and none of them I can remember say Oden will never be a 20/10 guy. Although almost all of them say he will not be a 20/10 guy this year. Are you sure you read them right?

In any case, I agree with you on your arguements, Oden will be a beast in the paint once he has a go to move that is not a dunk. If he can get his jump hook down to a reliable shot, and get his foot work on it as good as his foot work is on his dunk, he will be unstoppable ala shaq in his prime.

The reason he has a very good shot at being a 20/10 guy is that he’s a double and triple team magnet, he’s going to draw a lot of fouls and he can hit free throws. If Greg averages 10 trips to the line in a couple of years and can hit 70% and then add that to the 4 or 5 dunks he’ll probably get on a given night and mix in a couple of tip-ins of putbacks and you’re looking at pretty good offensive output.

10 boards a game are probably a low estimate as I think he’ll probably average more like 12 to 14 a game in his prime.

He just needs some time.

and more to do with coming off wrist surgery. I mean, the guy was shooting FTs left-handed. It wasn’t until the tournament that he really started to get less tentative, and then he was limited by a bunch of stupid foul calls. Remember, in essentially the one game he got to play the entire game (against Florida), he threw up something like 25 and 13, despite Motta completely mismanaging his minutes and not giving him enough rest and the fact that he was playing against 3 big men that are currently in the NBA (Noah, Horford, Richard).

The only things that could possibly prevent Oden from being a 20-10 guy at some point in the next 5 years are Brandon, Lamarcus, and injuries. It’s pretty rare for a team to have 3 guys all above 20 unless you play at a super fast pace, not likely for us. Still, I’d be pretty shocked if GO doesn’t hit that threshold at some point, even with those guys around.

The only thing that matters are WINS !!!!!

If you think that all that matters are statistics, then go root for Zach Randolph. Z-Bo used to also be known as Stat-Bo, because his personal stats were so important to him.

Basketball is a team game, and people who place an emphasis on individual player statistics are barely displaying even a pedestrian understanding of what it takes to win.

Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony are usually both in the top in scoring in the league and yet Denver can’t even win a playoff series, let alone contend for a championship.

Individual stats are so irrelevant.

Phil

Has it ever occurred to some that this 20/10 proposition is little more than something the media makes up? Did Russell average 20/10. Does anyone remember that when Wilt stopped trying to score 100 ppg, and instead went after 20 rpg, he won his championship?

To start with, defense, blocks.,rebounds, screens and decoying the other center/pf are Oden’s most important contribution. I’m far more interested in that 12 – 15 rpg stat, 2-3 blocks, and altered shots. Points for a player like Oden are gravy. Give me 15 ppg his second year, and those rpg’s and blocks, and we’ll win championships.

His job is to develop one more shot that he can use within 5-7 feet – the hook. Other than that, his job is to control the basket. As in “dunk on you head”, or “make you eat the ball”, or “welcome to the floor”, or “let me extract my elbow from your mouth”. Defense, my friends. Let Oden take the inside game away on defense, and screen the big men down low so the Roy/Rudy/Bayless can play slamma-jamma- and pop in those little running 5- 7 footers, and we’ll win even more championships.

I think he is a 20/15 guy this season.

he will get 10 pts a game from offensive boards. he has a ways to go to be better rebounding than joel though.