Is always a good idea. What offensive rhythym we had last night came when the fed the post early. Oden is good, they need to use him more.

That said, this blazers team operated heavily on the perimeter last season, only penetrating off the dribble. A good inside out game opens more lanes as defenders collapse on the ball. That means more open shots and clear driving lanes for the peremeter players.

He’s a butterfingers. And has no instinct to finish. And is a lower percentage (under 75%) FT shooter to boot. Sure, he can grab the board. But a power dribble and a putback? I don’t think so.

he only has 8 fingers and so he drops a lot of easy passes.
don’t say anything because he’s sensitive about it.

Dang. Oh wait. Sarcasm.

but he’s never been an offensive juggernaut. It could be a decline in terms of FG%, but he’s still pounding the boards, which is critical since none of our 4 men are bangers in the paint.

In fact he has the lowest possible rating for “hands” on NBA 2k10

Having said that…both him and Greg struggling catching passes from drive and dishes is influenced by the fact that the ball is seldom thrown their way even if they are open for a dump-off in the lane. After a while you just start to get used to the ball not being thrown your way in those situations so you are looking more to rebound or jo0ckey for position instead of being ready to catch a pass.

B-roy is our primary guy in those situations but NEVER seems to be comfortable dumping it off to Oden for some reason. On the rare occasion Blake gets in the lane he is so passive that he often misses the opportunity to make the pass. Miller has not gelled yet either so he is looking more to score in those situations (and he usually doesn’t get collapsed on as much as Roy).

There have been numerous times in every game this year that the ball should have been dumped off for easy dunks but it hasn’t been.

He’s back to being typical Joel. Still a good rebounder and solid defender.