I think I know what rudy was complaining about, im pretty sure he was saying something along the lines of 'what the hell, how can you make that call? you cant even see the play' because im pretty sure all the ref shouldve been able to see was the back of a running player.
Good to see Oden emerge a little bit. He'll be good after working on his game for a while. 22 pts 10 reb 2 ast (5 to) 2 blk 1 stl 8/12 FG 6/8 FT
Oden does look flat footed. Its kinda amazing he can get off the floor being flat footed. I told my wife who was a collegiate sprinter that she should teach players how to run. The 1st game we went to together and she saw yao run, she said he would have foot problems. She said he runs poor. Now for a 5'6 130 lbs sprinter, that's easy to say about a guy of yao's size, but when she used to work football players, she said its even more important for big guys to run properly.
I don't know what to say if you don't see it. The way they talked, the things they said... the list goes on. To each his own.
But at least Yao knows how to move his feet properly (even if very slowly). Oden has no clue at all. If Oden's footwork ever gets as good as Yao's, other centers are in big trouble. Oden's footwork is horrific. With his back to the basket, he looks like a novice to basketball.
His footwork will never be great, but it can be better. That's what guys used to go see pete newell used to do. Wth his strong core and explosion, if he gets decent footwork, he'll be pretty good. He's already a good shotblocker and rebounder and right now he's just using brute strength, hut he kinda looks like howard.
If Oden ends up being another Dwight Howard, the Blazers will be just fine. With guys like Roy and Rudy setting him up for easy baskets, he'll average 20 pts/game easily. Plus, he seems to have a decent stroke at the FT line, unlike Howard. If Howard had a guy like Brandon Roy in the backcourt of the Magic, there is no telling how effective he would be. Too bad for him.
If you saw Oden against the Bulls last night, he "only" had 11/10 in 17 minutes (because the game was a massive blowout). But he looked like a different player. Every game he takes a step forward. You could tell he was more comfortable being out there and his confidence was higher. When Oden got the ball in the post, he didn't look so clumsy and out-of-sync. He passed out of the post crisply and was even re-posted a couple of times by perimeter players. Tomorrow night it's on the road against the Kings.
