Patrick learned how to use his height and weight to his advantage in the Center position. Mo learned similar things, but for the Forward position, while he had people like Walton covering Center.

Plus Mo played his best ball during a very different era. It was still Center-dominant (while, again, he wasn’t a center), but it was a very different kind of ball.

These comments are absolutely not meant as a negative toward Mo btw. Just recognizing that a true modern center will likely have a better feel for what Oden is going through and needs to learn.

If Patrick was willing to join Portland as an assistant, grab him and don’t look back. He can make his name off Oden’s progress, then get a better job. So it could be to Patrick’s advantage too.

On the bright side, Mo doesn’t have a commercial calling him “Patrick Chewing” so there are reasons for Mo to keep his role.

But as noted above, it could be to Patrick’s advantage to be here as a Center coach as Oden makes progress. It’ll reflect well on him, and it would make him all the more attractive to the Knicks (“Hey NY! Look how many guys Patrick has improved? How could you NOT want this guy?”)

It may just be that Patrick’s best path to the Knicks is not a straight line.

If I could choose a center to be his mentor I’d try to get Olajawon instead.

He would be my first choice too, as long as it’s established that he’s a good teacher (didn’t he teach one of the current centers?)

I mean the latter, that Nate (and his assistants) helped Brandon grow significantly, but that another coach/assistant, under KP’s supervision, would have likely provided a similar level of help.

Brandon comes across as a very skilled player with unique talent and amazing desire. I suspect he devours any coaching offered and demands more.

Any coach in Portland would have been afforded the budget (and the expectation from KP) to build a top-notch assistant group and trainers for the young team. The assistant coaches may have been different, but for the most part, every assistant coach in the league is very good at their job. If one was not working well, he’d have been quickly replaced with someone that would. It’s worth noting that our current player development coach, Bill Bayno, had a pre-existing relationship with KP, not with Nate. He was KP’s hire. He might be here under any head coach.

I’ll add a very controversial comment: Under KP’s direction, I suspect Brandon would be just as good today under Mo Cheeks. He’d have a similar budget and supervision by KP. In fact, we might have kept Tim Grgurich instead of Bayno, who was also considered outstanding. Ignore Mo’s other deficiencies for this purpose, just talking player development here. Roy’s numbers might be different due to Mo’s game-time coaching style, for example.

PS- None of this is meant as a shot at Nate, instead it’s a compliment to Brandon’s skill, talent and desire. It doesn’t matter if someone else could have done the job, Nate did do it. That’s always deserving of recognition.

I, too, advocate bringing in Patrick Ewing as a big man coach for Greg Oden, but it seems like he’s currently looking for greener pastures (i.e., the head coaching variety); ergo, my assumption is that such a hire is a pipe dream.

it sound like mentally and even physically he has never left the game.
Think of all those years of fine tuning the art of playing the big man.

As for basketball I doubt he does much more than make appearances at the occasional Spurs game.

Can anyone name a more upstanding, high-caliber individual in the NBA than David Robinson?
Naval Academy, a 35 game turnaround for the Spurs as a rookie, won nearly every award possible as a player, jacked up 71 points in a game, crazy charity work….he’s da man.