Greg Oden revisited
A lot of people are talking about Sunday’s story in The Oregonian in which beat writer Jason Quick admitted he apologized to Greg Oden for being the one to break the news to Oden that he hasn’t been very impressive during the exhibition season. It was interesting and I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t think I’d ever apologize to a player for telling him something that’s that obvious.
It’s going to be fascinating to watch Oden this season. No question he’s a very sensitive and thoughtful young man. Since high school, he’s played in just 32 real games — and those were at Ohio State in 2006-07. So over the last two years, he hasn’t played a whole lot of basketball. And obviously, playing against college guys isn’t like playing in the NBA.
Just as obviously, Oden is facing some high expectations — many of them put on by the people he works for. But that’s fine because when you are selected No. 1 in the draft and become a media darling immediately, you’re going to carry that around for your entire career.
What’s gone wrong for Oden so far? Overall, a lot of things — but none of them are incurable. In some ways, and I know this is going to sound silly to some of you, he’s kind of forgotten how he plays. He’s played so few games over the last couple of seasons that he’s in a bit of a quandry trying to figure out exactly what he needs to do on the floor. He’s struggling in two key areas — offensive moves in the low post and blocking shots.
On offense, his footwork isn’t real confident. And it appears he’s rushing everything. I don’t know if he ever had a signature offensive move but he doesn’t have one now — other than that silly high-school stuff on his dunks where he slaps the backboard with both hands after he flushes the ball. He needs tons more time with a singular position coach who gets him comfortable with a simple drop step, up-and-under move and jump hook — the bread-and-butter moves of any low-post player.
I’ve been very surpised by Oden at the defensive end. In four exhibition games he’s blocked only three shots. At Ohio State he blocked three per game. I think on defense he’s trying too hard to block shots. He’s impatient. Instead of laying back, waiting for a shooter to commit — they call this “baiting” a shooter — and then going after the ball, he’s jumping out at shooters — making the first move. That gets you a lot of fouls and not many blocks, because NBA players are smart enough to know how to get shots off when they see you coming. Kevin Pritchard assured me that Oden “baited” shooters in college all the time, so I will assume he’ll eventually return to that strategy once he feels a little more at home in the NBA.
I believe a lot of Oden’s problems are because he’s still not in game shape. And that’s keeping him from having the energy and explosiveness he’s going to need to become a star in pro basketball. Lumbering up and down the floor makes him just another big man. When he’s healthy and fully certain that he’s healed from his surgery, he will be much quicker and more confident.
In summary, I think what I’ve thought from the start — we have to be patient with Oden. Not five or 10 games patient, but perhaps a whole season patient. He’s going to have to be patient, too — with his own progress and with all those expectations. In the circus that’s the NBA, if he’s going to allow all the sideshow stuff to get him, he’s got no chance to succeed in the center ring.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | October 20, 2008
Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Kevin Pritchard, NBA, Portland Trail Blazers
It’s interesting how the organization and the media are both suddenly trying to dial back expectations. Are they just becoming aware they went too far?
The “man-child” tag is the one that makes me nervous. We heard the same thing about Walter Berry when he came out of college. Oden is no Walter Berry (or is it Walter Berry was no Oden?), but that tag is one that concerns me.
I don’t think Oden will get that season of patience. That went out the window long ago. If he doesn’t produce, and relatively quickly, the stain of disappointment may become overwhelming.
Oden just looks slow and out of shape. What made him a beast in the past was his freakish speed and quickness, which seem to be gone. I’m still confident that he will get this back and dominate, but until then, he looks like Greg Ostertag, not Greg Oden.
Everyone who writes about Greg seems underwhelmed, but he is only playing a sporadic 20 minutes per preseason game. He isn’t really getting the chance to log big chunks of contiguous minutes so I’m guessing that he probably isn’t really getting into a rythm. If you project his stats of 35 minutes, he would be averaging a double-double. Not bad for a rookie center, IMHO.
“over 35 minutes”
Greg has game. He is just rusty. Perhaps, if he knew how the initial injury came about, he would be able to play with more confidence. It has to be a bit creepy to be putting the knee to the test in your first NBA game. Like you said, a dose of patience is in order.
As for Quick, I love the guy but I think that he crossed the line with the rookie. Go Blazers!
I think Quick got it totally wrong and here’s why: So far, all he (or anyone, for that matter) has seen of Oden is when he’s playing in one of the convoluted line-ups that define preseason NBA play. Too often, he isn’t passed the ball at the right time – either too late or too early. Also, the other players have seldom been in position to receive an outlet from Oden (who’s often been doubled) or have just stood around. It’s preseason. It isn’t pretty. Oden will be fine once he gets in game shape and the rotation becomes solidified. That will change the way he rebounds and plays D (read: blocked shots). I thought it was telling that Quick admitted in his article that the in-house (“O”) pressure to write about Oden is ridiculous. It’s the only reason I can come up with for his so-called “assessment”. That said, perhaps we should all wait a while before assessing Oden and for that matter, the entire team.