Henry Abbott looses his mind, puts the loss entirely on an awkward Oden

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boatsandstars said:
Reading now, but Oden himself said he was responsible for the loss.
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That is a player being responsible for his own actions. But the loss is not entirely on Oden. In fact, of all the people on the floor, Oden may be least responsible for the loss.

Did Oden make Frye suck?
Did Oden make the team miss 9 out of 29 free throws?
Sure, Oden had 5 turn-overs. But the team as a whole had 21.
I imagine Oden was responsible for LA becoming the invisible forward since most of LA's minutes came when Oden wasn't on the floor.
Did Oden call for the team to play a zone against a team shooting lights out from the outside?
Did Oden make horrible call after horrible call?
Did Oden miss entry passes to himself?
Did Oden not run the pick and roll when GS had no answer for that play?

The team lost the game, not Oden. Oden did very, very well for his 4th NBA game. I would say the rest of the team let him down.
 
I agree with some of his points. First Greg does look awkward and his timing is way off. I found a couple of times someones man would beat them and I'm thinking that's ok Greg's there but he didn't react. Obviously his timing is off since he hasn't played much basketball in the last year and he's still not in game shape. Both those things will come in the next month or so. I think the media has been so hyped up for this guy that no matter what he does he's not going to live up to the expectations, especially considering he's coming off a major surgery and a long lay off. We'll just have to accept the unreal expectations and enjoy when he actually meets those same unreal expectations.
 
Imagine a rookie coming off microfracture knee surgery looking "awkward" at times.......

Mind boggling.

Idiot.
 
I could quibble with parts of the article but it wasn't that far off base. While showing impressive potential and putting up some very nice numbers, Greg did make mistakes and the team did lose. I thought the last paragraph was on the money...

In the meantime, I'm thrilled at Nate McMillan's conviction to spend time on Oden, and to keep featuring him even if it costs the team games. Even if the costs are non-trivial, getting Greg Oden confident is one of the best investments a coach can make, because he's only showing us a fraction of what's to come.
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STOMP
 
I'm still pissed about the reffing from last night. What a complete bunch of horse shit.
 
The Professional Fan said:
Imagine a rookie coming off microfracture knee surgery looking "awkward" at times.......

Mind boggling.

Idiot.
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I disagree. I don't think it makes Abbott an idiot to acknowledge the fact that Oden is awkward, regardless of if it's a part of coming back from injury or not. The fact is, he has been awkward and he's not at his full fitness and it does have an affect on the team when he is in.

Accepting his awkwardness might be part of a rational expectation for his recovery but it doesn't give us a win last night.
 
I am not saying that Abbott is wrong that Oden is still somewhat awkward on the floor, though to say he is the MOST awkward pro athelete he has ever seen is absurd. I figure he is far, far smoother out there then we could reasonably expect when coming off of micro-fracture knee surgery.

What I take great exception with is the idea that Oden was a main reason the team lost the game. That is simply not the case, and to say so makes him look foolish. If anything he kept them in a game when multiple players played like total shit. That kind of statement pisses me off to no end. Considering his article will be read by a huge number of people who didn't even see one second of the game, he should be a bit more careful about what he says.

Although this is the same moron that compared Oden to Sam Bowie.

Henry Abbott, your blazer fan card is hereby revoked.
 
Przybilla's time on the floor corresponded closely with Batum's. When Batum was taken out - not necessarily when Oden came in - seemed like when things unraveled.
 
I usually read Abbott's TruHoop everyday but really he doesn't know all that much about basketball IMO. He has interesting articles from different newspapers but when he writes something about his opinion I usually don't agree with him. I definitely don't agree with him about Oden. Sure Oden had 5 TO's and looks a little awkward but not worse then anybody he has ever seen what a dumb statement. What really lost the game for the Blazers were LMA terrible play and Roy's missing those FT's. If Roy hit his FT's we wouldn't have been down 3 points at the end. I'm not sure what is up with Abbott but I have a feeling Oden is going to just keep getting better and when Oden has one monster game Abbott will write some stupid article about how Oden has arrived and he has been waiting for this type of game all along.:pimp:
 
LittleAlex said:
I am not saying that Abbott is wrong that Oden is still somewhat awkward on the floor, though to say he is the MOST awkward pro athelete he has ever seen is absurd. I figure he is far, far smoother out there then we could reasonably expect when coming off of micro-fracture knee surgery.
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As a Blazer fan, I imagine he saw Vlad Stepania and Ha Seung-Jin.
 
Wow, a guy playing in his 4th game in the NBA is called awkward and puts up 22 and 10?!?!? I'll take awkward for the rest of his career!
 
This was my take from the game as well. It reminded me of the Laker game where everyone kept trying to force feed Oden the ball, causing massive turnovers and spectator mentality.

At this early stage of his career, he might move more awkwardly than any professional athlete I have ever seen.
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I pretty much agree with that. Often, Oden looks more deliberate and slower responding that Manute Bol did.

Oden was effective in the post -- he hits his free throws, which is essential for someone who falls down so much -- but there's also a certain cost to having Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez, Travis Outlaw and the like cool off while standing and watching.
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My biggest problem with the game. But I blame Nate. This is the only way I can take anything good from the game:

In the meantime, I'm thrilled at Nate McMillan's conviction to spend time on Oden, and to keep featuring him even if it costs the team games. Even if the costs are non-trivial, getting Greg Oden confident is one of the best investments a coach can make, because he's only showing us a fraction of what's to come.
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I can't come up with any other explanation for the play calls and coaching of the game.
 
he might move more awkwardly than any professional athlete I have ever seen.
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Henry, Henry, Henry.

