It means "badass". Not danger. Just that I'm posting as a moderator. Even when we joke around ripping into one another it can be dangerous, so I'm encouraging everyone to be respectful to one another. Ed O.
LeBron had a ton of pressure and was younger than Oden but he still delivered immediately. He didn't have the year off though. I'm just saying that some people can handle the pressure.
Oden's handling the pressure fine, in terms of on-court play. He's made the Blazers' team defense much better, statistically, and his per-minute efficiency is great. He's simply not playing a lot of minutes, because he's not in basketball shape. There's no problem here.
You guys know what I mean though. He gets blocked and stripped a lot. Always looks depressed. And looks average out there at best. But I'll trust that he'll get better. Soon.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Joel averages 6, 8, & 1. Same numbers as Dalembert who could also be on the list. Where are Camby and Chandler on your list? Okur? Shaq? Jermaine O'Neal? Biedrins? Oden? Is Joel better than those guys? I would put Yao, Dwight, Bynum, Camby, Z, Bogut, Chandler, JO, Shaq, Oden, and Biedrins ahead of Joel. Okur probably too.
Man, do they make lithium for bipolar message board disorders? Seriously, Greg is either the greatest ever or a total bust depending upon which day of the week it is? The guy had microfracture surgery, didn't play basketball for a year, had never played in an NBA game before this season...it might just take a little while for him to get things figured out. Just for comparison purposes, here are the career stats for Andrew Bynum and Greg's stats for this year to date: It looks to me like 22 games into his career, Oden's already matching Bynum's stats for his second season in the NBA. My bet is that by the end of the year he's likely to be putting up numbers pretty consistent with Bynum's numbers for this season. Considering the microscope Greg is under and the willingness of some folks to jump on him so prematurely, it doesn't seem too surprising that he's down a bit. I also suspect that he's his own harshest critic and that he's finding it hard to adjust to not being able to totally dominate the game the way that he did in high school and at Ohio State.
Oden's problem is that Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo came out of the gate as great players, and people are now expecting that out of Oden. Oden's doing solid. It's too early to tell how he is going. He doesn't look like a Tyrus Thomas, Kwame Brown, Darko Milicic type bust. He may end up as a Tyson Chandler type bust, which isn't the worst thing in the world. He could become a great superstar, although Ben Wallace with a better offensive game (and Wallace was an allstar remember), so bringing what BW did, and maybe 14-15 PPG would still be a pretty good player. Oden could still go either way, but I doubt he is in the Kwame department. Remember, Lebron James wasn't a very good player his rookie year either. Anyhow, per 36 minutes: Michael Olowokandi: 11.3 PTS 10 RPG 1.5 BPG Chris Mihm: 13.8 PTS 8.6 REBS 1.6 BLK Kwame Brown: 11.4 PTS 8.7 REBS 1.6 BLK Tyson Chandler: 11.3 PTS 8.9 Rebs 2.4 BLK Eddy Curry: 15.1 PTS 8.5 Rebs 1.7 BLK Nene Hilario: 13.4 PTS 7.9 Rebs 1.0 BLK Darko Milicic: 10.9 PTS 9.7 Rebs 3.4 Blk Tyrus Thomas: 13.9 PTS 10.0 Rebs 2.8 Blk Paul Millsap: 13.7 Pts 10.3 Rebs 1.8 Blk Joakim Noah: 11.5 Pts 9.8 Rebs 1.5 Blk Spencer Hawes: 12.9 Pts 8.9 Rebs 1.5 Blk Aaron Gray: 15.4 Pts 9.9 Rebs 0.9 Blk Marc Gasol: 14.6 Pts 8.5 Rebs 1.1 Blk Javale McGee: 15.6 Pts 9.2 Rebs 2.5 Blk
ok...put dalembert there instead of Joel...You said top 7, IMO camby and chandler arent top 7, jermaine is always injured, oden...are you serious? Biedrins could be on that list...who you gonna bump out for him? Bogut?
No more bipolar jokes. I actually am bipolar. It's a horrible illness. Took me two years to get it together. As for Greg vs Rose, I've already made my case on that. I saw him play once. He scored 6 pts, got 1 asst, and let his team get blown out by 42 pts. Greg had a double double. Case closed.
Camby was defensive player of the year. He's better than Joel. So is Chandler. Oden has better numbers than Joel and in less minutes. My point is that Joel, God love him, is not a top 8 center. Not even top 12.
I don't see how you can make that comparison. You say Oden had a year off, because of micro surgery, but seem to just dismiss it like it doesn't matter at least according to your expectations. I'm sure Oden expects more out of himself than you do and that is probably why he is down on himself. As to Quick, most likely Oden isn't too open to him any more, not surprisingly, so Quick makes it like he doesn't want to talk to Oden.
So Greg Oden is a bust. But Greg Oden is better than Derrick Rose. Therefore Rose must be an uber-bust?
I never said that Oden was a bust. That can't be determined after 16 games. I just said that he had earmarks because he hasn't been playing like a dominant #1 pick. I said that I hope he's not a bust. In other words, I never said that he was one.
Camby is overrated. He's a terrible man to man defender but a great help defender. Denver fans were complaining every night how pathetic Camby is defensively. I'm willing to bet that if Joel had Paul he would be putting up better numbers than Chandler. Howard Yao Bynum Oden Big Z Kaman Shaq Biedrins Okafor Nene Horford Those are the only centers that I would have over Pryzbilla. And some of those are PF's. Definitely top 12 God I hate people. This whole thread is field with idiocy. He's definitely top 12.
No, but you implied it, asserted it, and probably think it. In most sports, players his age aren't even contributing heavily on their teams, but some reason in Basketball it's different. We should only be able to truly assess where Oden is, after he plays a couple seasons. Anyone that thinks otherwise are rubes, that have nothing better to do.
Newsflash for everybody: Greg has NEVER showed a lot of emotion on the court. Bill Simmon's compared him to Robert Parish on the court. He never seems to be too high or get too low. Right now his body language isn't the greatest, he sits on the end of the bench (on the other side of guys in street clothes), and he isn't dominating like he wants to. It's just gonna take time.
