• Minutes Rebounds Blocks Points Fouls Games    Bowie 1st year 2216(29per) 8.6  2.7  10.0  3.6  76   2nd 1132(30per)  8.6  2.5  11.8  3.8  38
•  3rd 163(32per)  6.6  2.0  16.0  3.8  5    4th 412(21per)  5.3  1.7  8.7  2.1  20
•  Walton 1st 1153(33per)  12.6  2.6  12.8  3.3  35    2nd 1687(33per) 13.4  1.6  16.1  2.9  51  
• 3rd 2264(35per) 14.4  3.4  18.6  2.6  65  4th 1929(33per) 13.2  2.5  18.9  2.7  58
•  Oden 1st --------------------------------------------------------------- 2nd 1312(21per) 7.0  1.1  8.9  3.9  61 
  3rd 494(24per) 8.5  2.2  11.1  4.0   21  4th Anybodys guess who knows.......................................

 Remember most considered Bowie a bust and the numbers Oden has put up so far are very similar to Bowie. In Odens first 3 years he will end up putting in WAY less minutes than Bowie or Walton did in their injury filled first three years.However Oden is (at least on his birth cirtificate) younger than they were when they started playing. So maybe we can just delete his first 3 years and consider him a 22 year old rookie just getting started next year. By the way Waltons stats in that 3rd and 4th year were awesome if only he could have stayed healthy who knows what could have happened.

It seems it has been the only way to go since the game began over a 100 years ago, your big man picks up two early fouls and out he comes. Thats standard coaching 101 you are not going to lose one of your best players to early foul trouble, your going to need him when the game is on the line at the end. In the case of Oden I think this strategy shoud change as long as he is playing well leave him in no matter how many early fouls he picks up. Say you play him 8 minutes in the 1st & 3rd quarters and the last 6 minutes of the 2nd & 4th, as long as he is playing well he plays those minutes. If he fouls out in the first half or even quarter so be it the rest of the team will take it from there. I think it would help him to get into the flow of the game knowing he is not coming out due to some ticky tack foul he just picked up. Playing short periods of time coming in and out of the lineup due to foul problems I think its hard to get anything going. Its better to get one solid half and playing your best than a full game of just being there and going through the moves. The blazers are very deep and can afford to make a move like this, they will have a hard time finding minutes for everyone this year anyway. On nights when he does foul out early it would give some much needed playing time to some of the bench players. The blazers were 14-7 last year without Oden and 13 of those games were against teams with winning records so if he does foul out of a few games early I think we will survive. There is always the chance he will cut down on his fouls as his learning of the NBA game progresses and I am sure he will as the blazers look forward to some NBA championship rings in the future. 
 

I think last year the blazers were at or near the top of the league in offense, do they really need to bring in another SF for a "third scoring option"? I know he is a good player, good passer, can shoot the 3, and hit some big shoots in the clutch. But paying 10 million a year for five years for a player who has 2-3 declining years left is WAY too much to pay. Let Toronto have that deal we have had way more than our fair share of bad contracts,let him go and good luck. Lets go with the players we have at the SF (Webster, Batum,Outlaw and even Rudy and Roy) I think we will be more than fine with that group,give them a chance. Lets use the money and go after Paul Millsap. Right now we have no one to back up LA at PF if he went down the blazers would be in a world of hurt. I think we could get Millsap 20-25 minutes a game with LA playing a few minutes at the center spot. Millsap still has a big upside and he plays a position that we really need at this point. With Webster coming back and hopefully big improvements from Oden and Bayless(who would have been a top 5 pick in this years draft) the skys the limit, but now back to reality and here comes Turkoglu and here we go again.

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This post is not intended as a slam to GO, but what I think would help the blazers the most at this point in time. He had a 5 game streak early in the year when he was coming off the bench where he went for 9.5 reb., 13 pts, and 2.5 blks per game. He has had most of his success this year against weaker opponets and for the most part struggled vs the good ones. Joel has been playing very well for us in the starting role and has had good games when playing against the better teams in the league. We would really have some fire power in the 2nd unit with GO, TO, and Rudy coming off the bench. I do not think there are very many (if any) teams who could match up to that group with their 2nd units. Its nice that we have two good centers that we could do a move like this. On most teams in the league a player like Oden would have to be inserted back into the starting lineup asp,and I am sure the blazers will be one of them in a year or two as his game improves. But for now lets bring him off the bench and DESTROY other teams 2nd units!! 

I think the NBA shoud think about changing the way it handles players who commit flagrant fouls that result in an injury to another player. Right now it usally results with a fine and a 1-2 game suspension and thats it. The injured player could be out for 3 months and his team and him have to deal with that while the one who caused it misses only a couple of games. I think if a player commits a flagrant foul and it results in an injury to another player he shoud not be allowed to play again untill the player he injured is able to play . After the injured players first game back the player who commited the foul can serve his 1-2 game suspension and return. I know the guy (in this case Ariza) is going to say he was making a play on the ball, and maybe he was it does not matter if its called a FLAGRANT foul and results in injury to the player this is what happens. This seems like the only way to handle these things in a semi fair way. Afterall its not right that the player who got hurt through no fault of his own shoud miss games while the one who caused it continues to play. Im sure most of the time nobody is trying to injure anyone but those are the breaks, in the end the one who gets hurt still gets the worst of it. Anyway for now we will have to live with the stupid slap on the wrist 1-2 game suspension and the game goes on,it sucks!!

