Traffic nightmare – perhaps they should consider a time other than Friday at 5pm?

We got what we expected from Greg tonight. It’s true – when you see him in person in a jersey, your jaw in on the floor. He makes LMA look like Tyus Edney. Watching him in the layup line is interesting. With his length, he almost looks like he’s dunking when doing a flat footed lay-in. He probably played 30 of the 40 total minutes and didn’t seem particularly winded. It’s hard to tell with Greg, since his body language can be flat.

You can tell he’ll have a dominant effect on rebounding on both ends (esp. defensive). It’s also obvious that his timing is that of someone who basically hasn’t played for a year. As the poster noted, his rebound stats may not reflect his contribution due to deflections, boxing out, etc.

Didn’t see the ridiculous quickness we’d expect on defense. The game was pretty loose. In a grind it out contest, I’d expect Greg’s defense to stand out more.

He has no problem getting great post position and was consistently double-teamed. He had a nice dunk after splitting a double team under the hoop. At times, he seemed unsure of his court position after backing his man down. This will come.

The most exciting thing to me (other than the otherworldly beastliness), was his overall court sense. He’s a player. I didn’t see any “oh man” lapses out there. He sets a brutal pick. In this game, his post ups were deliberate – no flashing from the weak side.

In other news, Rudy is a baller. Very dynamic and creative on the break. Like Sergio (and Magic), he can “hold” a pass for the split second needed for a cutter to get into perfect position. Rudy is not a project.

LMA was easily the best player on the court. Good thing he’s on our team, since we obviously have no one that can guard him.

Bayless needs to initiate plays faster. His athleticism is ridiculous.

LMA and Roy looked great. I think LMA will surprise some “outsiders” this year who expect his game to stagnate or regress with Oden on the Block. I think the guy is going to be that much better with Oden down low. LMA shot repeatedly from 12-18 feet and was pretty much automatic. Roy appeared to be playing at about 3/4 speed most of the game, but clearly was always in command of the game situation.

Rudy is money from range. Forget all the talk about the NBA 3 being longer than FIBA. the guy can shoot it. his court ision and passing were very very good as well. He probably had 2 or 3 of the best 4 or 5 passes made all night. he also “gets it” – he knew tonight was for the fans, and he put some extra flair in some of his passes. Not that you necessarily want that come October 28, but in this type of game, you gotta love that.

Sergio looked strong. His shot looked good, both from distance and on the drive. He made a couple of nice drives in which he looked to finish and did just that. He had several very nifty feeds as well which led to easy buckets.

Travis is still a black hole on offense. Even after being moved to the black team for the 2nd half (Roy, LMA, Oden), he still looked to shoot every time he touched the ball. The good news is that his shot was on for the most part, and he made several 3 pointers, showing off his extended range.

Oden looked huge. Also tired. Or maybe he just really tries to conserve his energy. He generally was slow going up and down the court in both directions. but once in the block, he was a presence on both ends. offensively, he was doulbe and triple teamed when he got the ball low. He had a nice dish to LMA for a dunk. If teams triple team him in the real season, I think the rest of team will make them pay. This is a HUGE upgrade from Joel on the offensive end. Oden’s first highlight was a blocked dunk attempt (Outlaw i think) that looked almost effortless. That got the crowd going a bit. Of course everyone in the house was just waiting for him to throw down, and he finally did twice in the second half.

Martel looked to drive more than we’ve seen, and it was pretty effective. He wasn’t afraid to shoot either, although a lot of them rimmed out tonight. He didn’t get many touches, especially in the first half. He was looking to play D though, and it was fairly decent.

Bayless is going to annoy people when he’s playing D. He pressured the opposing PG (Sergio) all night, and it will be a nice weapon to have. Offensively, I think he pressed a bit, overpassed, and dribbled a bit too much. Still, you can see the talent he has, and it is only a matter of time for it to come out.

Batum was a bit of a surprise to me. They guy won’t sniff the court this year, but he looked like he belongs on an NBA bench and he has some skills on both ends of the court. He played pretty good defense, and seemed to get his hands on a lot of rebounds and loose balls. He even had a nifty tip in and a little 8 foot jumper. As a guy we picked for a couple years down the road, you can see the potential in him.

The moment may come in some distant day when Comcast comes to Central Oregon or DISH and of course opening night will be nationally televised. In the meantime I appreciate the first-hand impressions. Like being at the beginning of something really good is always special I savor these days and devour the input.

That was a lot of fun, After watching Rudy play, someone tell me why he can’t be a point guard in the NBA. Now I recognize that he didn’t bring the ball up, but he handles the ball and distributes as well as any pg we have. I also belive with Oden he would really benefit. Let Blake and Bayless play the second group with Outlaw and Pryzbilla.

do something besides shoot!! He had an off night shooting the ball but that didn’t stop him from having an impact on the game.

or does greg move like an old guy? He’s fast when he wants to be, but when he doesn’t, he looks kinda old and fragile

but i wasn’t as impressed as many appear to be. yes he got to the rim, but um, perhaps you didn’t notice he outright missed two of those layups (which was half of his total)? and he missed more jumpshots than he made. i think perhaps some were still basking in the glow of his dunks from warm-ups and let that carry over in their impression of his performance. sure he hustled and flailed a lot on d, covering the person bringing the ball up end to end, but as far as i could tell it resulted in zero steals and never affected a single play.

i did notice though, that his over-aggressiveness was pissing off his teammates who rightly deemed it inappropriate at a fan fest scrimmage. sergio gave it back by basically knocking him down when trying to get bayless off of him for an inbounds pass, joel definitely had some words for him after a rebounding incident, and twice, TWICE when he was pressuring roy bringing the ball up the court, roy straight-up put a hand in his chest and pushed him away—not in a friendly manner. we all like aggressiveness and hustle, but this was coming off a little differently.