This kind of absurd hyperbole does not enhance your reputation.

I know, I know, you are part of ESPN now, and the level of "journalism" at that godforsaken place is depressingly low.

Much of the rest of your essay is fine enough as far as it goes. But, when you toss in shit bombs like the line above, people stop comprehending what you are saying and only focus all the crap that is now splattered over your blog.

Oh well.

Be more careful with your words next time. You are, after all, in the words business.
 
I was thinking about the awkward part of Abbott's article. I don't agree with the statement and think it is way out there IMO but big centers are usually ackward. Walton who was my all time favorite player in college and the NBA was always awkward looking but he really wasn't. Even when Walton took a outside shot he would put his arms in a awkward way(can't describe it but it looked funny) but he shot a great percentage. When Oden was fouled on the fast break last night and made the basket falling down that reminded me of Walton. I don't know how many times I saw Walton getting fouled going to the basket and him making the shot but falling down from the foul and looking a little awkward. I do think Oden will get less awkward from just playing but he never will be a smooth Kobe or MJ. Big powerful centers are usually never smooth but somewhat awkward looking. All that matters if he makes the shot and doesn't travel. So, if Abbott is waiting for a very smooth Oden IMO he will have a very long wait.:devilwink:
 
Chill, people. If you don't think Oden looked awkward out there, then you weren't watching. And of course he'll get better - Abbott didn't and wouldn't deny that. But he has to write stuff EVERY DAY and this is stuff that's true today. I was hoping Oden would look like David Robinson (you know, move like a SF only half again as tall) but I'm realizing that was stupid. However, he does really act top-heavy. He didn't just fall down, he CRASHED down. He fell down not like a ten pin falls down but how an upside-down tenpin would fall down. I think that's a sign that his legs are still weak, which is perfectly understandable. It's also clear that he hasn't got the hang of where everything is on the court yet. He will, of course, but it's a reminder of how long it takes to get back into it - you can't just take a year off and be as good as new.

I take Abbott's point to be that Nate has to balance giving Oden PT so that later in the season he'll be completely up to speed, and not giving him PT because, quite frankly, Joel was playing better (and the team played a lot better with Joel) than Oden. I truly believe that if we hadn't had Oden last night we would have won the game. Does that mean Oden's a bad player or even that he's not a great player? No, not at all. Just that he's currently awkward and feeling his way.

Yes he got 22 and 10. But the Warriors got more while he was on the floor. If that's what we wanted for his career, we could've drafted Kevin Durant. Good numbers don't mean good game and Oden and Abbott know that.

[Edit: people might want to read Blazer's Edge's rebuttal to Abbott.]
 
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Reep said:
I pretty much agree with that. Often, Oden looks more deliberate and slower responding that Manute Bol did.
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I think he actually moves pretty well.

He runs the floor well and can finish on the break, as we've seen. He was doing a reasonably good job (especially for a 20 year-old seven foot rookie) moving laterally on pick and roles.

The place where he looks MOST awkward to me is when he gets the ball in near-dunking range. He seems to hesitate, almost travel every time, and give time for others to come over and help. He needs to finish more smoothly and more quickly, and I think that as he gets a bit more experience and more confidence in his knee he will be able to do that.

Ed O.
 
Ed O said:
I think he actually moves pretty well.

He runs the floor well and can finish on the break, as we've seen. He was doing a reasonably good job (especially for a 20 year-old seven foot rookie) moving laterally on pick and roles.

The place where he looks MOST awkward to me is when he gets the ball in near-dunking range. He seems to hesitate, almost travel every time, and give time for others to come over and help. He needs to finish more smoothly and more quickly, and I think that as he gets a bit more experience and more confidence in his knee he will be able to do that.

Ed O.
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I agree that it is not physical, it is mental. There are times when he is amazingly fluid, when he is unguarded or doesn't have to think. However, with his back to the basket, with his current level of discomfort, he does look a lot like Bol did. I think this will melt away by mid season and we will never have to look back again.
 
Oden did look lost last night especially on defense. Rotating, stepping back, stepping out, and just losing track of his guy or the ball. The guy is still rusty so I'm giving him a break, but it's obvious he's still adapting to playing ball for the first time in a year and his first few games in the NBA. He does look explosive when he knows what he's doing, but he's thinking too much and his legs aren't taking him where he wants to go when he wants to. He just needs more time.
 
This is a standard phenomenon among rookies. He's at the stage where he's always thinking; processing at a conscious level. That's too slow a level to play at in the NBA. As he gets more practice and experience, he'll become more instinctive at which point he'll be playing at the right speed. The read-and-react mode.

He has better talent than almost anyone he faces. They just have the crucial game speed advantage. Once Oden levels that playing field, he'll dominate.
 
Man, Oden did fine. I don't like when someone blames a player for a loss...

The guy played a very solid game.

We win and lose as a team, imo.
 
At this early stage of his career, he might move more awkwardly than any professional athlete I have ever seen.
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Yeah, he sure looked awkward flying in to dunk on the feed from Roy, and he looked positively oafish when hammering down Rudy's missed shot/"pass" off of the backboard.

What a ridiculous comment in an otherwise decent read.
 
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"Awkward" was a poor choice of words, but I think I see his point. Oden is still at that stage when the game is moving too fast for him. Experience usually fixes that problem. Personally, I am more worried about him staying healthy enough to gain that experience!
 
Many of our turnovers were due to the refs not calling obvious slapping fouls.

We didn't respond well at first, but the fact is we got jobbed by the refs.

Better, or should I say honest refs, and we win walking away.
 
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