Seriously. First of all, we lost the game because Travis missed three FTs and committed two costly turnovers. That said.... what the fucking hell???? Oden was a TOTAL no show. Against a nothing team with no center of note! I don't want to hear about rebound rate. He didn't do anything out there to warrant being out there any more than he was. So don't tell me... well, if he played more, he'd play better. That's ridiculous. It's the other way around. If he'd play better, he'd play more. I DO NOT care if Oden gets touches. I DO NOT care if Oden scores much. But dammit... be active. Have a presence. Matter. Be relevant on the court! It's so fucking frustrating. I know I'll get killed for this thread. But I have to be able to express my frustrations. Meanwhile, Joel can't finish anymore because he has a bum wrist. So Nate did the right thing. He committed to what are clearly our 5 best players- Bayless, Roy, Outlaw, Rudy, and LMA- and tried to make a comeback. And it almost worked. We played much better defense and played with more passion on offense. Outlaw just made those miscues. But I can be happier with Travis because at least he was active. At least he tried. He made some stuff happen. Grabbed some big rebounds. Made some big shots. Ugh. Flame away. Go Blazers
If ever I was glad the Blazers lost, it was tonight. McMillan has been exposed and tonight was the pinnacle of the eventual end of him as the head coach of the Blazers. You bitch amd moan for Oden to have a presence on the court, when Joel did, and not even he was playing because Nate wanted to play to the opposition's strengths, not his own teams. Any coach in the NBA would die to have the big men we have, and yet McMillan is wasting away Greg's talents that if it continues, you will see the Shaq leaving Orlando senario happen all over again.
Wow, that's the only thing you replied to? Perhaps because you couldn't combat anything I said with anything substancial or productive? Greg doesn't need to be Shaq as a player, but his level of signficance is similar to Shaq, not necessarily his on court production, it's kind of irrelevant either way. Regardless of impact, would you want to see your #1 pick go off and leave to sign with another team after only being drafted #1 3 or 4 seasons ago? Plus, I tend to put more stock into the likes of Bill Russell, Bill Walton, and other big men greats as to what kind of prospect Greg Oden can and will become. For fucks sake, Mutombo was a bigger part of his team's offense when he was drafted than Greg Oden and anyone who is familiar with Deke's offensive repetoire knows it was pretty non existant, although he was pretty efficient.
You will soon learn the fine art of trying to reason and logic with some people. I wish you well. Edit: Okay let us try this one more time. I realize that my original sentence came off weird and slightly insulting towards you. Allow me to rephrase: You will soon learn that the fine art of trying to reason and logic with some people is futile. I wish you well.
I think Oden will continually struggle in the sluggish, half-court "offense" this team attempts to run. You can't just run post ups for him like he's Hakeem or Ewing. He's in the mold of Howard or Chandler, who do their damage rolling to the hoop. Since we aren't going to get a new coach, we need to up the tempo and pray for an effective PG via trade.
I can't believe we're counting tips! That's crazy. That's hunting for something to be happy about. The guy is simply not a very good basketball player. Not now. He may become one down the road. But right now, he's a liability. Or it's the coaches fault. Or it's both. At the beginning of the game, they called Greg's number and gave him the ball with him completely under the basket. All he had to do was turn and dunk. Instead, he passed to LMA and was then called for 3 seconds in the key. He has to be more aggressive than that. And he has to matter defensively. Collison got 21 & 13?!!??!! Ugh. Why can't anyone just admit that he's not playing well and stop making excuses? As I've said... it's not even about numbers to me. I want him to frickin matter out there. He really didn't tonight. If the guy's name wasn't Greg Oden, none of you would want him on the court, playing the way he is. Well, he can only get better, I suppose. Thanks for the post, ehizzy. AmirIcon, I got what you said. You blame the coach. And Sebastian- thanks for the personal attack.
The other thing... which I said before.... is that the guy's confidence has gone DOWN as the season has gone on. Early in the season, many in here said to give him a couple months and then he'd start playing better. But that's not what has really happened. In his first 5 games, he blocked 14 shots. Lately, he hardly blocks shots as all.
Confidence is on the coach. Nate can't treat Oden like he's Sergio, pulling him early and often, but it happens continually. Aside from starting, his minutes and the rotations don't seem to reflect the enormous importance he has to the franchise.
I think Nate has done all he can do. He starts the guy. If the guy plays well, he does get to play more (as we've seen on his 17/13 and 24/15 nights.) But most nights, he merely doesn't play well enough to warrant more playing time. In the end, we had to go to a lineup that worked and that was with LMA at center and Outlaw at PF. We had to try to win the game. Oh and one example: Bayless. The reason Bayless is getting more minutes than Sergio is because he has earned them. Bayless plays well so Nate plays him more. It has to be the same way with Oden. If he plays well and makes himself valuable to the winning effort out there, then he will play more.
Not a good example since Bayless has the ball in his hands all the time due to his position. Oden has to rely on the team and offensive sets to get him the rock. I think if we are going to simply post Oden and run no other plays for him, we need to get the ball up the floor faster and Oden has to make his more quickly. Right now neither is happening.
Do you have to make one of these threads after every game?????????? It gets really fucking annoying. You're like a little whiny two year old. Do you think it might be a combination of factors? Nate might be a moron perhaps? If you look back to last year, there was a great stretch that I remember where Nate would finish the game with no Pryz and we would get murdered inside. Same thing tonight. I don't think we would have done any better with either center in, but you have to begin to question the coaches rotations at some point.
Microfracture surgery. It takes the 2nd season to come back. why do the naysayers keep forgetting this?
Hilarious. I'm no Travis sycophant, but Travis didn't "lose us the game" because he boinked a couple of free throws, the team lost this game because they got monkey stomped in the first quarter because nobody showed up to play any defense. Greg wasn't looking especially good out there last night, but this is in every sense a "team loss." You can pin it on Greg all you like, but it's kind of hard to turn a rookie into the whipping boy, when there's so much more blame to be divvied up. The one thing I will say about Greg is that I think his confidence (and Nate's confidence in him) is pretty much back to sub zero temperatures ... this isn't a physical thing, this looks pretty much like a purely mental thing (breakdowns on defense, still committing the same idiotic touch fouls away from the basket, etc.) and he hasn't adjusted. Who knows, maybe getting embarrassed over the past 3 games -- and the NO game should have raised some big red flags, rather than boosted their confidence -- will light a fire under EVERYBODY'S ass and get them more committed to playing the right way on more than just the offensive end of the court.
