I've been thinking about how hard Aldridge has been working... the focus offensively against the Chandler/Heywood rotation and then busting his butt on defense guarding Dirk for much of the game. At the other end, Dirk gets to guard Camby. Essentially resting at that end so he can have more energy to attack offensively. Imagine if Oden were in the mix. Not the "once in a generation" Oden we all hope(d) for, but a bigger, stronger version of Camby who will dunk over people on the blocks. Can you imagine Dirk guarding Greg? Or Dirk guarding Aldridge the whole game? That would be something to see... Ed O.
It would be awesome! Hopefully Karma will go our way and we can see this in the near future. I still believe in Oden. Hopefully he can come in and be a dominant force at least on the offensive glass and defensive end.
This! is exactly what I was saying last night during the game. Dirk spent virtually no energy guarding Wallace, meanwhile LMA was doing double duty. If we had Greg we would be Dominating this Team. Ahh well I think in the end it's a learning process and the Blazers are getting some valuable experience.
That would be fantastic. All series long Aldrige in driving into the paint and making post moves and Chandler and Haywood have been bodying, bumping and banging him with very few fouls called. Camby is not a banger. If we had a decent banger it would change the equation considerably.
Moreover, think of the defense we could have at the 4/5 with an Oden/LA/Camby rotation. When Haywood comes in as a backup, the Mavs have the beef. When either LA or Camby leave, we have to play Wallace at the four.
The Oden just a week before his injury would make Portland a legit contender. Before the injury Greg was actually playing with confidence on the low block. The Chicago game he took up a lot of space and put a ton of pressure on Noah and anyone else they put on him. [video=youtube;8WLO5JE3-Ww]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WLO5JE3-Ww[/video]
Aldridge has become the league leader in alley-oops with Andre Miller. I'd love to see how many alley-oop dunks Oden got with Miller.
That Bulls games was the best (and possibly, only) game I saw with all of our guys healthy. Aldridge with 24/13, Oden with 24/12, Roy with 18/7, and Rudy actually made shots. http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_ylt=AuTiXfLi7QZQ9X5.VZidSo1UPaB4?gid=200 9112322 [video=youtube;0OhtgBWxJFs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OhtgBWxJFs[/video]
Ive stoped imagining what we'd be like with Oden. If he is healthy that'd be a great addition to have him on the floor but Im not going to plan on him being with the team. I still think we should resign him, I think he has a higher ceiling than anyone on the team, but it's more likely he's not healthy than healthy. Plan on him not being here like Sabonis in the Drexler years and if we someday get something out of him it'll be a nice little unexpected bonus.
Yep, and Oden did it in only 26 minutes of playing time. He totally dominated Chicago's bigs. 7/8 from the field and 10/12 from the line with 12 boards and 2 blocks. And for those who still insist Steve Blake should have been starting ahead of Andre Miller, go back and watch that game, or at least check the box score. Miller and Oden were already establishing a rapport with Miller feeding the big man in the low post - something Steve Blake was terrible at. The thing that excited me about signing Andre Miller was how much easier he'd make the game for Greg Oden. Too bad they got to play so little together before Oden got hurt. Back then, Oden was on Nate's "six minutes or two fouls" rule, and Andre wasn't starting and usually entered the game with 3 minutes left in the first quarter - three minutes after Oden was already on the bench. If you go back and check the play-by-play for Oden's games last season you'll see he usually only played with Andre Miller about 2 - 6 minutes per game. Just another reason Miller should have been starting from day 1. As Minstrel said, imagine Miller throwing lobs to Oden... BNM
Not to be a downer, pessimist, or whatever, but I am getting tired of trying to imagine what would happen IF only Oden were healthy. There are so many imagine if's with him that is just gets depressing to actually think about after awhile. I hope he can come back and be a nice player on our team, but until that day happens, I refuse to imagine.
Huh? LMA would guard Dirk, not Greg. It's irrelevant though as Dallas wouldn't cross match like they are now if G.O. was healthy.
