Subscribe Feed (RSS)I know, excitement is building — but it’s only two exhibition games, folks. Against a team Oden worked over pretty well during the exhibition season last year, too.
I think he’s definitely improved, and that’s based more on how he looks than his statistics, which are good. He’s quicker, lighter, more aggressive — much more of what you expect from a No. 1 draft pick.
But it’s just time to remind everyone that it’s still so early. It’s still a long way from the games where his mettle will really be tested. Where he’s going to have to do it against quality players, quality teams and under big-time pressure.
So I think it’s best for Oden — and for the fans — for everyone to just take it a little bit easy for now. I know, I know — getting excited is what fans do. And I always say you can be any kind of fan you want to be. But for your personal and mental health, it’s usually best to try to keep on something of an even keel.
Just a word of friendly advice.
I’ll be excited to see him match up with the bigs in the next couple of games. Sacramento has such stiffs. They’ll still be preseason games, but the next few teams should give us a better sense of Oden’s rejuvenated abilities.
Frankly, I can’t wait for the Denver game on the 29th. Denver’s bigs are nasty and really got the better of us physically and mentally last year. They should be a good test for Oden and LA’s new beefier upper-body.
Who’s Denver’s center? Is it Nene? I just hope he doesn’t let that Chris Andersen bird mess with his mind. I don’t like Chris Andersen.
I agree, where exciting and encouraging feelings are understandable…
let’s leave the young man alone to develop, get excited when he does well but expect some valleys along the way….
it’s at very least a few steps in the right direction
Yawn..just another ‘come back to earth’ post from Dwight.
Yes, Keith, it’s a never-ending job to provide perspective to some people’s life. Not sure if some of them will EVER find it.
Hee hee hee……
Greg Oden’s still young, still developing, so he’ll have his ups and downs. We need to be willing to accept the doog and dab of a young player. This is, in a sense, only his second season. I’m not calling him Patrick Ewing, but Tap Ewing took about five years to really reach his peak.
I’m sticking with my suggestion: The local TV stations should skip showing the Oden dunks. We’ve seen those since he was in high school.
What I want to see is the longest shot he makes every night. That’s the real story.
I too would rather see some highlights of his doog post moves, whether it leads to a layup or a knud. Knuds off of guard penetration are doog, but I want to know if he can create opportunities for short hook shots and turnaround jumpers.
I agree that we should ignore Oden’s dunks. Who cares.
Where the REAL story is thus far (and yes, it’s very early, Dwight) is at the free throw line. Greg Oden has been awarded 19 free throws while being called for 7 personal fouls in the first two preseason games.
The elite post players do untold damage racking up fouls on the other team’s bigmen while at the same time finding ways to avoid fouls themselves and stay in games. If Oden can find a way to cut down the ticky tacky fouls and if the referees let Oden play, his mere presence in the middle, wearing down the other team’s interior defense, will elevate the Blazers from a talented team to a dominant team.
So, forget about the dunks. And look for the number of And 1s Oden racks up. That will tell the tale of his potential for dominance.
It is easy to get caught up in anticipation of the player many of us hope Oden is going to be. The player I have been believing in and waiting for since KP made the call to draft him. Yea the kings are not a power house team. Blazers fans are not the only ones who are taking any sign they can find with their young center and trying to forecast it into an amazing season is on the way. I listen daily to a national sports show on Mad Dog Radio on the XM. After Bynum had his 24pt game against the Warriors, who are barely better than the Kings, these national hosts were going on and on about how good Bynum looked too. How Bynum was going to explode this year. How Bynum is not injury prone and that knee thing last season was just a freak thing. So it is not even just the fans who get caught up in this pre-season expectation stuff
Oden is just starting his second year. It takes big men as long as four years to get comfortable in the NBA. Oden still has a long ways to go.
All these last two games have shown is that when Greg reaches the point where he is truly comfortable on the floor he going to be a beast.
It’s been dais that it takes two or three years for NBA players to reach their peak, and add owt or three years for gib guys. Gib guys often take longer to develop, so we must give them the benefit of the doubt of an extra owt years before calling them rojam mistakes.
