Whats up with Oden??

(which was before this game).

Oden’s having a good rookie season, bordering on very good. If he was any other rookie center, we’d be excited. Today Nate didn’t play him enough IMO, but its not like he played great while he was in there. Greg’s inconsistent of course. He was great vs. GSW and Chi, not a factor in the last two games. The team should get him more touches, but its going to be like this for a while for Greg or any other young center.

It can’t be stressed enough that GO is a 21 year old rookie with relatively limited NBA experience. There is no need to overreact. He is going to have his 15-15 games and he is going to have his stinkers. Dude is still so young and takes a while for big men to develop. The Lakers have jumped ship with Andrew Bynum who has more experience than Oden. One night Bynum will put up big numbers and the next he will be a non factor. Just relax and let Greg do his thing.

Lopez isn’t coming off a huge surgery.

Besides, it was clear what was working against the Nets, a smaller lineup.

Really guys, it’s not that big of a deal. Give ALL the rookies more time before we sign off on their future.

And just about even or better in every category per minute. He barely played tonight and stuffed Lopez pretty hard. Small ball worked tonight…Oden is fine.

he was good playing lopez 1 on 1, the only time i saw him really let lopez do anything was when lopez was stepping out for the foul line pop, which is kinda rare for a lot of NBA centers. i dont know why nate didnt give him more time, i thought he would have been good for 20 mins or so, hard to get into any kind of rhythm in 2 lots of 6 mins.

The man is only 20yrs old, played only one year of college basketball and is coming of MAJOR knee surgery. Not only that he as played only 30 or so games of pro ball againts the best players in the world . Oden is fine, someday soon maybe this year or next he will make people eat crow, and the people complaining now will be the first to jump on the Oden bandwagon.

Do we judge Bayless on tonight’s game or last night’s? Batum on only the L*ker game or some game where he is a ghost? Fernandez on the first 20 games of the season or the next ten? And Greg against Chicago, or GS or tonight?

It takes time. Look at it this way: we have four players on their rookie contracts, a couple of them late first rounders, who are active, valuable parts of the rotation. Including Oden. Off the top of my head, maybe the former Sonics, NJ, maybe Miami (any others?) have rookie contributors on par with what get from our four. Any other playoff contender? I think its remarkable.

But likewise are his teammates learning how to play with Greg Oden. Practically every time GO picks & rolls to the hoop, he’s open. His teammates have just not learned to get him the ball in these situations—when he’d be most likely to do something good with it. If GO played with Chris Paul, he’d look like a world beater already.

If you have any experience at all watching this league, you should be able to see this. If not, you’ll still see it soon enough. But likely you won’t realize how much of the change is due to improvement in GO’s teammates’ play, not his. Basketball is a team game, you know.

And Greg averages 8 less minutes a game.

I like him a lot. I realize he is not going to be Shaq, or David Robinson. Someday he will be a very good player, just not this year. I enjoy his good games, and realize he will have down games as well. That’s why it’s always good to have veterans on your team. Thank you Joel!

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/features/01/15//dose.20090115/index.html

I just finished reading this and thought it sums it up quite well, I love the part about Parish!

Keep the faith Blazer fans, Greg is our guy! :-)