I certainly don't think he's a terrible player, nor have I said anything close to that. However, I'm not sure the way you build someones confidence in an area he's below average is by forcing things. Say there are 100ish scoring opportunities a game; 50 of them MUST go to Roy and LMA. That leaves 50 for the other 7 guys in the roation. I'd love to see Greg, Martell, Rudy, and Miller get more chances than they got tonight, but not at the expense of our best two players. I think we'll look back a month from now and say 11 opportunities was below average for Greg. He'll get more putback, easy dunks, and probably a post move or two more in your average game. Hopefully he does better than 7 turnovers as well, which I expect.
I consider Oden to be more important to the future of the franchise than anyone on the roster; if he develops, we've got a good chance at a dynasty, but if he does not then we might never make a Finals. I don't care if Martell, Rudy or Miller get any additional touches, personally, and I don't think we should carve out possessions for either Roy or Aldridge. Roy can get them, and Aldridge doesn't always have good matchups. Oden is a guy who will be able to get opponents into foul trouble and, I believe, by giving him offensive opportunities it will make him more effective on the court overall. He hasn't said as much, but I know Shaq has consistently maintained that in his career, and it makes sense to me. Ed O.
Oden covered his gaurds' and wings' keisters tonight by swatting myriad interior shots created off of massive dribble penetration and almost none of them made any kind of concerted effort to reward him by getting him some touches at the offensive end. Certainly Greg was partly to blame for some of his errors and failure to get good, deep post position (and let's give credit where it's due, Hayes is a helluva defender for his size), but if they want him to be a consistent threat from the low block they have to commit to setting him up. Icing him or freezing him out because he's struggling just leads to less rhythm and less confidence. I'd take five regular season losses that came from over-committing to setting Oden up and him not succeeding if it meant that by the end of the year he was a comfortable offensive player.
Blake, Roy, and Outlaw are just inept at feeding the post. I don't understand why Nate doesn't get that. Oden should be matched up with guards like Miller and Rudy who know how to throw a lob or pass the ball to the rolling big man off a pick. Miller and Oden played a grand total of about 8 minutes together tonight. Rudy and Oden, about 7. http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20091027&game=HOUPOR
You make great points and I'm not sure we're that far from each other in how valuable we think Greg is to this team. Shaq didn't get the ball because Brian Hill carved out plays for him, it's because he was effective most times he touched the ball and his teammates wanted to get him the ball because it gave them the best chance to win. Greg hasn't got to that point, yet. I just don't think you can force confidence onto someone by having them go to their weaknesses over and over. I think the more put-backs and easy buckets he gets, the easier it will be for him to have confidence in his post moves. Thursday probably won't be the best indicator, but I do expect Greg's offensive productivity to jump greatly sooner than later. I think we have a philosophical difference when it comes to coaching and developing confidence. Who knows who is right, but I know we both hope Greg continues to develop.
The thing that is depressing is the HOME COURT show. The new guy seems pretty cool, but Michael Holton is terribad, and the cameramen are horrible too. Its an embarassment to the Blazers.
LOL. Even the camera man was bad. They went out of focus and I was like "Am I drunk or is the camera man fucked up?"
Post #s 7 to 11 get it. McMillan told the team that Oden is to learn defense this year and not score much. It was in OregonLive. Post #s 23-24 then contradict that, saying that Oden not scoring is the fault of poor play (#23: Oden doesn't look to score. #24: His teammates don't look to set him up). Yuyuza plays both sides of the argument in Post #s 7 and 24.
It's the depressive thread play-by-play! The thing is, this game WAS moving too fast for Greg. With the Rockets in permanent small-ball (out of necessity), this game was much faster than any of the preseason games, including vs. the Suns. That is not Greg's strength -- pesky little guys swatting at his hands have always been his kryptonite down low. He's like some sort of giant gorilla battling many small foes down there...
