Still a shocking stat, though.

He still did better this year overall with assists and turnovers, then Joel did last year.

I really don’t think it will have anything to do with his long term performance. Just kind of a freak occurrence. Oden’s assists all depend on how the offense is run.

Oden is neither Kwame Brown nor Hilton Armstrong, so screw these stats.

Rather, Oden’s problems here are a direct result of Nate McMillan’s idiocy apropos of running a smooth, pro-style offense. McMillan doesn’t understand the pick-and-roll — both offensively and defensively — to save his life; therefore, he should be fired on the spot!

Y’know, I dealt with the ineptitude of McMillan’s high/low zone offense in Seattle—and now I’m done with it!

http://www.championshipproductions.com/cgi-bin/champ/p/Basketball/Jeff-Van-Gundy-Executing-and-Defending-the-Pick-Roll-Part-I-II_BD-02692.html

It’s time to fire McMillan and hire Jeff Van Gundy—and that’s f***ing that!

16 vs. 24 per 100 possessions. Not unusual for a PG to have more turnovers than his teammates despite being the best ball handler. But Greg isn’t in bad company with his turnovers. Yao has the same. Joel is 2% worse.

But I have to say 31 assists total/0.5 per game falls in line with the other slightly disappointing stat: His FT%. I was hoping for more than .637. Then again Joel only had 27. Our centers are not really involved in passing to open or cutting players yet. But Tyson Chandler had even less, and it’s not like he had a great point guard and two of the deadliest corner shooters…

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tiny.cgi?id=v4r3g

I remember that early in the season Greg was a great passer. I think we went to him less on the post up which I hope changes next year.

assists will go up. Call it the “Joel culture.”

If nearly* every touch is a putback or a feed at the rim centers just go up. While turnovers happen there regularly, few assists do. When we have a second player at the rim with him, think of that PF banger we long for, the center can hand it off. But when he shares the court with a drivers and jump shooters exclusively spacing will be good but assists- not so much.

*I know that we did set plays up with him in the post occasionally, but not often and no one was comfortable with it.

Give Greg time.

They came on travels, offensive fouls, strips, that sort of thing.

During his last stretch run, we didn’t go into him in the post much, just letting him score off of garbage buckets and easy dunks. That takes away most passing chances.

It’s a horrible stat, but doesn’t negate what we saw early in the year— Oden has a very good passing touch for a rookie big man, and was more than willing to find the open man when double teamed.

Mortimer

that’s worse than JR Rider….seriously!

How much of Oden’s time with the ball in his hands came in the set offense and how much off of offensive rebounds. From my recollection, Oden didn’t get the ball often in the half-court set. Which would have been the best opportunity to get an assist. But to be honest, I was okay with that arrangement. When the ball did go into him, which seems like happened maybe twice a game, he bounce a hook shot off the front of the rim. It got to the point where I cringed when they gave Oden the ball in the half court set. But this set up a catch-22 situation, where the team didn’t pass the ball to Oden out of fear of his shot, and Oden didn’t pass the ball out because he hardly ever got it. Getting down one reliable offensive move helps this situation. Although it sounds strange, I think Oden making more shots creates the opportunity to raise his assist total.

He has some stuff to work on over the summer, but passing skills I would think are not the highest priority.

The only time he touches it is when he grabs a rebound.

Throw it down, Big Man, throw it down!

I wanna see G.O.’s assists go up, throwing outlet passes on our fast breaks