopped. What else has happened? The Blazers bigs haven't got in so much foul trouble. Any of these or all of these can contribute to positive things. Coincidence? I think not.
Let's face it. He WAS a bust at that point. His play was horrendous. It was so bad it was painful to watch. Now he's starting to come around, and we're all thrilled. But let's not forget how badly he was playing a few weeks ago.
You either are, or you aren't, a bust. You cannot become a bust 1/4 of the way through your rookie season no matter how bad you've played. You can say, he wasn't meeting your expectations, or you can say his play was disappointing, or you can be like JQuick and call him underwhelming, but calling him a bust, and then three weeks later changing your mind is just stupid. How about we don't forget he's a rookie coming off of microfracture surgery.
He wasn't, though. His rebound rate was great and he was making an impact defensively when he was on the floor. Ed O.
Wow, we must have been watching a different player. Yes, Oden struggled with consistency and struggled with foul trouble, but he also made a big impact at both ends of the court, when he manged to get on the court. 1/4 of the way into his rookie year (at the 20 game point of the Blazers season), Oden had 6 double-doubles in 14 games played and had blocked 2 or more shots in 7 of those 14 games. This in spite of him clearly not being close to 100% physically, or mentally. Anybody who labeled him a bust at that point was either totaly clueless about basketball, had ridiculous expectations, or most likely both. BNM
Well with that logic, 99% of NBA players are apparently "busts", since pretty much every rookie I've ever known has gone through stretches of poor play.
I guess we were. The Oden I saw was sluggish, slow to react, confused, and out of sync. He showed no passion for the game, and admitted to being depressed. Sometimes he seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else. I don't know why everyone is having such a hard time remembering this. It was the subject of many a thread around here for weeks.
I can't recall ever seeing a No. 1 pick struggle as much as Oden did. Granted, he missed a year due to injury, but he was still struggling in ways that most people didn't anticipate.
The people disagreeing with you now disagreed with you then. Looking sluggish and confused is irrelevant to production and is a matter of opinion. The facts were that he was putting up pretty good numbers when he was on the floor. Ed O.
And yet, he was still producing on the court in about every other game. He was a rookie and inconsistent. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone - and that's not even considering he was coming off microfracture surgery. Some people only see the negative. Anyone calling him a bust only saw the 8 games out of 14 where he didn't have a double-double, not the six where he did. People were actually comparing him to Darko - and they were serious. All after just 14 games in the NBA, half of which were actually pretty darn good. BNM
Michael Olowokandi ring a bell? LaRue Martin? Pervis Ellison? They were all older with more college experience - and no microfracture surgery - and yet all struggled more than Oden. More recently, Andrea Bargnani didn't have a single double-double his entire rookie year and didn't score in double figures six times until his 17th game - and that's all Bargnani could do. He didn't rebound and he didn't play defense. And, again, no microfracture surgery. Also Kwame Brown. Only two double-doubles his rookie season and only scored in double figures nine times all season. Oden had scored in double figures 9 time by his 18th game. And, again Oden was coming off microfracture surgery and Kwame wasn't. And yet, people were seriously comparing Oden to Darko and Kwame. Ridiculous. You seem to have a very selective and biased memory. BNM
