Leading up to the playoffs and throughout the first round I kept hearing about how the Blazers were the "team of the future" and how much upside they had with the young pieces in place. I hadn't seen a whole lot of them until now, but I think they are still a long way from where everyone thinks they will be. Brandon Roy is undeniably talented. He can carry a team. But even Kobe and Lebron can't carry a team by themselves. Lamarcus Alridge is one of the best young big men in the game. He definitely needs to develop an inside game, but I think he's going to be a star. Rudy Fernandez is very raw, but a great 3rd option talent as well. Other than that? I don't see much. Particularly in Greg Oden and Travis Outlaw. Granted we had a couple of great perimeter defenders playing Outlaw, but the guy just does not pass the ball, and he takes incredibly low percentage shots. He's a classic ball hog...he plays like he's the first option, when he's really the third or the fourth. He would drive me crazy if he were on my team. And Oden...oh boy, did they screw up with that pick. I know, he's still coming back from injury. But he didn't display the slightest bit of talent to make me think he can even come close to living up to the hype. I didn't see a single thing in this series that made me say "oh, well now I see the potential." He's a less athletic version of Kelvin Cato to me, at this point. I think he'll be a career 15/10 guy at best with Roy on his team, and I think that's a stretch. Just thought I'd share a couple of observations I made during this series.
I think while they do have a lot of talent, the offense rarely goes beyond Roy and Aldridge. While I am high on Rudy, he barely gets the ball in their offense. Of course, he also spends the majority of the time in their offense parked outside the 3pt line. I think he can be more than that, and mix it up a bit ala Ginobili, but he hasn't shown much of that (beyond the occasional alley-oop). So yeah, I think they're farther than where everybody thinks. Outlaw, while young, has been in the league for 6 years IIRC, and has low BB IQ. It'll be interesting to see what happens when Webster comes back next year, and how much Bayless and Oden improves.
LOL that was exactly my thought when I read his description of Outlaw. Once Wafer gets teh ball, you can pretty much forget about it.
Outlaw is a taller version of Von Wafer. He'll be traded this summer. Count on that. Oden is a 20-year-old rookie who hasn't stayed healthy his entire career. What do you expect from him?
Outlaw really blew it in the playoffs. I've been saying for quite some time he's a goner from the Blazers and I'm surprised they kept him this long. While having talent, the guy is one of the least intelligent players in the NBA and won't get much better. He will be a 6th-7th man his entire career unless he plays on a dog team. I'll give Oden another year. He missed his entire rookie season because of injury after playing one year of college. He wasn't able to play 5-on-5 until September. If you think he looks bad now, you should have seen him to start the season. No doubt in my mind he hasn't recovered from the injury yet plus he has the entire summer to work on his footwork and play some ball to get sharp. If Oden doesn't look like a much different basketball player early next season, he'll justifiably be considered a bust. It's obvious the Blazers made the wrong choice. All Blazers fans have to get over their fantasy that Oden is going to be a superstar.
Oden has shown plenty of flashes during the season. This series was just a bad matchup for him against Yao who is probably the best in defending big centers in the league.
Greg Oden was only a bad pick because he was chosen before Kevin Durant. I still think he was a pretty good pick up for the Blazers...a team that needed a inside presence. We as Rockets fans (the city of great centers) know how long it takes a big man to become solid. Give him until his 3rd to 4th year and then we will decide if he is a bust. And I dont really even count this season as a whole season for him. Right now he is a foul machine, but he can fix that...if you remember both Yao and Scola were foul machines in their first year, but they both eventually adjusted. He is pretty young and already has a NBA build, alright footwork, and a knack for getting the rebound...oh ya he is pretty good at blocking shots too. With a good trainer for the next few seasons (like bynum had w/ kareem) the guy can become an all-star..its just going to take a few seasons.
Their offensive system is all about Roy and Aldridge. Their other guys don't even get a chance to touch the ball. That's the beauty of Adelman's offense. Everyone at least touches the ball...therefore keeping them more involved. The Blazers will go for spurts where Batum/Outlaw/Oden never even come near the ball.
I agree 100% with the OP's post. Travis Outlaw is a serious ballhog. He has no basketball IQ whatsoever and contributed to the Rockets winning by taking the worst shots possible at the worst time...Oden is also a bust, but I would give him an extra year since this was his rookie year to develop into something.
Wafer at least shoots open, high percentage shots most of the time. Outlaw is shooting tough fade aways over guys.
Nicolas Batum looks like a young Tracy McGrady with the height, wingspan, WIDE shoulders, and the ability to jump over anybody.
I dont know about you guys, but Oden showed a lot promise during this series. He still has a ways to go but he has shown he has an inside touch. Not many centers have that, especially someone like Dwight Howard. I say he has a higher ceiling than Howard if he doesnt get hurt and puts in the time.
You can say the same thing about 20 other young NBA players, just to name a few, Rudy Gay, Donte Greene, heck even James White...
Yeah, that missed dunk last night confirms that. I think Oden is out of the league in 5 years--he runs like a '95 version of Charles Jones.
