I have been shocked by both the national and local media talks about Oden's offense. Whether it is Barkley on TNT saying Oden has no offensive weapons except the dunk, or the cool cats at BlazersEdge telling him to shoot 100 shots three times daily, I dont understand what these people were expecting. Besides his above average FT% for a Big Man, Oden has not shown anything that he was going to be a great shooter. Yet, the media is all talking like they were expecting him to average 20 points right outta the gate.
I know his first NBA regular season game was cut short, but Oden looked awful offensively. He couldn't shoot facing the basket, and he doesn't seem to have a hook. Oden didn't have any of these in preseason either, but he still managed to average 10+ points in his limited minutes. What I'm getting at, is that, when Oden is on the floor run the same offense as if Joel was on the floor. Don't feed Oden the ball, don't run plays for him. Let him play down low, get rebounds and play defense. Roy passed the ball into Oden three times in the early part of Tuesday's game, and it either ended with a poor (to be nice to Oden) shot, or him passing it right back. Oden is a rookie, let him play at the NBA game speed for a while before you ask him to take the offense on his shoulders.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not wanting to sound negative about Oden, but he is a rookie, and needs to be treated like one. Of all the players I have seen come into this league, the player I would compare Oden to the most at this stage is Yao Ming. Not that they have similar styles of play in anyway, but Yao struggled immensely his first year but finished the season with 13pts, 8rbs respectively. Now Yao averages 20 and 10, and Oden will certainly do that in his career, but it needs to start by letting him adjust, and letting him capitalize on easy baskets after rebounds and dunks.
(Deep Breath)(Sigh)
I can't wait for Oden to get back on the court, but I would love to see Nate relieve some the pressure by not asking Oden to score. I'm glad the season is here fellow fans, and lets look forward to watching Blazer basketball all weekend! I know it's tough with Oden being, but let's not forget that we are still in much better shape then we were 5 years ago, and much improved over last year.
Go Blazers!
