With or Without Oden

by GoBlazersWIN on Oct 29, 2008 8:29 AM PDT

How much of the season will we play with or without Oden? Only time can tell.

As we wait for the results to Oden's MRI we can still come to some conclusions regardless of the status of Oden's foot.

First of all, that was an awful game last night. Even by last season's standards (pre-Oden), that game stunk. The Blazers looked unprepared. It looked like a preseason level of performance. With or without Oden, how can you excuse missing so many layups and 4 foot shots? I keep hearing people say "don't panic", but even if I disregard Oden's injury there were some serious points of concern in that game last night. Not only did the players look awful, but it looked like we we're seriously out-coached.

Of course it's only one game, and last year we showed the ability to come back from bad games, and I'm sure Nate and the guys will again. But that still leaves the question of "With or without Oden"?

I'm not just talking injury. Have we been over-sold on his actual skill set? Have we ever seen him put the ball through the hoop with something other than a dunk? When he tried a 2 foot hook shot last night, he looked worse than the kids who play in my neighborhood. Once again he picked up 2 quick fouls in about 3 minutes. When we ask the question of "With or without Oden", we have to ask the question of what skill set does he really posess? Sure, he is a physically imposing beast. We know he can totally dominate college players. But he will need more than that to dominate over a career in the NBA.

We actually have two concerns:

1. Can he stay injury free?

2. Can he do anything but dunk?

If he can stay healthy, we will still benefit greatly from his physical presence, but if he can't do anything but dunk, he only becomes more likely to get banged up by opposing defenders.

And the final "With or without Oden", Not to be "Johnny Raincloud", I believe this team can make the playoffs this year with or without Oden. We almost did last year. But, the rest of the team needs to play much better. If not, we will actually finish worse than we did last year.

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Good post GBW

Very thoughtful, candid analysis, albeit somewhat truncated. There is a lot more to be said on this subject and I expect that it’ll all get said before the day is through. In the meantime I recced this post.

Oden’s skill set seems to be as follows: Very athletic huge man.

I don’t know if those are skills yet. And frankly he didn’t look all that athletic when he was fumbling the ball under the rack. Maybe he is athletic without the ball but kind of clumsy when the ball comes near him. Great for the pre-draft combine but not so when it comes to actually playing the game.

And you know what? Greg seems to have little confidence in himself. That says a lot right there. He seems to be his own biggest doubter. He doubts himself big time. He doubts that he deserved to be the top pick; he doubts that he is able to play at this level. I don’t know what to say about that, but obviously self-doubt is a problem for an NBA player.

The perfect is the enemy of the good.

by fisheyes on Oct 29, 2008 8:40 AM PDT reply actions

Agreed

I think the bigger concern with Oden right now is not so much physical as psychological.

The warning signs have always been there. Even pre-draft there were always a nagging doubts about Oden’s desire for greatness. In fact, the argument that was most cited by the pro-Durant camp was that Kevin just wanted it more. He hungered for hoops greatness from the time he was a boy whereas Oden often had the look of someone who was coaxed into playing the game because of his enormous size and athletic abilities. There was the now infamous “dentist” remark; his well-documented case of nerves at his private workout for the Blazers; the Quick article.

Now, on top of all that, the growing media chorus that he is “injury-prone” only figures to create even more doubts in his mind. I think the Blazers need to get in front of this problem before it spirals out of control. fisheyes is absoutely correct. A professional athelete without confidence is like a proofreader with dyslexia. I don’t think there would be any stigma attached if the Blazers were to call in a sports psychologist to help Oden deal with some of his issues. Many professional franchises have recognized the benefits of such an approach and have employed them with success.

by knickfan on Oct 29, 2008 10:09 AM PDT up reply actions

Not a bad idea

With all the time Oden takes off to recover from injuries, he certainly has enough time to work with a sports psychologist.

by GoBlazersWIN on Oct 29, 2008 10:18 AM PDT up reply actions

confidence

its hard to be confident if your him right now…he’s been away from the game for so long. he has put so much work in for little return on investment. he saw how big the rallies and excitement were for him and he feels like he hasn’t given the fans what he wanted. of course he’ll be depressed. he’ll i got depressed for getting injured in an autoaccident and not being able to leave my bed for awhile…i couldnt imagine not being healthy for nearly a year. greg is 20 years old…a time where many young adults are unsure of theirselves and their future. he is probably doing a lot of soul searching in his life. the only thing greg may have on his peers at this age is a stable career, where he’ll never have to worry about money. but theres more to being a young adult than just money. greg just needs to discover that for himself and find that passion again.

by Philthyanimal on Oct 29, 2008 11:20 AM PDT up reply actions

No.

Have we been over-sold on his actual skill set? Have we ever seen him put the ball through the hoop with something other than a dunk? When he tried a 2 foot hook shot last night, he looked worse than the kids who play in my neighborhood. Once again he picked up 2 quick fouls in about 3 minutes.

-It was his first NBA regular season game. A lot of NBA greats have scored zero points in their first NBA game, including Kobe Bryant. among others (TNT had a great graffic on that during the game).

-Oden is coming off of microfracture surgery. Every player that has recovered from that surgery has taken a long time to recover. This has been mentioned many, many times, but for some reason it’s easy to forget.

-An additional way that coming off of surgery has affected Oden is that the team has severely limited his conditioning regimen. They have not pushed him in conditioning for fear for increasing the pounding on his knee.

-Oden played most of the game on a sprained right foot.

-Some players take a little while to warm-up to the game, some are ready to go from the opening tip.

-When Oden has been healthy, he has been a truly dominate center at every level of basketball.

The injury concerns are real, but this game says almost nothing about Oden’s skills/ability as a basketball player.

by PoliSam on Oct 29, 2008 9:30 AM PDT reply actions 2 recs

Um, could you leave something for someone else to say next time. OK, I'll go get some coffee now.

I'm a really really ridiculously good looking orange mocha frappaccino drinking manhammer sandwich

by hobobob on Oct 29, 2008 9:42 AM PDT up reply actions

With or Without Oden

Last night’s game was still awful. It was awful while he was in the game and awful after he left.

by GoBlazersWIN on Oct 29, 2008 9:48 AM PDT up reply actions

they’ll usually hit those shots though. Zen Ph*l said it, “their shots just aren’t falling.” It was just a cold, cold night out there for the blazers. big whup

by 50backflips on Oct 29, 2008 10:25 AM PDT up reply actions

What caused us to have a cold shooting night?

I respect Zen Ph*l’s opinion, but saying they were just cold is like saying they just had bad luck. There are causes and effects.

Sure, they’ll probably bounce back from this, but usually games like this do give us some foreshadowing of the future also.

by GoBlazersWIN on Oct 29, 2008 10:34 AM PDT reply actions

causes

seemed to me to be equal parts opening night jitters and (I hate to say this) really good L—ker team defense. Yeah, we were jacking up a lot of outside jumpers, but LA was swarming anyone who was within 15 feet of the basket. They had an extremely active defense plan and we couldn’t break it. Their early lead also allowed K-be to relax on offense and put the clamps on Roy. And until LMA and GO learn how to step it up, as Roy goes, so goes the team.

by abdelnaby on Oct 29, 2008 11:04 AM PDT up reply actions