I disagree completely. From what I have seen, Greg is too strong and powerful not to be a factor on offense. He has near-zero offensive game right now, but with his ability to rebound on the offensive glass and draw fouls (all solely because of his size), he gets 10 points easily. If he learned but just ONE offensive go-to move, it would add an entirely new dimension to his game (and the Blazer offense). The game we played against Boston without Brandon Roy is a good example of this. This is exactly what the offseason is for. You can't pick up offensive post-moves "on the fly" of an 82 game season. The 82 game season is used to refine the tools you have at your disposal. Offensively, Oden has nothing. Bynum had similar trouble early in his career and seeing as to how he was able to put it all together before he went down this season, I don't see why Oden can't do the same, or at least something similar. Granted, Oden is not the same as Bynum, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he can refine an offensive game out of the zero offense he has going for him currently. He has all the tools.
This is exactly right. Oden's as bad as he'll ever be on offense and he's already drawing double-teams. Double-teams are very bad for a defense, so coaches don't employ them for no reason. I'll take the de facto voting of opposing coaches that Oden is already a major scoring threat over Barkley's pronouncements. Barkley isn't a serious analyst, he's an entertainer. He makes extreme claims because those are more entertaining than moderate ones. I think Oden in his prime will be a 20 PPG scorer. On a team with no other big scoring threats, he could push it up to 25 PPG. He'll add excellent defense and rebounding. A more powerful version of Tim Duncan.
No, he doesn't. I know you like to make things up to support the things you want to be true, but that's simply ridiculous. Also absurd. Double-teams in the post put the defense at a huge disadvantage. Coaches do it only when the big man is a major scoring threat that puts the defense at an even bigger disadvantage if played man-up.
Greg doesn't get double teamed all that much anymore. He does against the likes of the Knicks, Golden State, or any small team. You didn't see Shaq or Dalembert calling for double teams the last two games. I do agree that it is crazy to double teaming doesn't matter or is standard in the NBA. Coaches only want to do that as a last result, but you don't just double team Joel because that's what you do. We hardly doubled Shaq tonight...
Hey, how about we let the guy have at least his full rookie year to figure things out before we decide what he can and can't do? Anyone remember how bad Durant looked last season?
And Oden had a very strong game against Dalembert. Shaq is a unique case, because he's actually big enough to handle Oden without a double-team. Almost no other center in the league is. Many teams already double-team him and almost all of them will as Oden refines his post moves. When Lopez was on Oden, double-teams came. When they didn't, Lopez got tossed around.
It's not always used as a last result. It's often just to force the ball out of a guys hands quick. It's especially effective against front courts that don't have big men who are good at passing out of the post, like Thomas and Noah for the Bulls. If you leave the ball in Thomas' hands in single coverage (and you don't have Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, etc. guarding him) while he might now score, there is a good chance he will draw a foul. It's simply to frustrate these guys and get the ball out of these hands quick. The other teams know that there is a high chance that Noah/Thomas won't be passing out of the post. Why not double team if you know you're not going to be punished for it? That's the strategy coaches have been putting into effect all year. You won't see happening against good teams, because good teams know how to pass out of the post. You aren't a good team in the NBA if you can't pass out of the post.
Greg Oden will be productive on the offensive end. He's not a Chris Dudley or Ben Wallace type on offense. He just has to get that baby hook down and learn techniques for scoring around the rim and not getting stripped. He may even get a little jumper down like Kevin Duckworth had. Why are people judging him so soon? He's a young rookie, and his numbers are comparible to Dwight Howard as a rookie.
And Greg is an above average passer for a center (especially being a rookie) and has limited to no offensive moves, and that's why teams double team him less and less.
