The +/- is telling, but so is the sweet sweet Oden.

Did the BlogFather forget teh +/- of the previous two games of Oden? I love it how all these pundits who attacked GO when he was injured continues to nitpick him so they can say, “yeah but…”

I’m so done with all of them. They are the same pundits who said Roy and LMA were bad draft picks that will never amont to anything.

Give the guy a break…1.5 years on the shelf, and 4 games in….Compare his first four games to Yao…

I can’t wait to hear all the Mea Culpas!!!

Enjoyed your post. Answering your Q: I’d like to less dependence on " … Brandon off the dribble … against double-teams.

Among other things, Henry is missing the fact that basketball is a TEAM GAME! I actually agree with him that GO’s numbers were better than his performance last night. But a lot of the problem is that his teammates need to learn to play with him. As I wrote elsewhere this morning, you could see the same problem with the Suns last season after the big trade; as great a point guard as Steve Nash is, it looked like he’d never thrown an entry pass in his life! The same goes for Roy, Rudy, and GO’s other new teammates. Also, the guys haven’t fully grasped that when GO blocks out the opposing center or leaps for a block attempt, they need to rebound! Not to worry: the chemistry will come; these things never happen overnight.

The other big factor that Henry is underrating: that GO is still shaking off the rust of a lost season and getting in shape. Much of the awkwardess in GO’s movements that Henry describes is simply the result of fatigue. When GO first enters games, he moves and reacts well and he displays plenty of hops. But he quickly becomes more sluggish in his movements. Again, not to worry: GO’s stamina has noticably improved in each game. In fact, he’s starting to get a second wind at the end of games—a very good sign.

How dare he type that stuff? I was going to write a FanPost expounding why Mr. Abbott is no better than Colin Cowherd, because +/- is the dumbest stat in the world. I reject +/- unequivocally, it is the stat for excuses and “what ifs.”

But then I don’t care what people say about Oden this early in his career. Mr. Abbott may have a point, but like I said +/- is a worthless stat. If LA could have figure out how to turn towards the basket without trowing his elbow into his defender, and stayed in the game, everyone’s +/- would have been significantly different. Mr. Abbott has lost all credibility with me and I am going to write ESPN and demand that he is fired.

If I saw Mr. Abbott on the street, I’d give him an atomic wedgie and call him Colin Cowherd.

Oden did look good, the pure joy in his eyes on the first monster dunk was like nothing I have seen in a while, since Brandon’s game winner at home VS Houston perhaps.

Were going to have to get through this learning process to live up to what we can become. We need to get our guys comfortable with each other now. We all know how good we can be, we need to make the sacrifices now. This whole year will be a learning process for us, but hey this has been the greatest learning process I have ever seen, Ijust feel lucky to be apart of it. GO BLAZERS!

Are 100% on the same page.

My only hope out of last night is that Nate KNEW we were going to lose that game playing oden and thought it was more important to play him than win.

I hope this because if Nate couldn’t recognize that Pryz was the better player and fit… then I have HUGE concerns about his coaching abilities as it was clear as day to me.

I do think it’s important to develop Oden. I would have only played him 20 minutes, but maybe Nate believes that’s not enough.

My burning question is for Nate. “did you intentionally play Oden to get him into the game faster and did you recognize that you were putting the win in jeopardy by doing so”.

Probably need to reword so it’s more politically correct. Nate’s answer on that question is important to me as an evaluator of his decision making.

Of course, I’m sure he’d come back with a PC “we in no way expect to lose any game”. When Joel was on that floor though… the blazers were clicking like crazy. With Oden on the floor, that well oil machine suddenly had 10 clogs and two turnovers in just a minute.

Oden has NOT arrived yet. Nice stats, but it’s about winning games. Oden didn’t help us do that last night. He will, but his arrival was not last night.

That said… he’s looking a lot better than he did against miami (last time I saw him). If he keeps making that rapid improvement he’s going to be very good in 16 games (when I predicted we’d see the true Oden minus the rust).

Oden had a bad game, but still scored 22 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and blocked 2 shots in 30 minutes of action. This in his fourth full game coming back from microfracture surgery.

Other people can worry all they want about Oden, I’m happy that he showed a hint of the effect he can have on a game.

He was moving well setting high picks and even chased down a loose ball in the corner. He stamina was also better than it had been in previous games and he played almost 30 minutes for the first time. His footwork still looks very awkward and he needs to hang onto the ball and reduce those turnovers. But I think that is just a result of not playing real ball for many months. Give him 4 weeks to work things out, not 4 games.

Yes, Oden’s 4th quarter turnovers would likely have changed the outcome of the game last night. So would have the pass that Roy threw away, the rebound that bounced over Sergio’s head, Rudy’s missed 3, or half a dozen other things that went wrong in the 4th quarter. The Blazer’s played awful, but GO’s progress was the bright spot of the night.

is not his stats.

Its more that we can obviously see that hes so raw, but yet he can still dominate.

Its tantalising to imagine what he may be able to do over the next few years as he develops.

But on the flipside if this is the way he plays his whole career, i could still live with that, a big center that gives u maybe 15/10 and a block or two while being a defensive presence is not a bad thing.

Plus hes a great guy with a sense of humor!

Re: whether Oden “arrived” last night, it begs the question, arrived where?

It all depends on your perspective. If you’re mainstream and worried that Oden was a “bust,” after the last three games, I think Oden has arrived as a non-bust. The kid can play in the NBA. He’ll be a factor. That much we know.

If you weren’t worried about the “bust” talk – and Abbott wasn’t at all – then maybe you weren’t as ecstatic last night. Because, yes, the big guy didn’t look as comfortable as he will down the road. He had some bad (and costly) fouls due to not moving his feet, conditioning, whatever. He brought the ball down too low and let himself get stripped (whether through his wrists or not) when he should have taken his time and gone up with more authority and poise.

He can do much better.

The key is, this much we now know: he will.

And I agree with Ben – that’s something to get excited about.

For the following reasons:

1) I was saved from the stress of blaming the refs for a Blazer loss – regardless of whether it actually had to do with the officials.

2) I don’t have to waste the energy worrying about whether Oden is hampering the team or not, whether he should be starting or with the 2nd unit, or if Nate purposefully gave him extended minutes at the cost of a win.

Based on the box score and many of the comments, it sounds like Greg generally looked better last night than the game before – where he looked better than the game before that. I take away from this the sense that Oden has managed to improve every game so far. If he’s already at 20 & 10 three games into his season, I’d say that’s reason to be estatic. Why care about his impact on the flow of the offense. That’s a situation that is easily fixed with time. It is certainly a much easier problem to address than finding out that Oden is a lumbering giant whose offensive game is a major work in progress and might never amount to much.

and he is very impressed.

I liked what Henry said, and I liked what you said.

We keep coming back to this, over and over again. All The Young Dudes, including Greg, are still young, and they are still getting their individual AND collective acts together. This will take most of the season to figure out. I hope they get it figured out by playoff time, and go a few rounds into it.

I dare not hope for more. I do dare to hope for a championship next year. – Elgin.

and seeing how stuff turns out.

I understand to a degree the role that making predicitons and assessments has in conversation, but the wild speculations, swings of opinion, and dramatic conclusions based on one game, then two games, then four games is almost painful to read.

We don’t need to reach for conclusions, they’ll be obvious by the end of the year, or maybe next year. Maybe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNou_uSK1Y

ps. when Oden gets his second and1 layup the GS announcer saying there was very little contact. They should just let the players play……
WOW