Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that we have Greg, but, I definitely think he looks unco-ordinated. It's a real shame the Blazer trainers let him bulk up so much. He's certainly nowhere near the agile, explosive guy that we drafted. He's more of a lumbering giant a few seconds behind the pace. Hopefully the game speed will return in the near future (playoffs!) I think its a concern that his fitness hasn't improved as much as one would like, considering the amount of games and training he's been through since his return. You'd think he'd be able to play fifteen minutes without wilting?? I sometimes wonder if there's something else going on with him?
I just think its a mental block and lack of Playing Time.....should work itself out with 2-3 sold months of rotation basketball....summer league should do wonders.
I still think the Blazers did a woeful job of protecting their investment in regards to the kind of shape that Greg was allowed to get into. Someone really screwed the pooch there.
I agree he's not an elite center, yet. There are very few of those and none of them are rookies. I do disagree that he isn't close to having a big impact on the Blazers success. He may not be there offensively, but he already has a big impact on defense and rebounding. This team has many scorers, but Joel and Greg are the only guys who play tough interior defense and dominate on the boards. This was a VERY slow paced, VERY low scoring game. 10 players played more minutes than Greg in tonight's game - many of them very talented offensive players (Roy, Aldridge, Rudy, Outlaw, Gay, Mayo, etc.), yet only two of them outscored him. They don't give style points in basketball. Greg's offense may not be pretty, but it was effective. He ran the pick-and roll very well tonight with both Blake and Sergio. Twice it resulted in Greg scoring on lay-ups, and at least one more time it resulted in him getting fouled at the rim. There's a reason he gets fouled so much. He's active on offense, and when he gets the ball deep, that's really the only way to stop him. His offense will get better. He was starting to improve before the latest injury. He missed five weeks and has only been back for six games. Give him a chance. He's still a rookie (in spite of Barkley's stupid comment), and one who has had to battle through injuries. BNM
i missed the game because i was at pge park watching the beavers pen blow the game...but i just watched a play where gay was isolated against aldridge and he played great defense then tipped a pass..he has been stepping his defense up, and his offensive game is really pretty good right now. and he is going inside. he is playing at an elite level right now. this is huge, we didnt relay on roy the past 2 games..i hope he keeps up this into the playoffs
I'm with Agent. I'm thrilled with the victory, but Oden did not have a good game. It's amazing how people's expectations of Oden keep dropping and dropping. And don't throw his stat line at me, because in this instance, like Agent said, it doesn't tell the whole story. Oden's stats were padded in garbage time and a couple of his rebounds were because he couldn't make a basic lay up when he should've dunked it to begin with.
It actually was now that I think about it. It brings us one step closer to the ultimate prize, Blake Griffin!
His team lost today - but he badly outplayed Tyler H. He won't be a mega-star, but I won't be shocked if he reaches the LMA level.
Griffin is what Michael Beasley wishes he could be. He rebounds and initiates his own offense. He'll be an NBA All-Star, easy, and he made Hansbrough look like a lesser version of Mark Madsen.
Sounds like you had a blast! Did you pretty much head straight there after getting the tickets from Karla? Must have been there when the doors open if so?
The highlight of the game might have been before the game started and you had to be there (wasn't televised as far as I know). Rebecca Haarlow kicked off her heels, ran across the court barefoot in a relatively short black skirt and did a jumping hip bump with the camera man. Lucky camera man. That she wore orange and black made it almost too much for this OSU guy.
