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hard to argue with what hes saying. now i do think oden is an above average center but as far as offense...his game will be put back dunks. and i totally agree about first impressions in the nba. i will never forget roys first game vs seattle 2 years ago. you saw from that moment....a star being born in portland. oden hopefully will prove us wrong but at this point i agree he's more of a piece to the puzzle then dominant center as we hoped.
I'm as big a fan of Oden as anybody and hope that he does turn out to be great but come on, what he's saying isn't that far off base. He's not really saying the guy's a bust - just that he'll never be an offensive stud - which I never expected nor do we need him to be with the weapons we have on this team. I saw a feature the other day on NBA League Pass where Oden was invited to a roundtable discussion with some of the great centers of all time (Russell, Ewing, Lanier, Robinson and Walton were there) and even Oden said himself that his biggest weakness was on offense. That said, we don't need the guy to score 20+ per game. We need him to be solid in the middle, play great defense, get his rebounds and block/alter a bunch of shots. And oh yeah, stay healthy too.
I know it's the same thing over again... but the difference between Greg and the Kobe/LeBron/Kareem/Shaq/Hakeem first impressions, is that Greg hasn't balled in a long time. Those guys didn't have to go through microfracture and sit out a year. His first few mins against Miami when he wasn't winded, you could see his potential. This whole "what have you done for me lately" era in the media of ESPN and Gavin/CIP is getting tiring...
Hard to argue? Excuse me, but it's fairly easy to argue that you can tell about a guy's NBA future by the looks of him in the first game. There are lots of players who have taken time to adjust to their new surroundings. To say Oden will not be special based on his performance so far is premature... to say the least. Cowherd is trying to get people to talk about him by being a dick, and unfortunately I fell into the trap. Edit: ^Alex, here's a link to Kobe's first game: http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/199611030LAL.html
We knew offense wasn't Oden's strong suit coming out of Ohio State. Why anyone would be expecting different after a year off from micro-fracture surgery, I don't know. However, he's not factoring in that Oden is out of shape right now and STILL coming off micro-fracture, not too mention coming off a mid-foot sprain. Wait until he's healthy, in shape, has dropped a few more pounds, and then see what we have. Crow will be eaten soon.
Well i agree with most of what he said. He does not look like an excellent offense player. I doubt that he will average over 20 a game. Did we really ever think he would? Did we care? Colin is right, he is bigger than a house and will take up space and he was the right pick. HOWEVER I disagree that we know for sure he will never have any offensive skills. We know the guy can get off the floor somewhat. We know that he understands the game. We know in the past he has shown decent footwork. So why is it impossible for him not to develop a jump hook? He masters that and he will be just fine. If he taught himself to shoot free throws left handed, then why is it impossible for him not to improve on offense? But then again we only need him to average around 12 per game. We have scorers.
Good point. I remember ESPN putting up a graphic about former No. 1 pick's first games. Another No. 1 pick: 1st game: 11 mins, 0 points, 0-1 FG, 2 rebs, 0 asts, 2 TOs, 3 fouls 2nd game: 13 mins, 2 points, 1-5 FG, 7 rebs, 1 ast, 0 TOs, 2 fouls Underwhelming.. yes. Those were Yao's first two games, and now he's arguably the best center in the NBA.
Colin Cowherd loves to hear himself talk and he's been wrong so much in the past. When he was in Portland he said that the Mariners should fire Lou Pinella at the end of the season because you can hear in the post game interviews how tired Lou is and he's washed up...the next year the Mariners win 116 games. He said that Oregon State could never be a good football team because they can only recruit JuCo players...the next season they go 11-1 and have that great bowl win against the Irish. Maybe Greg will prove him wrong just as quick...I hope so.
Btw, Oden is absolutely going to score Pts in the NBA. Not only will he get dunks/putbacks/his little jump hook, but do you realize how many fouls Oden draws? He's going to be on the charity stripe all day long, and for a big man, he's a decent FT shooter.
I'va always felt, and stated, Oden was comparable to Patrick Ewing. Big, moderately athletic that would develop into a better than average, but not great, center. I still maintain that position.
Like the guy or not, as is the case with most other sports talk guys, Cowherd's job is to spur conversation - whether for the better or worse. Pointing out a couple of occasions where he's been wrong is pretty useless because he's got his opinions just like any one of us . . . and who among us has NEVER been wrong? Like us, he's been wrong about a number of things - just like he's been right about a number of other things. But the mere existence of this thread proves that he earned his paycheck for this week - so he'll get to work and earn another paycheck next week. It's his job people!
I love Cowherd, but I stopped the clip right after he said Oden isn't any more physically intimidating than Aldridge... That's not telling it like it is, that's just stirring the pot. Cowherd is good at that and that's why I like him. I'm just not ready to pretend I know how good Oden will be offensively after one full game coming back from surgery. And I have no idea why anyone else thinks they know, or even thinks they need to know. Oden is completely rusty, probably overwhelmed, still gimpy, and half the time didn't even look like he knew where to go on offense, so he just tried to post up the same way everytime. All of that and he was winded after two minutes. I've seen what the guy can do, and I've seen the way Amare got his bounce back (but it took time). I've also seen that Greg does have touch - he learned to shoot freethrows with his offhand and did pretty well. D. Howard can't do that and scores a ton because of his physical attributes, a lot of which I think Greg has as well. Regardless, if we want to make judgments after one game then we can also say that Greg will be a great passer, great rebounder, great defender, and he's exactly what this team needs.
"Greg Oden will never be an offensive star in the NBA. Period." He's slow? He's got an old body? What the fuck? Oden had ONE practice in a few weeks... how could he possibly be fast or in shape? Cowherd doesn't even know how old Oden is... "20 or 21 in January". Why not just say, "He's in his early 20's"? At least he read from Simmons' ridiculous article about how he can IMMEDIATELY spot star centers by watching them in person. Stupid. Ed O.
I don't know how you can be stupid enough to overlook the facts that 1. The guy didn't play basketball for a better part of a year. 2. Has been injured for the past few weeks. 3. ^^ because of this is out of game shape. But Colin Cowherder has managed to be just that and pass judgement off of one game. What a joke. Back to the COWHERD on ESPN Comedy Central...
Man, talk about premature evaluation. I can't tell you which direction Oden will go. He could be great, he could be good, he could be average, he could suck. None of us have seen enough of him to decide. The only things I *know* about Oden are this: 1. He's not in game shape 2. It might be a stretch to exclaim that I *know* this, but his confidence is low....or maybe not low, just not developed. He's unsure of himself because he's inexperienced 3. Possibly another stretch, but I think I'm right - he's afraid of sustaining another injury, so he's thinking too much, and possibly holding back a tad We have no idea how good or bad Oden will be. I still hold high hopes that he will pan out. He just needs to get in shape, and get out of his own head.