1. Hey guys I think we have a great chance of going 2 for 3 on this road trip maybe even a sweep!!!! Sure we do not have Oden on the trip but playing against good teams on the road is not his thing anyway(7pts,4reb,0.4blks in 23 minutes is his average inlast 5 road games vs a winning team). Lets face it his "D" has not been the best through that strech either, so I do not think it will be to hard to make up for that kind of production. On the other hand Houston will be without McGrady and the Spurs will not have Ginobili players that are much more important to thier teams than Oden is to the Blazers at this point in time.(not to mention no Jefferson for Timberwolves) So if the Blazers can play smart and hard with everyone contributing something they shoud have a chance for a great road trip, GOOD LUCK BLAZERS!!!!!!. Thought I would end up with a "Letterman type" top 10 list of excuses or reasons for GO not having the season many had hoped for.

#10 Living up to all the hype coming out of college puts a lot of added pressure on. #9 Just turned 21 years old still very young ...................................................................... #8 Getting to know the NBA all the the things you shoud and shoud not do.............. #7 Being a Rookie you do not get the calls or respect a veteran does ....................... #6 No help on pick and roll and getting stuck on a guard causing added fouls........ #5 The referees getting to know his game........................................................................ #4 Bigs take longer to develop than smaller players...................................................... #3 Teammates not getting him the ball when open........................................................ #2 ALL big men get hurt heres the list............................................................................... #1 MICROFRACTURE it takes at least 2 years to recover............................................. Well on with the show!!

It seems your average blazer fan has certain things they believe in and one of them seems to be lets trade Outlaw. Afterall he never plays "D" ALWAYS pulls up and takes the jumper and pass the ball forget it. They just see what they want to see and disregard all the many positives he brings to the team. He could go 9-10 but all they would see is the one jump shot he missed that he shoud have never been taking in the first place. TRADE him!!!! Of corse the no "D" no pass allways take the jumper is not true. Outside of Roy I do not think there is another blazer who has contributed more to some big wins this season than Travis. Many times this season he has come in when the team was struggling at the offensive end and hit some big shots to get things headed in the right direction. When the 4th quarter rolls around you can expect him to be in there in a close game taking and making a big shot(like against the knicks the other night) to pull out a win. Its not easy to find players like him who can come off the bench and light a spark plus fit in to the team chemistry that is so VERY important!!!!! Inspite of the blazers lack of a good team defense right now I think their team chemistry is great and the "D" will come. If we win tonight we will be 33-19 at the break, not bad. Unless someone wants to give us something great for RLEC lets just keep what we have and see how things go, we can allways tweak things during the summer. Anyway just wanted to get something positive said for Travis all the negitive gets old.

Since the 1st of December the Blazers have played 31 games, 15 vs winning teams and 16 vs losing teams. In those games Oden has started them all and has 14 in which he played well(13.9pts, 11.0reb, and 1blk in 28 minutes) and 17 poor games(4.9pts, 3.3reb, .6blk in 21 minutes). Seems to be very inconsistent but really he is very VERY consistent. In the 15 games against the good teams he has had 2 of the good games and 13 bad ones while having12 good and only 4 bad ones vs losing teams. At this stage in his career he seems to be having problems playing in harder games and tougher opponents but not so much vs easier ones. This being the case why not start Przybilla vs the winning teams and bring in Oden off the bench to feast on the opponents 2nd unit. Joel has been pretty consistent if not better against the winning teams and this might give Greg a chance to come in and get his game going(maybe not so many fouls, who knows). At least I do not think he would do any worse than the 5pt 3reb game he would probably get if he started. Against losing teams (like New York tonight) he could continue to start and tear em apart. Anyway in a bold prediction for tonights game against a losing team AT HOME he has a big game 18pt 13reb 2blk, just a guess we will see.

Since the Blazers last win against a winning team on the road back on 11-30 (Detroit) they have played 28 games (14 against winning teams and 14 against losing teams. In the 14 games vs the losing teams Oden puts up 12.5 pts, 9.7 rebs, and1.0 blks per game in 27 minutes not bad for a rookie center. But against the winning teams he drops to 5.5 pts, 4.5 rebs, and 0.6 blks per game in 21 minutes,BIG difference.In many of these games he has picked up the dreaded 2 early fouls and from coaching 101 you are to take him out and they do and we all know what happens from there a 3pt 2reb night 90% of the time.It does not work. Why not keep his playing time the same no matter how many fouls he picks up,call a time out if you have to but keep him on the floor untill its his normal time to come out. We have Joel and LA can play some center too if he needs to. Its not the end of the world even if he were to foul out in the first half and I would bet he would have a lot better numbers in that one half than he has the whole game by making the conventional move.There is nothing to lose try something!!!!! When he matures in a year or two the normal stratagy will probably be the way to go but right now it does not seem to be. We have NO and Dallas coming up on this road trip and we need a contribution from everyone, heres hoping for a 3-0 trip and a couple of good games from GO!!!!