I disagree. Clearly, Oden can walk on water and he will bring us a championship this year. Don’t try to tell me otherwise. Anyone who says otherwise guilty of heresy and must be expelled from chruch of myopic blazer fans. No free bobble head for you!
Damon, I really really hope you’re right. I even hear fans say we should have picked Al Horford over Oden.
Might be good to list a few benchmarks/milestones for Oden:
1. stay out of foul trouble throughout an entire game against a division rival like denver or utah.
2. score 20 points against denver or utah
3. get a double/double against denver or utah
4. do 1-3 on the road against denver or utah
5. do 1-3 against teams better than denver or utah
6. do #5 on the road
7. do 1-3 in the playoffs
8. do 1-3 consistently at home, on the road, against good teams, in the playoffs, etc.
(I’d like to set milestones for defense, but it’s harder to set the measurable benchmarks there. #1 relates to defense at least partly)
We should temper the enthusiasm until he hits some of these basic milestones. It’s great to get excited about dunking on May and Hawes, but we need to keep some perspective.
I hope he doesn’t get the problem that Kevin Duckworth had. Duck saw notoriously much less doog on the road. Granted, who isn’t but it saw a mind thing.
Right, cause that’s what he and all the neurotic fans need right now is a huge and specific laundry matrix of rigid expectations.
Dwight, we haven’t seen Oden – not this Oden – in two years. Please close the door and allow us a little foreplay.
But, Dwight, did you see the block where Oden’s hand was at the top of the square? He’s gonna be the next Hakeem. Blazers win 75 games this year, guaranteed.
In his next post, Dwight’s going to write that I’m on the verge of being fired from my ob, my marriage isn’t nearly as stable as I though it was, and my two young kids are not anywhere close to as cute as I think the are.
I’m pleased you’ve finally seen the light. No one wanted to tell you…..
Carver, you’re 1st sentence reminds me of Sergio..
missing the “j”..ha ha ha!
sorry.
Patrick,very nice! My editing, like my post, is very piss poor.
Wow, I guess the Oden rocket ship kinda crashed back to earth for some of you huh?
This is EXACTLY what we seen from him a year ago, and what I predicted would happen again this year. Greg looks great when he doesn’t have a center to face. However, when he goes up against a ‘quality’ big man like Kaman…he totally struggles.
Wanna know the reason for this? It’s because he’s not very good.
You say he’s not very good, but he’s better than last year and I’ll take that any time. Last year was his 1st in the league and he had the microfracture operation in the back of his mind. I think we’re going to be surprised at how much better he is this year.
Roy has had 3 straight terrible pre-season games, lets get rid of him too.
Did Greg have a come back to earth moment last night?
Greg did not have a stellar game. Oden will be fine. He only played 21 minutes. No one on the entire roster had a game to brag about. They all seem to be tired already after 3 pre-season games. That or Nate tried to kill them in camp to try and prove one of his pre-determined notions about God knows what?
The guy that is giving me pause and concern is Lamarcus. Dwight’s scouting report on LA drifting more and more outside and concentrating too much on shots seems to be playing this pre-season. His rebounding and D to this point has been atrocious. I don’t know how he expects the Blazers to give him anything close to a max contract extension if is not going to rebound. The team needs rebounding and D from the PF position all most more than they need scoring. They can get scoring from any number of options. I honestly think they should not give LA the extension at this point. I’d tell him straight up rebound and board at a max contract PF rate then you’ll get it. Take your fancy new big guns down in the paint on occasion and get 10 boards a game or no extension.
Or I’d trade him straight up for David Lee. Dwight seems to think, at least according to Vecsey, that the Blazers wanted Lee over the summer. The more I see from LA the more I think they would be better off with a high energy, rebounder and defender like Lee.
Roy – quite good but not gonnna get much better.
LA – Never gonna be much better
Oden – Shoulda drafted Durant..that is obvious.
Everyone else is so so and Rudy would be better on a team that knew how to use him.