Let's assume Oden does return for the next season played (although I suspect he'll run off to Indiana). Should the team use him solely as a defensive player and not worry about his offense at all? Just put-backs and rebounds. I think he might have to have that role on the team assuming he comes back or wants to stay.
Well I certainly wouldn't build an offense centered around him if that's what you're saying. So whatever he gets, he gets in the flow of the offense, but it would be far too disruptive to building any kind of long-term, sustainable success to force feed possessions into him and try and make him a focal point of your attack and then have him go down for yet another extended absence. So let's say there's this hypothetical parallel universe where Greg plays professional basketball for a living, I could see him averaging maybe 8-10 points per game and 10-11 rebounds in 25-30 minutes of action and throwing in a couple of blocked shots to boot.
Of course, don't center the offense around him. But I'd still force-feed him the ball....the guy was a beast when he was healthy. Maybe his propduction was not predominantly on offense, but we might as well find out what he's got when he returns...at least until he breaks for good.
The entire game plan shouldn't be built around him, but it should be built to take advantage of his abilities, when and if he's healthy. He does draw double teams in the post, he shoots an incredibly high percentage and he's a decent and willing passer. His offensive downfall, thus far, has been turnovers. That, of course, is something he'll need to work on. But it was abundantly clear to me that he was a significant positive on the offensive end for the team when he was playing. Both for his offensive rebounding and the defensive attention he's capable of drawing (and the fouls he drew, which he did quite a bit despite also committing quite a few on the other end). I think it would be a major waste to have him just focus on rebounding and defense and not even think about offense or be involved in the game plan.
Let's put the guy out of our heads. If he comes back and contributes, great, but let go of all expectations for the guy.
The team is kind of in limbo as it is anyways...letting go of all expectations, I don't know... We might as well just jump in head first and see what the roster we have now (when healthy) can do. AKA let's let Greg have some responsibility and expectations. We're already in deep, might as well go for it.
We need more threads like this to plan in detail how we'll have Oden play when he's available for full-time duty. It's too much trouble to refer to the hundreds of thousands of past threads about this upcoming happy event.
We might as well assume Drexler is returning if we are goingto assume Oden is. hat being said, no player sould be excluded from the offense. It makes the offesne to predictable. The offense certainly shouldn't be built around one player either, but not using someone is dumb.
That's funny. I don't know if anyone watches Fringe, but I had thought it would be cool if the writer's showed someone reading a newspaper in the other universe in the show and there was a sports page with something about Oden scoring 40 and grabbing 28 boards or something. Makes me sad to think about it. Hell, if that were a real universe and Oden would dominate AND there are kickass zeppelins everywhere...I'd switch.
