really figured out when to go for the block and when to try and draw the charge this year, and its just a simple decision he knows how to make on which to go for now, depending on the situation.  Either play stops the offense in its tracks.  Since he's been so good at that, he's stayed out of foul trouble.  If you add the two stats together, I bet he's ahead of the vast majority in the NBA.

But now he's getting back on track with being good on the pick and roll like he was with Damon, rolling to the basket for a dunk or a putback.

when they don't have a center or a point guard in the game.  I consider Joel and Raef as our only two centers and Blake and Rodriguez as our only two point guards.  Without a center we get killed on the boards and at the rim.  Without a point guard we get killed on dribble penetration and our offense slows down and becomes predictable.

Tonight (Monday against New Orleans) he held down Frye and Pryzbilla's minutes until the last 6 minutes of the game. By then Chandler and West had played nearly the whole game. A long sequence went Chris Paul shoot and miss Joel rebounds, Frye shoots and misses, Chandler rebounds, Paul shoots and misses, Joel rebounds. After about three such sequences Frye finally made one and we moved ahead to win. Point was West dialed it in and Frye and Joel were fresh and wore them down (Paul rarely misses 10 of 15). Just as Henry says Joel was the difference. This appeared to me to be another great coaching job by Coach Nate.

Joel does deserve credit for the things he does well and it is also fair to balance that with noting occasionally what he does that isn't helpful.

His on /off team eFG% allowed is partly him playing well and partly Frye and Aldridge (when at center) doing worse than average there.

On a much smaller earlier issue, assists are a fairly low priority among centers but they can be quite helpful, especially for passes back to 3 pt shooters. Joel doesnt get many it is true, about half of what is average. Fortunately Blasers still manage to be average on total team assists anyways. But they surely would like to be more in the future. Joel has a high turnover rate but checking the 82game detail very very few are from passing mistakes.  Joel's assists probably arent going to change and isnt a big issue in itself but put together with fairly light assists from   Aldridge, Frye and Outlaw it might be an modest issue in future. Depending on how good a passer Oden is or Aldridge becomes.