PLEASE bring Oden in off the bench

I hate when Oden starts the tone seems to be set for the game in the first 5 minutes either he gets off or he’s in foul trouble. He’s a beast off the bench and the thought that he wont match up against the other teams center is wrong, as the Blazers have shown it’s not how you start but how you finish that counts. P.S. Leave Batum in longer please!!!!!!!!!!

And it’s not like he’d only play with the 2nd unit. He’d still get at least half the center minutes, which means he’d play against the other teams first unit about half the game, and the other teams 2nd unit half the game.

I’d even say lets finish the year that way, and Nate should say so publicly to remove the pressure and the whispering and hand wringing. Oden would have a job defined and wouldn’t have to worry beyond that. And if he comes off the bench and is playing well, he can still play 35 minutes.

right now the 2nd unit almost exclusively shoots from the perimeter…and that’s with LMA in there.

I was at the WellsFargo Fantasy event last Thursday and Nate was asked the question about how Greg will be used when he comes back and Nate said something along the lines of “Greg will come off the bench for the rest of the year. Joel has earned the right to start and the team is in a good flow right now.” He didn’t say it in those exact words, but that was pretty much the gist of what he was saying. He seemed pretty definitive in his stance and did say that he hadn’t even told his coaches that yet. He probably just said that last part to make all of the people that were there for the fantasy event feel like they were insiders (which. obviously worked on me), but I’ve got to think that the coaches/players have already been told.

I can understand wanting to start Oden in the beginning of the season so that he and the rest of the starting 5 can get used to playing with each other but at this point in the season all that matters are W’s.

I remember reading somewhere that Greg, having been the Man on every other team he’s played on, was having trouble adjusting to playing on Brandon Roy’s team. It might help him get back in the swing of things if he started out on that second unit just until he gets his confidence up. Plus the second unit really does need more scoring punch and that’s one thing GO provides that Gorilla doesn’t.

Hopefully putting him on the second unit will take some of the pressure off him. Sometimes I worry about how he’s going to handle the playoffs. What happens if he misses a critical free throw in game 7?

which means when the refs mess with him or he messes up it won’t seem so tragic

Can weaken them & Oden can knock em out.

could cause rotation problems for the opponents… i like it ! Plus with Rudy/TO spreading the floor with the 2nd unit, this would really give GO some space to operate and establish his post game.

Problem is he doesn,t get the ball with the bench players. They are all terrible at distributing the ball. When Joel is with the bench players his strengths are magnified because he isn’t an offensive center. They can ignore him and chuck up shots and he can play goalie. Oden is important as a starter because he produces points in the paint and has shown he can do it without a lot of looks. He draws fouls on opposing bigs when he does get the ball. He makes it much easier for Roy and Aldridge because defenses can,t leave him like they do Joel. No one ever double teams Joel, Oden draws a double on almost every touch. Not saying that Oden should start right away but our ceiling is much higher with him starting. Remember we are 14wins and 4 losses when Oden double doubles. Those are almost all games as a starter.