Geeze, we get punked by the best team in the league, at their place, and "we must change our line-up", "Oden is out for the season and is another Sam Bowie", and nine hundred line-up changes need to be made... Gads, what a joke. I've never seen the ol' panic botton jumped up and down on so much. Next thing peope will be hanging themselves. It was just one game. Against a better team. At their place. And we've got people playing together that usually don't. Be patient. We'll be fine. We're still learning. We're going to get better and better as the year goes along, make the playoffs and come back even better next year.
I mostly agree with what your saying but that's if Oden's injury is a mild foot sprain. If he is out for very long we might as well panic!
I agree. Look, Oden should be fine... KP and Nate said it. In his (Odens) interview, he said it was a little sore and he isn't too worried about it. From the look of it, it doesn't look like more than a sprain. We also had some bright spots. Travis played well, Batum played well, they both are going to be good in their roles.. Batum as the role playing starter and travis as the spark off the bench. Saw good things from Bayless, Rudy was awesome. Joel was tough out there and re-inforces my belief that he is the best backup C in the league. We got beat by one of, if not the best team in the League on THEIR house on opening night. We mainly didn't have Oden, no Webster, we will get better. You learn more from a loss than a win. We are young and will just get better, it took us 17 games to get into the groove last year. The sky is not falling... lets try not to blame someone for this loss. I know myself, like a lot of people were predicting a very rough first 24 games, saying we will be lucky if we can win 10. I know lots were predicting an 0-5 start. We lost by 20... oh well. Greg Oden sprained his ankle, oh well. We will recover from both. Its not the end of the world.
Oden is my only real concern. Last night's game was just one game, so I can deal with that. But I'm starting to wonder if Oden is really injury prone. All signs suggest that he is, and I'm afraid we'll never be able to count on him. That's horribly depressing.
This is exactly what I'm now worried about. I couldn't sleep last night after the game. I was so excited for the season to start and watching the Blazers grow together but now I'm not sure they will ever get the chance because of my concern with Oden. I lived through the Bowie and Walton injuries but this is even worse IMO. Walton was my all time favorite player in college and I was concerned with Walton's foot injuries but at least we won a championship. After watching Bowie I just didn't think he was going to be that great center to take us to multiple championships. When he got injured I only felt bad for him but not the team as much. Now with Oden's injures I feel real bad for him, the team and the fans. I really think if he can stay healthy Oden will at least lead us to be a deep playoff team with a chance to be a championship team.
I'm not panicking. Although it's very disturbing to see Oden go down early in our very first game I still think he will be fine. I do understand the P.O.V. of others that think he's injury-prone though. The thing that just pisses me off the most is the fact that it was against the Lakers. The team I HATE more than any other in the universe! Anybody but them...
I'm usually not Negative Nancy, but can someone tell me what they saw that showed this team in "getting better" or "growing together" or any other of the happy feel-good stuff people are saying? A sampling of the reasons we lost (by no means a comprehensive list)...tell me if any of these sound familiar: 1. A standstill, jump-shooting offense with little motion (http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=281028013 -- Shot Chart) 2. Little defensive intensity (look at # of dunks/layups/wide-open 3s that the L*kers had) 3. Poor execution on our own fastbreaks (Blake fumbling it around, Travis taking contested 18-footers on a 3-on-2, Bayless taking it himself and not having runners with him) 4. Erratic rotations/minutes 5. Little low-post offense. Greg was standing at the FT line and setting pick-and-pops for LMA from 18 feet? To his credit, at least he shot it from inside the paint, though none went down. 6. This is a new one: little cohesion among the starting unit. Forget that Batum started for the last 2 weeks in practice and games...let's switch it up right beforehand. And who's the one who generally doesn't do well remembering offensive spacing or defensive sets? Let's put him in the starting lineup with no practice time! With the exception of the last one, we were making all of these mistakes last year. What have we shown that we're "growing together", or "going through growing pains", or "learning"? Since I guess I'm a "bashing Travis troll now", I'll say this again, and hope for a response. Yes, Travis made 8 of 15 shots. Yes, he was one of the only Blazers that were putting the ball in the hole. Someone please explain to me how what you saw last night from him showed any improvement in his game. He's still shooting contested long jumpers. (To his credit, he made about half of them last night) He did have 2 layup attempts in 15 shots. He did grab 2 offensive boards. But much of the 35 minutes he was standing around, going into isolations, playing C or C- defense, taking contested jumpers, not looking for the open man until he was doubled. Fine if he's on the White Squad with Sergio and Frye...not so much as a starter. On to Blake. His 3pt shooting was ok, but he wasn't "facilitating"...he wasn't running a crisp break when we DID have opportunities, he also was playing C- defense. Channing's shot chart looked like one of Travis's from last year: one missed layup, 6 jumpers from the 16-24 foot range, 0for7. I'm not tosing him under the bus just yet, but he needs to get tough on D and work within the flow of the offense. I didn't see Diogu pushing him for minutes, though. Rudy really needs to be playing more. Not sure what else to say. He moves without the ball, plays aggressive D, hits 3's, finds open men, etc. I wish we could have started Batum. I don't think the "White Team" will be a great unit until Webs comes back, but especially if Outlaw's starting. If we're going to play like @$$, I'd at least like to get minutes for guys that may improve with them (Batum, Bayless, Sergio) or guys who know what they are doing (Rudy, Roy, LMA). OT: I just heard Dana Jacobsen tease the Oden highlight as a "huge injury". Guh. Someone who's blowing smoke right now could help me out by telling me how I should be encouraged about the team's progress. Not "it was a nervous night in LA" or "they're just getting better". Tell me how they showed any improvement, please.
