Are we cutting ourselves short with Greg by accepting the notion that "Any offense we get out of him is gravy"? I just heard this statement on the air. Have we given up all hope for the big guy that we are willing to accept this idea, this early in his career? Should we accept it? If deep down we know we have a lot more with Greg. Why would, should we accept that? I personally think it's too early to jump to this kind of conclusion on him. Do what you have to do to get the most out of this resource. Don't watch him one year and make a conclusion on him. Hire a big man coach. Fire the existing head coach and try someone new. But by no means, don't give up on him and what he could become. It could be that we just don't have the right fit here for Greg. Player to Coach relationship wise. The chemistry just may not be right for him to have the kind success he could have.
I am not ready to give up on him yet. I want to see him at least threw his second contract before I get all crazy calling him a bust.
If it doesn't work out with him. I'd like to see the right head coach, right system get a hold of him. I personally don't think he is a bust. I think he is every bit as good as we thought. It very well could be that he is in the wrong system. I just hate to see us be so dedicated and committed to Nate that we are willing to cut ourselves short with Greg because of it. I don't buy the "Any offense we get out of him is gravy" notion.
No. I think he should get touches. He's a foul-creating machine down low, and most teams don't have enough bigs to play hack-an-Oden very long without getting really thin. Couple that with Greg's ability to shoot FTs--which I think for whatever reason was off last year--and I think you have a monster. I'm not saying wait until he has a Dream Shake and a 15ft jumper before you start utilizing him in the offense. He's not a bust if he only gets 12 ppg, but he was doing ok last year with no touches, shaky minutes and a bum leg.
Oden, much like Batum, was asked to do a few things this year and do them well. Batum was asked to defend and shoot threes. Oden was asked to defend and rebound. It was probably the right decision for both rookies. But just because that's all they were asked for as rookies doesn't mean that's all they'll ever be able to do. As for Nate, he's a good coach, but he's not irreplaceable. Jerry Sloan, Greg Popovich and Phil Jackson are the only coaches in this league who will probably never be fired. If Nate can win two or three championships with the Blazers, he might be in that rare company. But the odds are against him. Pop, Sloan and Mike Dunleavy are the only three current coaches who have served on the same team for 6 or more years. Nate just finished up his 4th year. Fwiw.
I think the idea is to concentrate on defense and have him get points on O, but not by running plays through him yet. I don't think he is a bust at all, but more than likely will be a top 3 C in the league within 2 years. But that does not mean that we should run an offense through him. The NBA is so much faster than what Oden had done in the past, and having an offense run through you means that you need to be that much more perfect. Let him get garbage points and the some lob passes from miller, but we don't really want Oden to have to be worrying about pace, kicking out, cutters and all the other stuff that goes along with being a main cog on offense. There is enough for him to concentrate on while playing D. As far as coaching, I actually think the system is almost perfect for Oden, but I would love to see an assistant big man coach brought in who spends 90% of his time with greg.
From what I have seen from him so far, he doesnt look to be the kind of big man you run the offense through. Basically I mean he wont be TD or Shaq, where you can just dump the ball to him in the post and have players run off screens or spreading the floor, while he goes to work. I do think he could turn into one half of a very good two-man offensive game.
Actually, I think he's exactly that kind of player right now, provided he gets caught on a mismatch. If we run down the floor and find a guard or even SF trying to cover him, we should get it into him immediately. He's just too strong, and he's actually a pretty good passer once the doubleteam comes. That's the difference between Oden and Przybilla. There's never a mismatch that will ever happen where you think, "They need to get it to Joel!" But that definitely happens with Greg. He's not a TD or Shaq, though, in that you can't run offense through him regardless of who is guarding him
I think part of the logic behind this "if he gets good d, the O is icing on the cake" campaign is the pendulum swinging back from "OMG SUPERSTAR RIGHT NOW!!!" the media is trying to calm things down. The kid had ALOT of pressure on him, and it's clear he's a perfectionist. I would wager that all the people saying "offense is extra" don't really think that, they are just saying it. Now if you want to address the point seriously, I think it is kind of true. You have LOTS of points already from Roy, Aldridge, and some from Miller, Fernandez, Batum, Webster, Blake, maybe even TrOut Do you know who the only better offense efficiency than the Blazers was last season? Phoenix? Do you think we really need to improve our offense?
