tlongII
11-13-2009, 11:05 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2009/11/canzano_greg_oden_gets_a_more.html
http://media.oregonlive.com/john_canzano_impact/photo/odenvminnjpg-c8b4d45da9861f3a_medium.jpg
Greg Oden likely will face more opposition when get goes to the basket against New Orleans than he did in Minnesota Wednesday night.
He's 21 years old, and Superbad is his favorite movie, too. Anthony Palmer lives with his parents in Northeast Portland, and is a big Trail Blazers fan. When he's not going to school he works part time with a plumbing company.
I thought of him on Thursday because Palmer is a local college upperclassman who is the same age as the Blazers young center. And if we're looking for context, it's worth noting that this is about where Greg Oden might be in life if he weren't 7-feet tall and gifted with a basketball.
Oden had 18 points and 11 rebounds on Wednesday. For the first time this season he had more on-court smiles (one) than fouls (zero) during a game. And if you're like me, you spent Thursday wondering what the most encouraging part of Oden's recent improvement has been.
The points and rebounds are terrific. And the work Oden put in with assistant Bill Bayno is paying dividends. But what happens tonight against New Orleans is going to tell you as much about Oden as you've learned while he was beating up on Minnesota and Memphis.
If you're trying to look around the league and find the combination of teams against which Oden would have his largest advantage, don't waste your time. He just played them, back to back, and destroyed them.
The better measure comes tonight.
I'm talking about Emeka Okafor. When he was with Charlotte last season all Okafor did in a Bobcats win over Portland was serve as a headache for the Blazers, who failed to match up with him.
It's Oden vs. Okafor tonight. And there's Hornets guard Chris Paul, too, who will beat the Blazers point guards off the dribble, penetrate and cause Oden to rotate and try to stop the ball. And it's what happens in those critical seconds that will tell us how far Oden has come.
Will he reach? Will he fail to anticipate and move his feet? Will he commit foolish fouls? Because for all the excitement we had in the last four games, and as scary as a foul-free Oden makes the Blazers, if he ends up in foul trouble against the good teams, exactly how far can we say he's really come?
I love the smile. I love the fact he played 26 minutes against Minnesota without a single foul called on him. I love that Oden has made a pile of smaller, weaker, less-talented players look exploited. It's what good players are supposed to do when they encounter a mismatch.
I talked recently with a Western Conference general manager who said after the first five games of this season that Oden would be "good, but never great." And we don't have enough of a sample to say that won't be true, but what Oden has done in the last week raises reasonable doubt.
I know a city is behind the guy. He has the support and enthusiasm of Blazers fans. But let's face it, just how much depends on how well Oden performs night to night.
It becomes easy to forget that had Oden remained in college he'd be a senior at Ohio State, and even easier to forget that his college choices would have been limited if he weren't so tall, and so good with a basketball in his hands. Maybe it's worthwhile to get that perspective once in a while, even as we're watching the growth in Oden.
He'd probably be living with his mom, as a lot of college kids do in today's economy. Maybe, too, playing video games and worrying about midterms and, also, where he's going to find a job someday.
Talk about performing under pressure.
http://media.oregonlive.com/john_canzano_impact/photo/odenvminnjpg-c8b4d45da9861f3a_medium.jpg
Greg Oden likely will face more opposition when get goes to the basket against New Orleans than he did in Minnesota Wednesday night.
He's 21 years old, and Superbad is his favorite movie, too. Anthony Palmer lives with his parents in Northeast Portland, and is a big Trail Blazers fan. When he's not going to school he works part time with a plumbing company.
I thought of him on Thursday because Palmer is a local college upperclassman who is the same age as the Blazers young center. And if we're looking for context, it's worth noting that this is about where Greg Oden might be in life if he weren't 7-feet tall and gifted with a basketball.
Oden had 18 points and 11 rebounds on Wednesday. For the first time this season he had more on-court smiles (one) than fouls (zero) during a game. And if you're like me, you spent Thursday wondering what the most encouraging part of Oden's recent improvement has been.
The points and rebounds are terrific. And the work Oden put in with assistant Bill Bayno is paying dividends. But what happens tonight against New Orleans is going to tell you as much about Oden as you've learned while he was beating up on Minnesota and Memphis.
If you're trying to look around the league and find the combination of teams against which Oden would have his largest advantage, don't waste your time. He just played them, back to back, and destroyed them.
The better measure comes tonight.
I'm talking about Emeka Okafor. When he was with Charlotte last season all Okafor did in a Bobcats win over Portland was serve as a headache for the Blazers, who failed to match up with him.
It's Oden vs. Okafor tonight. And there's Hornets guard Chris Paul, too, who will beat the Blazers point guards off the dribble, penetrate and cause Oden to rotate and try to stop the ball. And it's what happens in those critical seconds that will tell us how far Oden has come.
Will he reach? Will he fail to anticipate and move his feet? Will he commit foolish fouls? Because for all the excitement we had in the last four games, and as scary as a foul-free Oden makes the Blazers, if he ends up in foul trouble against the good teams, exactly how far can we say he's really come?
I love the smile. I love the fact he played 26 minutes against Minnesota without a single foul called on him. I love that Oden has made a pile of smaller, weaker, less-talented players look exploited. It's what good players are supposed to do when they encounter a mismatch.
I talked recently with a Western Conference general manager who said after the first five games of this season that Oden would be "good, but never great." And we don't have enough of a sample to say that won't be true, but what Oden has done in the last week raises reasonable doubt.
I know a city is behind the guy. He has the support and enthusiasm of Blazers fans. But let's face it, just how much depends on how well Oden performs night to night.
It becomes easy to forget that had Oden remained in college he'd be a senior at Ohio State, and even easier to forget that his college choices would have been limited if he weren't so tall, and so good with a basketball in his hands. Maybe it's worthwhile to get that perspective once in a while, even as we're watching the growth in Oden.
He'd probably be living with his mom, as a lot of college kids do in today's economy. Maybe, too, playing video games and worrying about midterms and, also, where he's going to find a job someday.
Talk about performing under pressure.