I could go into a rant about how I disagree with the methods taken by the Training Staff or any other alternatives. The question that I have most now is this: Why is he getting operated on so soon?

Is he going to die if they dont cut that knee open and perform another harsh, harsh surgery TOMORROW? Is he goign to die if they buy more time for him while he stays off of his knee and gives it a rest for a while?

This sounds like executing the criminal shortly after a questionable guilty verdict. Why TOMORROW? They did this immediate surgery the last time he had a problem and that too came "seemingly out of nowhere" and required an "immediate surgery".

I bet in 10 years microfracture will look like a totally bad and unneeded thing compared in hindsight.

Why not in 2 weeks? 2 Months? Whats the deal? Oh, I get it, so he can be back 2 weeks earlier than he would have come back from his 2nd microfracture.

We have seen some teams in the last few years who's intent seems to be to hurt opposing players. Many of them try hard to get one of those not so clean or overdone hits close to the end of a pass or shortly after the pass (as long as the hit could be somewhat "mistaken" for legal). They are putting their heads down and drilling guys right out of games. The NCAA has punished these teams for these hits, yet they keep occuring.

The plan seems to be to take out key players and make your team one dimensional and defend against that. Can the Ducks ever afford to let a team take out who they want without repercussion in the future?

Teams can beat the Ducks cheaply....but can they do it without being dirty? I have seen Ohio State and Stanford do it, but Stanford was figured out in 2nd half last year and Ohio State has never played the Ducks with DT. If these teams are not policed properly the Ducks need to protect themselves in a battle like this. Oregon is not a cheap shot place in general, but let's not forget-- it would have to get over some naivete in a street fight with New York state.

The other teams are saying "there is no crying in football" while they run off with your accolades. Anyone else think a team who does nothing to protect itself wins a NC against blood suckers? Not so sure about that. Your #1 guys goes out the game and no one ever remembers why your team lost. The larger #1 type teams in the recent past did not get cheap shotted so much as other teams were somewhat afraid of getting hit back by the Bama's, USC's and Florida's. I would imagine your players are uncertain about the outcomes of games when they know how they are going to react to every situation and don't have to keep "shaking the losses off".

On the real it seems as if the the only thing that could stop the Ducks are injuries and TO's. So clean up the TO's and protect yourself against injury.

How would you handle this going forward? Appalled this topic would even be discussed?

Greg Oden is our concern here. It seems we are not the only team questioning our training staff. The Lakers have a discussion about the handling of Andrew Bynum with LAL vs. what the Phoenix Suns are doing today.

http://theassociation.blogs.com/the_association/2008/03/the-lakers-have.html

Bynum can't stay healthy either. Even now he is battling a torn meniscus. The Sun's trainers were able to fix an underlying physical problem in Grant Hill that escaped other teams' physical trainers. This allowed him to continue his career for the first time, healthy, without falling victim to career-ending type injuries. The article is a great read and one important note I take from it is the comment from an Egoscue Therapist.

a friend forwarded me this post. Love it. The problem is the Laker staff seems to be entrenched in the old model. If you injure something, then you need to strengthen all the muscles around it. So blow your knee out? Then strengthen all the muscles around the knee.

What they are missing is the POSITION of the body and they are not dealing with the body as an integrated unit. I’m the clinic director of The Egoscue Clinic in Austin, Texas. I’ve been a Laker fan since I was a little kid in the early 70s. I predicted to friends over two years ago, in writing, that Bynum would injure his left knee because I saw a photo of him at his rookie media day event and his left knee was in a crappy position that left it vulnerable. They’ve done nothing to improve the position of that knee and the training he’s done has probably served to amplify the mispositioning, leaving the knee more predisposed to destructive torque.

I saw video of Vitti explaining Bynum’s injury and rehab process. He acknowledged the mispositioning (valgus stress) but it sounds like he is treating it like it’s a genetic thing they have to live with. They don’t. It can get a lot better if you provide the body the proper stimulus. I have little faith they are doing that.

I don’t know precisely what the guys in Phoenix are doing but it sounds a LOT like what we at Egoscue do and how we look at the body. So yes, there’s a reason their guys get better and healthier while others don’t. You have to look at the body as a unit and treat it as such and consistently strive to present the body the demand it needs to come back to balance. You do NOT strengthen a mispositioned joint, that’s a prescription for injury.

Now look at how Greg Oden's rehab has been handled in the past, contrary to what the Egoscue therapist says. Video Jay Jensen in the end saying, "make sure you get a load of that muscle…his quad muscle. Look how big that sucker is!" is a little scarrry if the Egoscue Therapist is right.

