against the local playground courts finest ballers. 1 year of being treated like Private Ryan, in Saving Private Ryan would seriously stick a dagger in my “fun”, and RAHHHHHH, I"M GREG ODEN, factor.

I’d underline that even though GO didn’t look impressive by any means, he had an impact in that game. As you wrote, after the Diogu block, no one challenged the paint. Similarly, on offense GO drew double-teams, and his crisp passes out of those double-teams resulted in wide-open shots for his teammates.

So while we impatiently wait for the Oden Monster to emerge, we should realize that even tentative, out-of-shape Greg is going to help this team immensely. Whereas last season you had Joel starting and Frye or LaFrenz backing up, now you’ve got a guy with Greg’s physical presence starting and Joel coming in as arguably the NBA’s top back-up center. That’s a huge upgrade—literally.

based on the above analysis should Oden start? If he’s not ready, maybe he should come off the bench for the first quarter of the season.

He looked tense, the exact opposite of Rudy who was treating the game like an All-Star game: Entertain the fans and let the game flow. He will be looking good again soon enough.

and that comes with lots of time on the court. He has a rebuilt knee, weighs more than he did in college, has teammates with whom he’s never played in real games, is playing a new game (NBA versus college), has a huge burden of expectations, and so on. He’ll be fine.

Side issue: Every time anyone writes about seeing Oden, the typical comment is how huge he is. It almost sounds like he’s as big as Shaq or Yao, which clearly he is not. Joel is taller, so the comment must refer to his mass. Shaq and Yao outweigh him by 20 to 60 pounds, and there are plenty of other NBA centers who are in GO’s size range. Why is everyone so surprised by his size?

Yeah, I woud’ve loved to see Greg play better last night, but it’s WAY too early to get super-analytical about it. For the next couple of months, I’m going to focus my attention on LMA and Rudy and give Greg some space (in my mind, at least) to get back into game shape.

I mean really huge! He has a ways to go to get into game shape. He doesn’t have his legs yet. Health willing give him 2 months and then watch out!

And regarding “it’s just a scrimmage” – I don’t buy into that. Yes, it was a scrimmage, but it was obvious that Greg was playing hard…and that his nerves really did get the best of him. He seemed overly-anxious to please last night. It was apparent that he really wanted to make a big play (dunk, block) and I think that got the best of him.

The reality of the situation, though, is that Greg would have had to deal with this regardless of what happened last year. All eyes are on him. He’s going to be facing top-calibur, very strong, very athletic players in this league that will come after him guns blazing. He’ll see more double and triple teams than (insert high-grossing adult film star here).

I don’t think any amount of practices or on-court training can really prepare him for the big show. He does have an advantage, though, in working alongside some of the most composed, competent young players in the league. I can’t imagine anyone more qualified than the guys on his side.

Read the last full paragraph here:

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/5/7/481800/the-oden-impact

And the last half of this:

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/8/3/586129/the-other-rookie

—Dave

As big a dissapointment as Greg getting hurt was, it allowed LMA and Roy to blossom and with the loss of games we got Bayless from it. A slight hiccup for sure, but with the youth of this team it is not that big a deal.

 Our team is stacked top to bottom not only with great players but great fits

Roy: Our leader, ROY, AS and most importantly: humble. Do you think he cares about how many points he gets? I can imagine him moving into more of a Jason Kidd like statline this year, 15pts, 8rebs, 8 asts. This will be a very realistic statline for Roy this year and with him not needing to score mas much, he can have more energy in the 4th if the game needs to be taken over.

Hopefully in most games, we will not have to worry about close 4th Qs as we will be up a lot, but the point is we and he does not need to score a lot of points for this team to be successful.

LMA: With all the acclaim and the hype for Roy and Oden, I believe that LMA is the 3rd leg and is not getting the credit that is due. On one aspect this is good as it will motivate him to higher levels than he is now but still some cred is nice.

LMA’s most bankable asset is his O game. He is an OK passer and good defender but his real strength comes from putting the ball through the hoop. With Roy who does not care as much about pts and Oden will play the Russell role on this team. Russell never even averaged over 20ppg but is known for his rebounding and D, much like Oden will be.

This all leads to LMA being the focus of the O and his calling card. He is the fuel that powers this car and gets it to where it is going.

Oden: Great D’ly great rebounder but somewhat proteotic in the O, but for this season that is ok as LMA will shoulder the load O’ly. That will allow him to do what he does best, D up, alter a ton of shots, blocks or not, clean up the glass and dunk any O rebounds. What is also great about Oden is that he has not only the ability to pass out of the post, but the willingness to do so which is another story altogether.

Our big 3 fit perfectly together with an amazing mix of perimiter and post scoring, playmaking at both the low post and G positions and a high post who can take advantage of the situation from either. D’ly they should be amazing as Roy will improve on the D end not having to do EVERYTHING on the other end of the floor, Oden is a rock and LMA will be free to take more chances with Oden backing him up.

Jason Quick said in his colum today that he couldn’t help but get swept up by all this feeling and that even though he has been around the league for a while, he feels that there may be something very special here and I cannot agree with him more.

It is one thing to acquire a group of super talented players and throw them on a team, look at the Nuggets, the Rockets and the turn of the millenium Blazers. What is great about this team is that they are not all stars on other teams that have been brought here to win a championship, but rather carefully selected draft picks and vet role players that have been bred for nothing other than to bring a trophy back to the Rose City.

With this organic approach players genuinely like each other, and most inportanty with them being so young, they can grow into each other, forming an impregnable team, each player covering up weaknesses or the other.

That is what will seperate us from the good to great teams and seperate us into the elite catergory and possible dynastic catergory, our fit and completeness as a team. What is the greatest part is that all of these players are hard workers and should overachieve rather than underachielve.

It is from this where we differ from the rest of the NBA and where all this talk of dynasty comes out. What is great about us is that we have a FO with talent to match the talent of the team. KP will be very judicial in his assessment of this team and who is and is not needed to make this team great and much like LMA being backed up by Oden, KP is backed up by PA and his 16billion friends to make sure that the pieces he needs will be at his disposal.

Truly friends this is the beginning of what will be looked back upon as perhaps the greatest time in Blazer history. The talent acquired here and the structure of the NBA salary cap will make so that we will be dominant for years to