Nate must go or Greg Oden will be a bust

[PapaG]

I don't agree with the thread title, but I'd rather Nate gave Oden more playing time when fouls aren't an issue. Oden's per-minute efficiency, for the season, is good. Oden does sometimes limit his own minutes with fouls...no need for Nate to limit them further, IMO.

When Oden shows energy, there is no reason to keep him on the bench. The problem has been he just doesn't seem to try at times, while at other times he dominates. He's seems a bit more complicated and hard to gauge than the average player. Also, I pointed out the subject of the thread because that is what I was responding to in my post.

 

[Minstrel]

When Oden shows energy, there is no reason to keep him on the bench. The problem has been he just doesn't seem to try at times, while at other times he dominates. He's seems a bit more complicated and hard to guage than the average player.

I agree, but I don't think it's a question of effort. He's been praised by his coaches at each level as very hard working. I think it's simply inexperience...when he becomes confused or ineffective, he doesn't assert himself as much. Or when he picks up fouls, he becomes tentative for fear of picking up more fouls. I think he just needs to play through it; rather than treating him as up and down in effort, I think he should be treated as up and down in effectiveness like most rookies. And, like most rookies, I think the solution is to let him play as much as possible to overcome the inconsistency. If he were a generally bad/ineffective player, I'd say plant him on the bench. But his per-minute efficiency doesn't suggest that to me.