The Bulls once had a young core of Artest, Brad Miller, and Elton Brand. Won 15 games. Sent them all packing so we could develop two C's right out of HS (Curry, Chandler). Chandler's proven to be a decent starting C, Curry seems to have eaten himself out of the league and never got how to play the whole game. Neither of them are with the Bulls, as well. Yeah, it IS really tough to develop a team with a lot of youth and keep it together. It's not surprising that some of the fans want to see the O run through Oden and other through Roy and others through some other player. Seems to me the NBA game has really gone away from trying to feed the big guys (Kareem et al) in the post every play. Dwight Howard gets just 12 FGA per game. What you really want from Oden is a few easy baskets when you need them and to play solid D. If he can he's at least a threat to score on every posession, he'll open the floor for the wings. My $.02
Man, you just don't get it or want to get it. Most of the replies here have been to punch holes in your argument and yet you just keep going on with your crying . . . see the reply several post about Okafor above - shows you're wrong about your contention that he's a nothing/nobody but you'll just disregard that too. I say this is retarded because I've made numerous counter points in this thread, which you've obviously not read or simply don't understand. To over-react and cry like a little baby about your unrealistic expectation - and then to have so many point that out to you and be ignored . . . that's why it's retarded. So I'll take your advice and not reply any further. No point beating a dead horse.
Man, if that isn't an eye-opener, I don't know what is. Funny to think that if they'd just been a little patient and put a few pieces around those three, they'd have been contenders for the Finals a few years ago. Still would be a pretty dominating team. The irony is now they don't really have any quality big men. Thankfully, I think we're past the point where the GM would want to blow up the nucleus of Roy/Aldridge/Oden. They may at some point swap out one of those three for another pretty good player, but it's hard to imagine them dumping all three. But the desperate moves that comes with a 15 win team aren't likely to happen to Portland for another 10-12 years.
You know I see talk like this, and then when I watch the game and watch the Blazer guards refuse to throw him the ball when he has good position, over, and over, and over and over again. It is no wonder he is frustrated. They might as well be freezing him out of the offense.
He received the ball on the low block at least 3 times early in the Charlotte game. Then he went to the bench 4:30 into the game due to silly fouls. Why continue to feed the guy if you can't depend on him to stay in the game? It disrupts the entire offense because as soon as Oden goes out the offense becomes outside-orientated.
Because Greg is one of those guys that looks like to me in order to get his game going, you have to get some interest from him on the offensive side of the game to get him involved mentally. I have noticed several times when he got a look offensively he was more involved in the rest of the game. He "perked up" if you will.
Again, he was fed the ball at least 3 times early in the game. He passed out once, he shot a 5' airball, and he hit a nice 8' jump hook, all in the first 4 minutes of the game. He then picked up two touch fouls and was out of the game. I find it very difficult to criticize the guards, or anyone for that matter, for not always initiating the offense through a guy who has proven to be foul--plagued at this point in his career.
I haven't suggested anything because there's not a problem in this area. What's wrong with Maurice Lucas?! We're very fortunate to have someone like him on our staff. And everyone knows Greg's game is still raw offensively, yet he DOES draw double teams, and it DOES open up shots for our other guys. I don't know what games you've been watching. The best thing that can happen for Greg right now is consistent play time without injuries, and I'm thrilled that he's been getting just that. Look, the kid is 20 years old and has played in 30-some NBA games. If you insert just an ounce of logic into this, you'll realize that Greg is in a developing stage and it's still way, wayyyyyyyyy too early to press the panic button the way you have.
I've seen it suggested that the black-listed Kermit Washington, who actually runs a big-man camp and has experience and success in developing post players, would be a much better choice than Lucas. And to be honest, I have to wonder what impact Mo has had on our big men. Frye and Aldridge are still Charmin-soft, and Oden's footwork and touch are still below-average at best. It's not unreasonable to think that perhaps an upgrade in coaching might be warranted in this area.
