Oden: The Focus Will Be On 'D' First

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RR7 said:
head-in-the-sand2.jpg
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Personal attacks aside, we had trouble scoring on offense.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Or the face that we got beat in the first round with this offense.
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We got beat in the first round because other than Roy the entire team looked like they were scared to be there. I really do not think they understood how much more vicious and intense playoffs basketball is. I have no doubts they will have the idea this year.

I really like to think of it as a first Boston game (last year) vs. 2nd Boston game. In the first game, other than Roy (surprise, surprise) - they all looked dumbstruck and could not handle the trash-talking, the bumping and the physicality. In the 2nd game, LMA started by bumping KG (drawing first blood), Oden pushed Ray Ray and Nate implemented the still impossible to guard 6 on 5 offense - and we won, even without Roy.

I am willing to bet that if last year's team had one series of playoff basketball under their belt - the series against the Rockets would have looked a lot different.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Or the face that we got beat in the first round with this offense.
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Umm, isn't your argument that Oden should get more touches... do you really want to point to the post season in this case? Oden pretty much sucked in the Houston series.

I don't know why you've gotten your panties in a twist over this. Nate saying he wants Oden to focus first on defense and Oden being a bigger part of our offense are not mutually exclusive. He's going to get more touches this year.
 
Well, let's not let facts get in the way of your opinion. We didn't score a lot, but we certainly didn't have trouble scoring.
 
And #1 in points per possession.
 
Mediocre Man said:
But how does he get those shots? He should get 5 or so shots per game on nothing but offensive rebounds.
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I am guessing that Portland goes into him early in the game to force teams to pay attention to him.

I would figure 5 shots off of offensive rebounds and 5 from assists.

I am also going to say that he averages 4 trips to the line a game.

He probably won't get the ball in crunch time but I don't think that is a big deal.

With a good shooting percentage and free throws, 10 shots should be enough to give him 14+ points per game.
 
LittleAlex said:
I am guessing that Portland goes into him early in the game to force teams to pay attention to him.

I would figure 5 shots off of offensive rebounds and 5 from assists.

I am also going to say that he averages 4 trips to the line a game.

He probably won't get the ball in crunch time but I don't think that is a big deal.

With a good shooting percentage and free throws, 10 shots should be enough to give him 14+ points per game.
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The only thing I'd like to see changed with your guess is him getting it more than 5 times off set plays. Nothin past 10 though. And I agree 100% about him not being a focus at crunch time. Establishing him early will cause the defense to pay attention to him anyway.
 
The power of offensive rebounding cleaning up those clanking jumpers. We lost the Houston series because two out of five people in the starting lineup could be considered any offensive threat, because Joel and Nate let their pride get in the way for the first and last game in regards to Yao, and because we didn't make Yao expend any energy on the defensive end pretty much.

All the random pointing out off first in PPP and second in efficiency is all fine and dandy if you want to ignore that an offensive rebound doesn't count as a new possession in a lot of statistical offensive analysis; however, the fact remains that our guys are primarily a jump shooting team that was covered in that area by the best offensive rebounding team in the league (12.9 to Philadelphia's 12.7). Look at Greg versus the majority of centers in the league - they're going to have to foul him just to prevent him from getting easy points, and that means an easier time for Brandon driving the lane and LaMarcus taking small ventures into the post.

I have only seen one person here suggest making Greg a primary option, to force feed him the ball, and pound it down low. No, what most of us that happen to be annoyed are suggesting is that to start the game we go into the post a few times to start the first and third to see if we can get their front court into foul trouble; opposed to the other team doing that to Greg because they will be trying that tactic. If the matchup is there for Greg you keep going into it and if not you try a few other things. But if Greg has to get most of his shots off of offensive rebounds then that is absolutely no help to the continued development of Greg or the future of this team as a championship contender.
 
Mediocre Man said:
The only thing I'd like to see changed with your guess is him getting it more than 5 times off set plays. Nothin past 10 though. And I agree 100% about him not being a focus at crunch time. Establishing him early will cause the defense to pay attention to him anyway.
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Yeah, Greg in crunch time will be looking to tip in put backs or a possible open alley-oop, but everything else will be Roy/LMA/Miller and the occasional sighting from Outlaw.
 
Let me take it back before the issue came up of whether we have trouble scoring. The first issue was, Nate said that Oden shouldn't look to score. Almost everyone in the thread doesn't like that. McMillan makes me mad because:

If Oden is even just a credible decoy, his defender has to stay with him and not double someone else, allowing Oden to pass to a shooter hovering at a mid-range shot. The absence of a low threat is why our guards get close-in and long bombs, but few mid-range shots. Also, it makes driving layups easier for them because now Oden's defender must stay with him in case the guards pass to him. So even if McMillan stays with his jump shot offense, a scoring center will tire opponents and open up the middle more for jump shots.

So Oden should give attention to scoring, not just defense, whether or not you believe in McMillan's offensive system.
 
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