Oden is obviously not in basketball shape yet. He was winded in both games this season. How much playing time do you think he can handle tonight?
To be actually effective on the floor... 15 minutes, 5 minutes at a time. Just let him mostly play D, block shots, clean up some offsnsive rebounds and dunks. Don't force the offsense through him - pretend he's Joel a little.
I think it will be just over 20, but given the selections, and my thought that it will be right around 20 I put that instead of the technically correct answer of up to 30
Probably about the same like Miami. I don't think he can handle any more at this point until he gets into game shape. Under 20 mins with two stints sounds good.
Two 7-8 minute stints sounds good to me right now. And I really hope we dont run our offense through him. Travis and Rudy were just feeding him in the post... unless he has REALLY good position, i'd only pass to Oden when its setting him dunk for an alley oop from a drive or alley oops. Similar to Joel in a sense. I'd do this for a while until he continues to develop... if not he is just going to make himself look bad and start losing confidence. That is what i think.
My guess is 18 minutes. It would be really interesting to know if his passivity against the Heat was really due to being out of shape, or more a "between the ears" thing like Brandon eluded to; if the latter then it would be cool to see Chandler play physical with him and piss him off, propelling him to a breakout performance ... alas, I think it's probably the former and we're more likely to see something in the neighborhood of 4 points, 4 boards and a block or two.
I think it depends on how tight the game is, if it's a back and forth affair then probably no more than 15 minutes because he's just not in good enough shape and to rusty to help us win games right now, and that's still priority number one every night. If it's less in doubt either way then I see slightly more minutes, maybe 19-20, in an attempt to push his conditioning further along and get him real NBA minutes to get acclimated to the game.
I'm hoping for a better performance tonight for Oden. Hopefully he spends several minutes against Chandler. I love that matchup because Oden will be free to roam the pain for blocks (provided he's careful to watch for lobs). Portland has learned its lesson about running the offense through Oden for now. Aldridge/Frye/Outlaw being guarded by David West is a far better matchup anyway.
Up to 20 minutes. They need to increase his minutes little by little every game. Hopefully by the end of the month he can be almost there barring anymore setbacks. On the season I wouldn't expect him to play much more than 30min in any game. 30min for Oden/18 for Joel works good. Oden needs to earn those minutes though. He needs to prove the Blazers are a better team with him on the floor.
Guys - we have seen Oden in the pre-season. He is better than what he has shown against the Heat, you know, I know it and once GO forgets to be worried that he will fall to pieces by another freak accident - he will remember it as well. He should be a 10/10 player at least this year - probably more when he gets into real NBA game shape.
I voted 20 min. Nate is going to slowly bring Oden back into the rotation. Because of now, he is going to be tired and out of shape.
I would say 20 but wouldn't mind seeing him get 3-4 minutes at the end of the game. Let him get some crunch time minutes, plus it makes the other team think twice about taking it inside.
I agree with bobf, short stints are better right now. I'd like to see him get 3-4 minutes each quarter. If it's a tight game at the end, he can keep his legs fresh for an extended run.
Since I can't watch the game Oden will probably play up to 40 mins and be super effective. But I put up to 30 mins. Be nice if he did do the former though, be almost worth it to miss it.
20-22 minutes. I expect him--with the exception of foul trouble--to add a couple minutes each game until he hits 30 minutes a game.