The Egoscue method could be written off as quackery in certain rings, but with 24 official clinics worldwide, I think thats enough clout to argue with a physical trainer or two. The other lesson folks, is never write something off as quackery until you have been exposed to both sides fully, then make a decision. Don't make a decision based on only seeing one side of the equation. That stance is biased and unqualified to make judgement.

What are the advantages if these Egoscue guys are right? You could put your whole team through it. You would be able to draft/trade players with better vision as to what afflictions are fixable and not(risk/reward). It could the root cause of most of the angst this organization is running into. Is KP in hot water if GO is being seen as the 2nd coming of Dwight Howard and Brandon Roy is able to keep his nagging problems silenced? All of this doom and gloom seems to be a path that this organization does not have to go down.

**** EDIT **** Here's another article about the Suns' training staff and process'. It also highlights how teams and players like Nash and Stoudemire did not buy into their methods at first, but are now full believers from results. Thanks to Natsthecat for link in comments. http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/0929suns-train0930.html

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard that Paul may have lost upwards of $500,000,000 while owner of this team. Immediately I started to feel that I should take some time to understand the man a little more before rushing to judgement on ALL of his decisions. Fact of the matter, none of us has lost that kind of money trying to follow this team. Sure, you might be able to compare % of income lost on the Trail Blazers, but still $2, $10,000 does not = $500,000,000. I want to keep KP as well, but I could find any excuse to get cranky in his position. Add into that his recent cancer struggles/chemotherapy and I think we need to give the man at least some support. Last time I checked, chemo can be hard on your mind and body.

Paul released a statement on supporting Pritchard for the time being, I think we should all remember this: "We all have the same goal -- to bring another NBA championship to the great fans of Portland." I suppose a round of ovations may have more sway with the man than a round boos at the moment. I could be wrong, but if I were in his shoes, that would go a long way. We got what we wanted, for now, let's back down a bit.

 

loyal_blazer

non Vulcan

Can't say I disagree with his points, I wouldn't go so far as say he's the #1 disappointment. It does read into his potential. I can't help but think all of the success he desires will come from answering his critics down low. Gotta up the grit. Easier said than done. He probably does not feel his play is as soft as it looks at times. Can he win a tug-of-war for the ball against a gaurd once in a while?

http://blogs.hoopshype.com/blogs/johnson/2010/01/16/the-top-10-disappointments/

I remember watching videos on old great Celtics teams. They made it known that if you did not have a jump shot, you were going to develop one as a right of passage to wear a Celtics jersey.

 

To me the Trail Blazers right of passage at this point should be attacking the hoop at the end of games to put some pressure on the refs to make a call. No more jumper after jumper, particularly at the end of close games. The Blazers have not learned from the 2000 WCFs against, you know who. In life any person or group who does not learn from their mistakes, will NOT progress. I understand Nate was not here when that happened. I understand BROY was not here when that happened. Nevertheless, they should all have watched that 4th quarter 10+ times. It's an important piece of history that MUST be learned from.

 

Whether or not you believe the conspiracy theories, I think we can all agree that the NBA is not a level playing field for all involved. The Blazers MUST put pressure on the refs to blow the whistle, not swallow it. There is only so much evidence the refs can sweep under the rug before it starts to flood out from under it. By taking 10+ jumpers in a row while your opponent counters with a hard drive to the hoop, you are asking for an L in every way imaginable. You can only wonder how the game ends up with 5-6 straight drives to the hoop.

 

The Grizz were in the penalty for half of the 4th qtr for Pete's sake! To close out the game, there was the questionable call against Roy. The fans lambasted the refs and I would suspect many of you had the same feeling I did…..”oh great, now lets see what they do to us.” There is a bigger game played between the ears that the entire organization needs to learn how to play and win. The Spurs did it. Learn how to put more of the teams destiny in their own hands.

I have not been one to look back and question who was the right pick. As a matter of fact I have not thought or worried about Kevin Durant. After seeing this though, reality has set in and I think we will all have to come to grips with KD being a great player. Still have hopes for Oden, so long as the management can figure out the underlying problems making him injury prone. Needless to say, KD is seeming to already live up to his side of the deal.

