As much as I hate reading Canzano and Quick's pieces, this one isn't too bad. All this talk about GO really is getting old. I've just taken the mindset of he'll be back when he's back, and I'm just thankful we have Joel, who is more than enough of a stop gap till Oden gets back.
I for one think if and when Greg comes back he comes off the bench! Joel has gotten us here at the center spot and I don't think enough has been said about Joel! Outside of the hype of GO, any honest Blazer fan knows Joel has won the center spot hands down. Is that fair to say?
It's not uncommon for players to miss games, and it's not that uncommon for young players to "grow out of" being injury prone. Let's just look at Joel, shall we? 00-01: 33 01-02: 71 02-03: 32 03-04: 17 04-05: 76 05-06: 56 06-07: 43 07-08: 77 Even with another injury-free year this year, Przybilla isn't exactly A.C. Green, but he was injured a LOT in his career and has made adjustments to stay healthier. Ed O.
I don't think so. Joel makes almost no impact on the floor on the offensive side. Greg not only draws double teams and fouls, but he's a very good offensive rebounder. Joel's better at staying on the floor, but that's about it as far as I'm concerned. I'd like to see Oden start and play as many minutes as he can because he's simply a superior player. Ed O.
I'd need to see Greg have more than a handful of good games before I'd replace Joel with him. Our offense still can't get the ball to Greg and he looks lost to much to be a starter. That's the way I see it.
His job is to get people talking about the Blazers and it works for him. He does make some valid comments, I just think it's way too early to ask these questions given we're 48 games into Greg's NBA career. I just think some of the media and fans expectations are out of wack. He's basically a rookie who's still a kid and coming off one of the most serious surgeries you could have as a pro-athlete. I'm not worried about his future with the Blazers. I just hope he doesn't read the message boards, read John Canzano's column, or listen to sports radio. Before you even ask... yes, I drank the Blazers kool-aid.
I question Canzano's right to use the phrase "we" when expressing his retarded opinions and desires. "Naive persons like myself" would be much more accurate, and eliminates any confusion that "I" or "you" might ever agree with him. If he knew anything at all about sports he'd realize the danger really large athletes face when dealing with injuries below the waist. They carry a lot of weight on those legs and most are abnormally developed to begin with.
Oden draws far more double-teams than Przybilla does. For what is essentially a jump-shooting team, that's gold. Double-teams in the post + good ball-movement = open shots. Oden's only real problem on the court, as things stand, is fouls. He draws double-teams, scores at a high percentage, rebounds at a high level and is a good defensive presence. For such a "catastrophic" rookie season, that's pretty impressive.
I'd say, at this point, Joel is a better defender. They get a similar number of blocks, but Joel is FAR superior at playing D on the pick-and-roll, and is a better 1-on-1 defender. I would give Greg the edge on the "intimidation factor" though. Greg seems to force a lot of players to toss up ugly shots.
I don't know what "desire" Oden has to play ball, but this is hardly an original thought by Canzano. Oden's desire has been questioned before . . .
I should have read this post earlier. I made almost exactly the same argument in another thread. Of course, I was a sarcastic prick about it, so you get points for presentation too.
I'm guessing one of those adjustments was to stop letting people with a vested interest (coaches, fans, sportswriters) advise him when he is ready to play.
