Jalapenos and More wrote:
Oden was better this year than last, and I'll attribute that to injuries. Forget the numbers and watch him play, whenever that happens next. I've watched him play about 30 games, 3 in person.
- He is tremendously slow at everything and makes the fundamental mistake of bringing the ball down when grabbing a contested rebound.
- He is always out of position on defense; good post players eat his lunch. Joel Przybilla is a much better defender, and he's not that good. To be fair, he doesn't get a lot of help. LaMarcus Aldridge plays PF like a SF on both ends of the court.
- You know why he has some limited minutes? He can't stay out of foul trouble, which stems from his terrible defense.
- His FG percentage is misleading because he dunks so much. He cannot make a shot more than 6 feet away from the basket, except for free throws.
- He doesn't have a thick skin. Not that he gets irritated with people, but he sulks and withdraws, and even takes criticism from beat writers to heart.
- It's almost somewhat unfair to him that he'll be held to the No. 1 pick standard. Especially because Kevin Durant was available. Oden could be the center on a championship team, but so was Luc Longley.
Perhaps, but speed and quickness isn't exactly a top requirement of a post player. he's clearly a more traditional center and that's almost extinct in the NBA these days so maybe it just seems unusual. I'm not saying it wouldn't help he had the speed of chris paul too, but I don't think that's a terrible concern. it's not like he suddenly became slow, that's his game. i trust your second point as i have not seen him play all that many games, even in college. but he's a rookie and hasn't played much in general, i think that's a correctable problem. So what is his FG% is high from dunks? Isn't that what you want him doing? why would you want him taking jumpers and thinking he's chris webber or something. I don't get that. did shaq ever shoot outside of 6 feet? not comparing oden to oneal but more the style of player he is. look, I think it's pretty clear Durant is going to be way more dominating of a player but someone mentioned previous page shouldn't he be a 15/10 player and i think that's very reasonable. I think he can. might not be worthy of being the #1 pick but like joe smith, he was never a dominating player as a #1 pick should be but he still had a very very good career. unfortunately though all of this is predicated on him being healthy which seems like it may never happen. could be another pervis ellison
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