[Game Thread] Portland @ Houston

[d-train]

There is a tendency to conceptually divide basketball in offense and defense but it

[SoHo]

^I actually couldn't agree with you more d-train. A big problem for us of late has been lack of a true post presence (because aldridge hasn't developed that part of his game yet) so adding Oden will totally change the way other teams have to play us.

It's too bad we have to wait... If we added Oden right now I think there is no doubt we're in the playoffs.

He just adds a whole new dimension to the team, and one that is sorely lacking without him.

[d-train]

There is a tendency to conceptually divide basketball in offense and defense but it

[d-train]

You're right, basketball is a fluid game. However, it is certainly possible to parse what a team does well and does not do well, and these can be divided into the different things that have been demonstrated to account for virtually all of the wins in any large sample of basketball games, namely shooting percentage (and opponent percentage), rebounding percentage, turnovers (as percentage of possessions), and free throws made (and opponent free throws made).

But I agree with what I take your point to be, that we really don't know how the Blazers stack up in any of the attributes of a winning basketball team because we haven't seen the team with Oden yet.

While it's fair to take a look at the factors I listed above and say that without Oden this team doesn't measure up to the best teams in the league, it doesn't follow that our guys suck and need to be dumped. Oden changes everything. My only reason for naming those factors is that once we have Oden, we'll need to take a hard look at the team's strengths and weaknesses, and there will remain decisions to be made on which players contribute to winning basketball and which don't.

You can break basketball down into parts for analysis but if you want to build a winning team, you need players that play the whole game. A great team needs every player to be a threat at all times. That doesn't mean Shaq needs to be able to fill the lanes on the fast break and make great plays in the open court but he does need to know what he can do in transition to help his team score and his teammates need to know they can count on him to get it done. You can't have players with weaknesses. We need players that know how to make their weaknesses irrelevant and understand what they can do in any situation to contribute. Brandon Roy has untapped potential in the open court because there is nobody that can get him the ball. Too often, I see Brandon hitting the defensive boards because he can't rely on his teammates to get a rebound. And, when our bigs do manage to get a rebound, they can't make a pass. Other than Brandon Roy, this team doesn't have much that impresses me. LMA is a great talent and Outlaw is an intriguing talent as well. Jack, Blake, and Jones play a full court game but they are mediocre players for various reasons. Other than Oden, Roy, LMA, and maybe Outlaw this team doesn't have any keepers IMO. That doesn't mean I think the other players should be dumped. I think this team has holes that need to be filled by adding better players. We need proven veterans but there is nothing wrong with young players like Roy that know how to play. Also, we are on a tight budget until 2009/10.