1) This is ridiculous. Just because Oden does not scream on the court and show a lot of emotion doesn't mean he doesn't have any "fire". He just keeps his emotions to himself. Do you know Greg? Have you seen him in practice, working out, trying to get better? No. None of us do, so we have no right to question his "fire". And somebody that doesn't play with "fire"? How about Tim Duncan? The only time he shows emotions is when he is bitching to the refs. 2)'Nuff Said? Microfracture surgery and his wrist injury are the only major injuries he has had. Both he has come back from perfectly fine. The sprained foot? Typical basketball injury. Chipped bone? It would have happened to anybody. You can't call his tonsillectomy during his first summer an injury like many on ESPN did. 3)His defense too me is just fine. The main reason he gets in foul trouble is because refs give him no respect on the offensive side of the ball, and many games gets 1-2 offensive fouls a game. On defense the only time he picks up fouls is when he doesn't bring his arms totally up. It's his first year playing NBA ball, and it's something he will pick up on and fix. His offense coming into the league was the thing he definitely needed to work on. In college you can get away with shuffling your feet much more than you can in the NBA, especially a dominant big man. (Look at Blake Griffin, I've seen quite a few instances where he travels with the ball and it's not called). All he needs to do is dunk everything his first year or two and keep developing those post moves. Did you see Dwight Howard coming into the league? All he could do was dunk. Overall, we've got to cut the kid a break. Obviously he came into the league with huge expectations, and then went down with MF surgery. He's 21 years old, and I think the main thing we as fans need to do is adjust our expectations. This rookie year is the year where he gets the jist of playing NBA ball, and I expect and think he will come back next year a much better player in his 2nd full season.
Harold Miner was called "Baby Jordan" before his rookie year mainly because of his dunking ability. His play on the court made that nickname a joke; he never "flamed out" because he never really accomplished anything outside of a dunk contest.
1 - It's not "Ridiculous" to say that Greg's emotions have been a problem this year. He pouts. Pouts on the bench, pouts on the floor. Coaches, Teamates and every Journalist in Portland has seen it.. countless articles have been writen about it. This is not simply my opinion or speculation.. something is wrong with the kid. I'm not sure what it is and I'm not even going to guess.. but I have watched enough basketball to know that if you don't have "IT" you can't just get it someday.. and Greg doesn't have "IT". 2 - Injury Prone people are more prone to injury. PERIOD. You can explain it away as freak accidents or whatever helps you sleep at night.. but Greg Oden IS injury prone. There were Red Flags before the draft in his medical charts.. KP simply could not pass up on a once in a generation Big Man.. I'm not blaming him for it.. but it doesn't change the fact that he is injury prone. 3 - You are a typical Blazer Homer - always blaming the refs. Odens footwork is terrible, he constantly reaches in or hacks. His offensive game is comparable to Dwight Howards was as a rookie.. EXCEPT he doesnt have the explosiveness that Howard has.. he's nowhere near the athelete that Howard is. At this point it's simply time to lower expectations on Oden .. he's no longer a Franchise changing Big Man prospect.... lets just hope he develops into a servicable big man someday ... and that KP can pulll off another draft like 2006 and get us that 3rd piece to the puzzle.
He will get the explosiveness back. Maybe by next year sometime. The difference is that Howard was a little more fluent in his motions than Greg... The great big men in the past have all been big guys, but they have all been very fluent in their motions and looked very natural, while a lot of the time when Oden is out there, he looks very awkward, but even that is starting to correct the more he plays... that is the main difference in their offense (Dwight/Greg as rookies), imo. If Greg played in Dwights situation as a rookie (focal point on a bad team with lots of minutes) I think his numbers would be better than Howards as a rookie, honestly. I do agree that excuses are made for Oden all the time, which I dislike. I heavily disagree with this. I know this is going to sound like making excuses, but when Greg plays 30+ minutes, not only does our team have a good record, but his statistics are very good for a rookie big man. He will recover from his foul problems, and his game will continue to develop. The off-season between your rookie and sophomore year is when most players make the biggest stride of their careers. Hopefully this summer Greg won't have to concentrate on rehab and simply work on his game. I can see Greg be a 15 and 10 player next year, honestly. And I think that will be nice for a 21-22 yr old big man in his sophomore season. Yeah, I agree. Edit - it is also odd when people rail on him because he is more quiet. He has a similar type demeanor as Tim Duncan, and even Brandon Roy a lot of the time.
that entirely is your opinion and speculation. again. entirely your opinion and nothing more. wade, yao, amare, vince carter, shaq, etc are all terrible players because they have been what you would call injury prone over their careers, right? oden's offensive game constantly is understated by everyone. bullshit.
I'd like you to show me one instance where Greg has "pouted" on the bench. I have season tickets and sit close to the bench, and whenever I look over at GO on the bench he is watching the game, no emotions on his face. Please show me an example of this pouting.. The only red flag before the draft was one of his legs was like 1/4 or a 1/2 an inch longer. A red flag, but that doesn't constitute as "many". And if Greg Oden is injury prone, then so is Yao Ming, Andrew Bynum, Patrick Ewing, Shaquille O'Neal...big men get hurt more often, that's a proven fact. But the 2 injuries he has sustained this year are basketball injuries, and can happen to anyone playing basketball. And of course the Blazer homer comment because I'm a Blazer fan and I don't agree with your point. And obviously GO doesn't have the explosiveness as Dwight does, this is still his 1st year playing after MF. Next year will be a much better time to judge his explosiveness again, but did you watch him at all in college? He was pretty damn explosive to me. And I don't always blame the refs, it is just clearly visible when watching games that Oden does get a lot of offensive fouls called on him, that when it was any other non-rookie starter was playing, would NEVER be called. He's a rookie, and doesn't yet have the refs respect. While I do agree it is time to lower expectations, they are only for the short term. Greg still can reach that franchise player level, and I really believe he will. He still has only played 46 games of NBA basketball. Give the kid some time, christ.
I wouldn't say Oden "pouts", but there are times he looks dispirited and unenthusiastic. That is very different from Duncan, who is merely calm. Early in the season, Oden wouldn't even cheer for his team-mates when he was sitting on the bench.
Why would Oden seem happy or alive on the court when every time he turns around some person is asking him if he is a bust? The players on that list of the top 10 rookies have one thing in common their teams suck.