Oden sucks. Its not like he's had 13/9 in a half recently....oh wait In my honest opinion Ive never been sold on Oden as much as you guys have. Yes he's gonna be an upper level center but not what a lot of you guys have him made out to be. I wasnt impressed with him in college as everybody else was in regards to him being dominant on the next level. IMO when he is having the better years of his career he will avg 13/11/1.5blk ....and Illl save you the key strokes...yes I know Bynum has been sucking for a week or two
Um mods.... when posters are being attacked and calling names you better step in before this board turns into O Live. Crying baby comments and so forth and pictures of crying children used to provoke has no place on a board about hoops. Please address! Yenniedn, This is my thread, clearly it's something I wanted to discuss, your attacks with the little girl stuff is schoolyard, GROW UP!!!
I've not pressed any panic button about Oden, as I've said many times on this thread, all of this can be corrected with the right coach and the right touches!
Actually this is a public forum, so ... But, hey if want to take your ball and go home that's also your prerogative.
I think when ya start name calling the point of any good discussion is lost! That's all! Public forum or not!
Oden's going to be close to a 20/10 player imo...if he gets the touches. He's too much to handle under the basket which leads to him getting fouled a lot. And since he's a decent ft shooter for a C, he'll get his FTs in. Oden has better offensive potential than most people think..you just have to see the signs. Players can't stop him from backing his way to the basket, his jump hook is decent and will only improve, he's flashed a little 10ft jumper and has decent form on it, and just wait until he's more active and catching alley-oops. And on top of it all, wait until he regains all of his athleticism. Scary. You just have to give him time and remember he's coming off a major surgery. All of that coming right into the NBA and be a double-double machine went out the window after the surgery.
The point of my entire thread was to find opinions on what needs to change for Greg to get him going the way we all KNOW he can be! Clearly we have seen him quiet, dejected, and lost when out on the court and on the sidelines. We've seen him call for the ball and not be fed many,many, times. We've seen him get in foul trouble early cleaning up poor team defense, more often than not! I know he's off of surgery and he's very young, that's a given! At the same time we've seen him have spurts of the Greg we all want him to be. Double/ doubles and imposing his will that changes the dynamic of other teams complete defenses. I find that when Greg is in a good groove Nate yanks him cause the substitution clock has rung. I think it's a coaching mistake but that's me. If he and Roy are our franchise players and I assume we can all agree they are, getting Greg going physically and mentally in every game early is a really good thing! My "CRYING" has been I don't in most games see Nate letting Greg get into a rythem, or giving him enough touches to establish himself early which when he does play great games, that's how it begins! My other point was getting a great big man coach for Greg, and Maurice was gone for most of the first part of this season. Greg is being called for steps almost every game, his dribble is to high and he's being stripped regularly. That's coaching and getting him ready for NBA play. I aslo feel the team as a whole needs to really work on getting Greg involved early every game, and focused practice would really aid in that. I'm not saying Nate isn't doing it, but come game time it doesn't seem to be there most nights. The last point is Nate... can he lead a young explosive team to success with an overly disciplined half court approach to the game? Outside of Roy I don't think the rest of the team works to their strenghts with a slow down, grind it out approach. Nate would be a great coach for a seasoned vet team like the Spurs, Jazz and now maybe the Suns. As for Greg as I said in the very first post. I think he's loaded with talent, getting to it may take a different approach from top down, but I think he's worth it. That's why I made this thread!
I think you're just jumping the gun on this, not unlike many others. And I'm not sure if your citation of Lucas' absence was meant to be derogatory or excusable, but hopefully you meant the latter. I'd hate to lose my job just because I became extra sick. And the rest of the Blazers staff better make damn sure to keep washing their hands too! A lot of people just don't understand Oden's situation. If you take his whole life into consideration, he has not played much competitive team basketball. IIRC he started playing in his junior year of High School? I could be wrong. Then he had one year at Ohio State. Now he's a starter in the NBA facing some the best basketball players in the world. Most of the guys he's going up against have played hundreds (thousands?) of games more than him. Now we thrust all of these unrealistically high expectations on this 20 year old kid who is still learning the NBA game and probably the game of basketball as a whole as well. And when he doesn't live up to said expectations 30 games later, it doesn't mean it's time to get a new big man's coach, change our offensive schemes, and fear that he's never going to be any good. You just gotta be patient, that's all. Also, I think Mo Lucas has done a fine job. Pryzbilla and Aldridge are having career years. Oden is improving. Frye is not having a good year, but he also hasn't been getting much PT. I highly doubt you'd see much difference if we hired someone to replace Lucas, even if it is someone you feel is amazing for whatever reason.
