mojomarc wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
I disagree about all of it other than I think you may be right that as a rookie his numbers might be around 15/12, giving him the benefit of the doubt of being a rookie and all. But here's the deal--Oden will have the power of a Shaq, with great hands (I can't remember him bobbling many passes at OSU last year with only one good hand, and I watched ten or so games not including the tourney). When you have that kind of advantage, I don't care if you do have Rudy and Roy--you give the ball to the guy who can score at 60%. Rudy and Roy are there for scoring on fast breaks and for opening the floor for Oden, keeping the defenses honest, in the fairly near run. They are there to make teams pay for double teaming Oden, not the other way around. In fact, if Oden is only scoring 15 points then that means he's essentially having no plays run for him, and Nate probably should be fired for not understanding how to coach a team with a player that dominant physically and skills-wise at that position, and if that's his top end KP should be fired for so greatly missing in his talent evaluation in the last draft and passing on Durant.
That's where we differ for guys like Shaq and Duncan played longer in college and were not coming off of major surgery. Remember Oden for all of his physical gifts has never been known to be a dominant scorer on a consistent basis. He's going to need to comfortable coming back from his
first major injury and will need some refinements in his game for he will be playing against for the most part guys that are closer to his size. He's also going to have to stay out of the foul trouble which we saw in college and during the summer league.
Hey, I'd like to be wrong for who wouldn't want to get 25 ppg and 15 rpg out of their center. We are going to be great dynamic team winning well over 50 games starting next season. Nate's going to have fun penciling Oden into his starting lineup and we will be explosive offensively on the break. It's just we don't need to have Oden score 25 ppg to win championships for if the numbers were 18-20 ppg with 15Rbg, 4 blocks
playing on a balanced roster that has 5 or 6 guys in double figures that is annual threat to win championships.
The only thing that matters is winning championships. What if the teams stats are as follows
Roy 18 ppg 7 apg
LA 18 ppg 9 rbg
Oden 15-18 ppg 12 rbg
Rudi 12 ppg 4 apg
Outlaw 12 ppg 5 rbg
Player xx signed as free agent with cap space in 2009 might score in double figures as either a PG or SF. The other guys on the team might score from 5-8 ppg in limited time but if we don't get that guy as a free agent, our starting guys with Outlaw and whoever we get would be getting us perhaps 90 ppg with other guys perhaps giving us another 20-25 ppg.
I just think the culture of the team will not want to emphasize one player's
stats and would prefer balanced scoring. That's not to say our guys would not feed Oden so that he could get us 40 points if there is a clear mismatch but we could have guys who will go off on different nights.