I knew I shouldn't come here for at least a couple of days after that game. Predictably, Oden is the whipping boy by a vocal minority. Meanwhile Travis no show goes unmentioned by same minority. As does the continued no show for the young season for Steve Blake (Trade him for the love of god. Let Rudy play, maybe try Juwan at the point? Who gives a damn just trade him and Outlaw too). Of course we can't forget our 65 million dollar man, although it would be forgivable seeing as I have only seen him play worth a darn in one game and that was the pre-season! Miller's game was also a tad shaky. To be fair only Rudy and Martell were consistent throughout the game with Martell's defense being vastly better then Roy's on Melo'. If not for a hot stretch in the third period and ridiculous amounts of free throws Roy's line wouldn't look too hot either. Thank god Roy DID show up or it would have been horrid. Seriously though, and you know who you are, try looking at the entirety of the game and not a couple of FT's. In my opinion Greg hurt us more on Tuesday night then Thursday. On a related note: My ignore list just double in size to two. I'm thinking it might double again with an old standby guy and a newbie who has managed to start off with that kind of silliness. This team looks adrift without a purpose or any cohesion. I feel like a consolidation trade would do wonders. I'd much rather see some Bayless PT at this point then watch another moment of Blake stinking up the court. Didn't Brandon get hot WITH Miller on the floor? If so then my desire to trade Blake only doubles in it's intensity. Ah, I feel better already. Especially about the newest member of the ignore list now two men strong...or rather weak.
I pretty much agree with you but I'll be honest, I don't think any changes to the roster will lead us to where we want to go, not with this coach at the helm. We have all the talent in the world, any coach would be lucky to have this roster, the problem is Nate McMillan is like a socialist with his playing time and just doesn't know how to use big men on the offensive end. He has no trust in his roster, outside of Roy in the 4th quarter. We were playing fine until the 4th game, then we switched our game plan and wanted to go to Roy every single time. We have all this talent on the roster and none of it is blossoming because of our inept coach who would rather stay in his comfort zone then find other answers outside of Brandon Roy.
any time anyone is at the line down one with 5 seconds left and bricks both free throws they're going to get blamed. in fact, its kind of weird to NOT blame them for said loss.
I agree not sure how many coaches out there are better then Nate. Poppovich, Jackson, SVG and Larry Brown are the only ones of certain of. Flip Saunders or perhaps Thibedeau if we could pry him away from Boston. Not currently coaching you have JVG and Kevin McHale that are interesting. I hear what you are saying, but you can't ignore the arch-suckitude of Blake and the on again off again Outlaw or LMA's continued no show season.
Those were just 2 free throws in a 48 minute game. I'm not saying its Greg's fault, but then if you play that game you can always play the "well if LA hit his first jumper of the game then we wouldnt have been in that spot".
Yeah, but this is in the clutch and has the immediate effect of putting them tied or ahead. To brick both in the clutch is inexcusable. Unless you can accept this kind of behavior.
True, but it's Oden. he isnt exactly Steve Nash at the free throw line. I'm more upset with Andre, Roy, and LA missing there freethrows int he last minutes.
So you don't think that maybe just maybe some other folks have some responsibility in this loss hmm? I mean I guess Blake did put us on his shoulders and carry us for 4 quarters...oh wait that was a peyote vision. Well at least LMA put up his 18 and 8...oh wait. Well Roy shot 46% from the field...oh not that either. Miller had an 18 peresque game...nope not there either. Frankly Oden brought twice the effort of any of those guys except for Roy in quarter 3. If Denver had lost with Melo on the line I doubt that the fans would have blamed him. Pretty sure they would point to sub-par performances from Birdman etc. I used the Melo' analogy to overstate what I'm saying. I'm definitely not saying Oden had a monster game, just that he didn't suck anywhere near to the degree that LMA, Blake and Outlaw did.
Exactly, He shot about his average for the game. The guys I hold accountable were WELL under there season averages for last year. Oden was virtually exactly what he brought last year. Not a good thing, but miles better then Blake/LMA/Outlaw's "effort".
Sure, there is blame to go around. But if you look at the direct cause of the loss, all signs and fingers point to Greg. He had the chance to ice the game but did not. The game was winable all on his ability to hit two free throws. He failed. Hence he gets the blame.
I'm not ignoring Blake, he blows, I've said it for a while. I'm not sure why so many are here on his jock. I'd ship his ass out for a future pick if I could just to get Bayless that PT. It's incredible that we have a coach who starts Steve Blake over Andre Miller, unbelievable really. Not that Miller has done very well for us, but he's light years ahead of Blake even in the most chunkiest of states. JVG and McHale are very interesting actually, both have made their big men dominant. We can flap our gums all we want, but as long as Greg Oden is not a threat on both sides of the court, we are not championship contenders. Case closed.
Your closing two sentences are a not too fine point that many here over look. People talk about not putting pressure on Greg or losing games due to Greg getting too many touches without instant success. The fact is that we can afford to lose some games this year if the long term pay out is Greg dominating. Nate threw a bucket of cold water on Greg after his dominant pre-season and once again Greg looks mentally like last year. His athleticism is there but his confidence seems to be gone again. Hopefully he will get it back versus Houston. The thing is Greg has to have in game touches to get better on the Offensive end. He can continue to practice and hone his skills in practice and on his own. At some point you have to see if it works in a real game. Greg is pretty much there, he needs about 7 to 10 shots a game. That's shots, not touches. Shots. If the guards can't get it in to him we need a changing of the guard ( ). Sorry, but we aren't too likely to win a ring this year. We want to advance in the playoffs for sure, but I feel like Oden becoming a beast on both ends (he visibly lit up when he gets a couple of dunks) easily trumps HCA into the 2nd round. I'm pretty sure that we will have HCA in the first round. The second round is alot more sketchy with 4 other very solid teams in the West. Since that might not happen even if we are ultra-conservative just playing through Roy and LMA we may not get 2nd round HCA. Therefore having a max experience Greg Oden >>>>>>>>>> possible 2nd round HCA. One last thought, if Donaghy is right and the refs are implicitly instructed to call fouls on defensive stoppers then we better hope Greg becomes good at offense as well. If he is the next Mutumbo with even more limited offense he might be on the bench alot. Something to consider.
Looking for scapegoats, we should first look at the highest-paid, and expect them to carry the 4th quarter. Aldridge never does that. His raise doesn't kick in for a year, so he has one season left to learn how to perform in clutch time before we suffer him with slings and arrows.