Oden gets to the line and draws double teams. As a 21 year-old rookie. Coming off of a major knee surgery and a couple of pesky minor injuries. I think it's silly to write off his career offensively and/or to relegate him to Ben Wallace offensive ineptitude status. Oden already makes a difference at the offensive end in spite of his limitations due to lack of experience. As he gets more comfortable and things "slow down" for him, I expect him to be a dominant player at both ends of the floor. That might happen as soon as next season at the age of 21/22. Ed O.
Way too soon to make the claims that Barkley made. Whenever Oden catches the ball within 5 ft of the hoop, more often than not he scores, gets fouled or both. And the types of fouls that the other team commits tell me all I need to know. They're not incidental. They're the types of fouls that are basically saying "I give up". They know that it's less likely that Oden will score 2 points at the freethrow line than the other option, he dunks in their face. I'm still not convinced that Oden can stay healthy, but I also feel that's the only thing preventing him from being dominant on both ends. If he has an offseason to work on that little hook shot that is unguardable, he could easily average 20 a game. If he were playing 30 minutes a game this year he would probably average 12-15 pts. and that's with hardly any plays run for him. The dude is a force.
No way is he another Chris Dudley - and I loved Duds. Greg may not be a dominating scorer like Hakeem or Shaq. I don't think he will be the focus of the Blazers offense; it's going to continue to go through Roy. But I can easily see him being a regular 15 ppg or so player, with occasional 25 point explosions, with rebounds, defense, and blocks, and as others have said, a good passer. And that's a conservative estimate. If Oden surprises me it will be because he's better than that, not worse.
Charles may or may not have mentioned Ben Wallace, but if he did he meant that Oden would dominate with his rebounding and defense like Wallace did. Who can disagree with that? I too, think Oden has a chance to be a dominating rebounder and DPOY. What Charles said about Oden and his offense was: "Oden is not good at offense". This is true. He isn't. What will he become in the future? Nobody yet knows. Charles' guess: "I don't think Oden will ever be a great offensive player." Notice "great". He didn't say he wouldn't score points, or that he would be as inept as Ben Wallace. I took it to mean he wouldn't be the scoring force that Shaq was - or for that matter Ewing.
The point is, no matter how unbelievably uncomfortable he looks on the offensive end right now, he's still producing some great per minute numbers. If a guy who doesn't have any plays runs for him and has no go-to offensive moves to speak of is still putting up 8-10 pts in 15-20mpg, what's to say he can't double that output with more PT? Obviously, I expected more from GO this season, but the fact remains that he is incredibly effective (on both ends) when he's not in foul trouble. And you can't think that he'll remain so foul prone throughout his career.
Greg Oden is much more powerful than Ben Wallace. Oden can back his way to the basket. He just has to work on his turn around post move shot, which actually looks pretty decent. I also still don't think he is in prime shape or has his full athleticism back, and once he gets those, it will make him that much better. 14/10/2 Will be Greg's numbers next year barring another setback. Write it down. If Oden doesn't have seasons of 20ppg it will be because of the team he is on, not his own individual talent.
Do you all remember when Shaq came into the league at age 20? All he could do was run people over and dunk and brick free throws. He still averaged 20 points but it wasn't pretty. The first time I saw him hit a little fadeaway bank shot from 5 feet in the preseason of his second or third year I thought, "well, the game is changing in the NBA for the next 10 years or so." Oden's little jump hook last night is more offensive game than Shaq had early on. Give him a chance to learn how to play with grown-ups.
for whatever reason Robin didn't go to the pre-draft so we don't have his measurements, but his identical twin measured out taller & longer then Greg... and he came in all of 1 pound lighter. I'm not sure how you came away with the impression you did as Robin kept sending Greg to the line. right... we saw no explosiveness last night especially on those spectacular blocks STOMP
Barkley didn't frame it as a guess. He said "People thought he would be able to score a lot on offense. People need to accept that that's never going to happen. He's going to have to do it with defense and rebounding." It's possible Oden won't be "great" on offense, but the idea that Oden has conclusively proven that he never will be, as Barkley suggested, is quite wrong.