Yep, a Travis basher. No matter how much you bash him for taking contested shots, his shooting percentages are good last year and this year. That's his game and he's going to have a good career doing it here or elsewhere. I hope it's here.
I think the majority of the blame should be placed on Roy/LMA for not rallying "their" team. oh, and Rudy needs to play more, that guy kicks-ass.
My take is still that the Blazers are athletically challenged. Big and slow at every position without a guy who can (like Kobe) start at the wing, drive, and finish with a dunk or otherwise close shot. As constituted, the team is a "dump it into the bigs" half court style team. The Lakers didn't bother to challenge the Blazers' shooters on the perimeter for most of the 1st half and the Blazers did nothing to force them to come out of the lane area.
BS...his true shooting percentages the last two years (where he's getting heavy minutes) was 49.9...3% lower than the league average of 52.8%. His regular shooting percentages have been 44, 43, 43 in the last 3 years. There's a reason that the contested long jumper is universally acclaimed as the worst shot in basketball. But don't take my word for it.
I think it's a bit premature to draw any conclusions about the Blazers from last night's debacle. The Blazers quite simply were not prepared for what hit them last night and I attribute most of that to the fact that McMillan babied the team through the preseason. Limiting Oden to 20 mpg, similarly reducing Roy's minutes, not playing the "big three" in the last tune-up game in Utah may have seemed like reasonable concessions to avoid injuries, but in reality simply made sure that the Blazers were not ready on opening night, especially against one of the most talented teams in the league. The Blazers have plenty of athleticism, but it's going to take a month or so for their game conditioning to catch up to where other teams are at already. As far as the outside shooting goes, I attribute most of that to opening game jitters. It doesn't help that Webster is missing from the starting lineup as the Blazers need the outside shooting he can bring. It's just one game, but the thing that most concerns me is that the Blazers' opening schedule doesn't allow for any opportunity to simply play our way into NBA shape. This could get real ugly, particularly if Oden has to miss many games.
Oden Quote... Yes, he is obviously saying this before he knows exactly what is wrong, but the fact that he played a half on it is a good sign. And he says its a little tender... sounds just like an ankle sprain. He shouldn't rush it though. I know he doesn't want to let us down, but he will help us more if he comes back at full strength than limping while he plays through it to prove something to us.
We're a plenty athletic team. It's a matter of playing together for a while. As to standing arouond, this is why I keep harping for a true PG who can drive the middle and create problems for the defense. As to Oden, I think he may have gotten too big. Maybe if he loses 15-20 pounds he will be a bit more nimble.
I completely agree with what you're saying here, but to Travis' credit. He held back at the start of the 1st and 3rd his usual "take over the offense" approach. It wasn't until everyone else around him continued to struggle that he started his AI impersonation.
I don't think there is much to be changed because a lot of the problem with the team right now, is what I call "rust". Roy didn't play a ton in the pre season. He looked like it. Blake didn't play much in the pre season. His feet looked like they were glued to the floor a lot. Frye, the same thing. The guy doesn't play all pre season and then expects to come in and play against the Laker well. Outlaw-everybody knows he is playing his way into shape. He did it last year, but started to blossum once he got into game shape. I assume at some point Bayless and Rudy will take the other playing minutes at guard. Not right away. But if Blake keep laying like he did last night, it wont' be long.
Losing the season opener on the road to a very good team is not a problem. The fact that the offense was stagnant and ineffective is a problem. The fact that Oden has a body made of spun glass is a major problem.
There were three things I took from last night I found troubling: 1.) There were at least 3 times Oden got the ball at the top of the 3 point line, and LA was out on wing at about 18 feet. That is really not a good use of big men. 2.) Blake, this season just like the last 2, cannot lead the fast break. He is fundamentally incapable of it. 3.) B-Roy and LA, after the game, claimed they were playing off of Oden. According to them, when Oden was a bit flat, it affected their games. Is that supposed to be a joke? Oden is a freaking rookie and you are going to throw him under the bus to explain why you sucked? I could not believe what I read, and I really hope it was taken out of context. The leaders on our team should be looking to an unproven rookie to get them going. It should be the other way around. Oh, and 4.) Why in the hell wasn't Rudy in the game more? He was the only player who moved with and without the ball. Even when he was in the game, there were many plays where he didn't even touch the ball. Good things happen when Rudy touches the ball. Please let him touch the ball more.
