"It puts my confidence up," Oden said of his performance. "It puts confidence in my teammates ... to actually throw me that ball when I'm rolling to the basket and give me the ball when it's low in the clock in the post. It's not just for me as much as you want to say, it's for everybody, it's for this team. And we won and that's all that really matters." That says it all. He's sick of rolling to the basket and not getting the fucking ball.
Well give him the ball then. I think the concern earlier was that he was getting stripped and blocked from behind a lot, and there were threads about why he gets stripped so often. Now? That hasn't been too much of an issue. He's putting the ball up high and showing some finesse when he needs it, and some power when he can. Before he just tried to dunk every time, and now he's showing off his skills.
Feed him till he can't have another bite! Finally he says give me the ball in the low post! About Time!
Oden sets up a weak pick and roll at times....he seems to roll a nanosecond too early. he'll get the timing up later...just something i noticed, the pick and roll was overutilized and looked unnatural.
I'll tell ya something I saw! Once Greg was going our guards like Segio just started hucking up shots cause they knew Greg had the paint to clean up their misses.Tonight was the first time I'd seen that with Greg and our guard play on offense.
I bet Greg enjoyed playing with Sergio (and LMA too) tonight as opposed to Blake and Roy (having the ball so much). We gotta get Blake and Roy hitting cutters and rewarding motion, it will make them more dangerous too. Some of LMA and Sergio's passes (along with Rudy's) to Greg were dynamite tonight, and there's a reason why when he came back (and off the bench) things were easier as far as scoring. He was playing with Sergio and Rudy and getting some feeds, that has to continue.
I believe you're misreading it. He didn't demand the ball or say he wanted it or anything. He said his performance will give his teammates confidence to give him the ball when he rolls now.
You have to read into it when he says "It's not just for me as much as you want to say, it's for everybody, it's for this team." That implies that he has tried to get them to throw him the ball and they haven't and he feels like he's being selfish and he's trying to say, give me the ball, I can help. It's for the team. Just like Shaq always said to Kobe. Give me the damn ball!
I talked about this in a different thread the other day. I have noticed in games Gregs game picks up when you get him involved offensivly. Part of the problem being, it seemed that the guards were almost freezing him out of the offense, which has to get frustrating. What they don't realize is, with Greg, he is almost always open even with a man on him. You just need to lob the ball up so he can jump up and snag it. He's open. Just throw him the damn ball and get out of the way.
Greg looks great when he doesn't put the ball on the floor. (as most 7 footers) The difference between hitting Greg on the move and passing it to him outside of the key is huge. DRIBBLE PENETRATION is the difference. Sergio id it well last night, but there is no reason why Roy, Rudy, Bayless and Blake can't either. Especially Roy and Bayless as they can get to the basket at will. I am confident it will happen more often.
Oden dominated another donut team. While the effort and energy was fantastic, I'm really not too surprised that he overpowered a team playing Dan Gadzuric at center. He's been consistently having very good to great games against teams without a legitimate post threat. He's been getting the "damn ball" against teams like this all season. He was given the ball like this against Charlotte, unfortunately he was going against a player in Okafor who exploited the match-up to Charlotte's benefit. The NBA is a match-up league, and when Greg is a plus, he has consistently shown the ability to win match-ups. When Greg is a minus, he gets into foul trouble and isn't nearly as aggressive rebounding and defending.
Was he really given the ball the same way against Charlotte? Going to the basket? Or did he have to post up against Okafor? Seems to make a difference for Greg right now.
Um no he hasn't been getting the ball like that all season. You look at the number of field goals attempted again and tell me that. He hasn't been getting the ball 1/3 of that amount most of the season. If you are going to form an identity for your team, you can't just throw your game plan out out the window after the first 3 plays of the game. You have to keep going to it, and going to it and then go some more. You have to have patience, and you have to leave your big guy in, even when he has a little foul trouble. What's the worst thing that happens? Joel Pryzbilla comes in. Leave Oden in, feed him the ball.
How do you keep going to him when he is in foul trouble? It's about match-ups, and when Oden is a plus, he is utilized. When he is a minus, he isn't utilized. I imagine the more he develops, the more times he will be a plus, and the more he will be utilitzed.
Oden should get the ball most every time down the floor. The entire defense reacts to him when this happens because he is so big. He doesn't need to shoot everytime, just get the ball a lot. I also like when Greg makes quick moves. He doesn't do that enough, but I think that's just confidence though. Greg also needs to learn when to block shots.
Nope. He's not ready for that every game. Against donut teams like Milwaukee w/out Bogut, I agree. Against real NBA teams with real NBA centers, nope.
