Subscribe Feed (RSS)After his 22 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks Tuesday night, here are some things to consider about the guy right now:
He still has to physically gather himself under the basket for a couple of seconds before being able to lift off well enough to dunk. Doing that puts him in jeopardy of getting stripped by smaller players (he has the ball all the way down to his waist) and leads to travelling and three-second calls. The time it takes him to get his feet under him and jump allows the defense to swarm him — if he could go up quicker he’d do so with a lot less traffic around him.
He’s not running well and still can’t jump much. And people seem to forget that at one time, Oden was known for his ability to move – remember back before his injury when Oden ran the agility drill at the NBA pre-draft camp about a second faster than Kevin Durant?
And with all that said, he’s still looking like a very dominant offensive player. I do believe, over time, he’ll get most of his speed and agility back but recovery from microfracture surgery takes a while. You can say all you want about evaluating basketball players but never forget one thing:
Size matters.
Tags: Dwight Jaynes, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, NBA, Portland Trail Blazers
I’ve also noticed this. Greg looks very slow, easily winded and somewhat non-althletic. Yet, he is still a force. I recall someone saying in the summer that we won’t be seeing the real Greg for 4-6 months, and now I can see what they meant.