Kevin Durant may have the greatest plus/minus improvement in NBA history. He was one of the very worst players in the league by that measure last season, and now he's second best. Only Dirk Nowitzki rates better in Wayne Winston's adjusted plus/minus. As of today, Durant's Thunder are giving up 11.5 fewer points per hundred possessions when he's on the floor. And they're scoring 13.75 more. That's unbelievable. (Interestingly, the next best player in the NBA, according to this early-season measure, is Marc Gasol. Then LeBron James and Luol Deng. If those numbers seem a little funny ... it's early yet. Plus/minus means a lot more with bigger samples.)

I agree with the article in the sense that Blazers management needs to understand this guy is playing on uneven stilts out there, against other large, professional athletes. Until they fix this problem by finding the most cutting edge help out there, he will be destined to a career of bang-ups and possible microfractures. A career summed up with one word, "hope".

A player will also be much more fatigued falling down and tripping. This drains the body of energy very quickly. 

 

Here's the article:

From ESPN.com - The State of Greg Oden

Just saw some video of Greg Oden playing against Brook Lopez and Kevin Love in the USA Basketball Showcase.

Look at him out there! Seven feet tall. Strong as an ox, even though he's just barely legal drinking age. Making rebounds that would be difficult for anyone else look easy. If he were still at Ohio State, anyone would consider drafting him at the top of the lottery, even with his injury history.

And this particular performance has been noted as somewhat encouraging.

I loved a lot of what I saw, particularly his conditioning, and commitment to containing smaller quicker ballhandlers.

But for whatever reason, watching this video was the moment that I lost a chunk of hope. In short: He has clearly been working out, working on his game and getting healthy. And as I have written a zillion times, he's an elite NBA rebounder right now, which is more than reason enough to keep him him on the court.

Nevertheless, you watch this and wonder if he'll ever be Greg Oden, as in the franchise-changing player who is a key part of big runs that win important playoff games. The Oden we have right now has some real and troubling obstacles.

• Even though he has been in the NBA mix for more than two years now, he still looks surprised by a lot of what happens on the court.
  
• He falls down a lot. Enough that it matters in and of itself. (If every player fell as much as he does, "wipeouts" would be a column in the boxscore.) Even more importantly, that many miscalculations and collisions, it's hard on a body, and he's been the king of injuries. The final reason I bring how often he hits the deck: It's a measure of the degree to which he is not anywhere near "in the zone" out there. When players are just rolling, they say everything seems to go really slow for them. To Oden, things seem to be going really fast.
• If you make ten perfect passes to him at game speed, he might make five decent catches.

He may well get there. He's a really nice seeming guy (to the extend I've met him) and I'm pulling for him.  But if he does become a superstar, we should honor his hard work, and also remember to look around for some coaches and trainers to thank for their hard work -- because we've seen enough to know he's not a natural.

The chances of Lamar Odom wanting to play in Portland while sharing time with Aldridge, Odom and Pryz are slim. I think if you are the Blazers you offer him a 3 year mega deal, then as he exits his prime we move on to the future. Addition by subtraction from the Lakers would catapult this organization past the Lakers IMO. We could then see what we can do about upgrading the PG position. Sure Odom shows up when he wants and is thought of as soft, but you take him off the Lakers and they suddenly do not have as many guys being long out there. That, is the #1 reason I believe they won this year, Kobe 2nd(maybe 3rd). Chances are slim to pull this off, I think you do as much as possible to make this happen because this takes you immediately into the first leg of championship runs with Roy. I am 100% confident in Batum and Roy's ability to take it to a declining Bryant.

This would leave Portland with:

Oden/Pryzbilla

Aldridge/Odom

vs

Bynum/Didier Ilunga-Mbenga

Gasol/Josh Powell

The Blazers owner(s), management and Oden's agents need to help Oden get fixed up.

I would be looking for the worlds foremost authorities on physiology and see if anyone can fix his alignment issues.

"The team executive noted that "big guys always seem to have bad backs.'' But he did express concern about Oden's wrist. "The people I talked to said it was pretty serious,'' the executive said. "Sometimes the wrist never comes back.''

I've also heard an unrelated rumor -- which did not show up in the Orlando physical -- that another team is expressing concern about the long-term health of Oden's knees.

"We haven't heard anything about his knee,'' said agent Bill Duffy, who represents Oden in association with Mike Conley Sr. "One thing we are aware of is that his hip alignment is off. One of his legs is longer than the other, but he's obviously had that for a long time.''"  2007 Pre-Draft

This says a few things:

-Oden broke his shooting wrist, this could or could not be bad.
-Oden has one leg that is longer than the other, which causes known hip alignment issues.
-Oden's knees do not particularly look so good. They coud be prone to injury.

 

A few observations:
Oden's hook is not pretty. The touch does not seem to be there and the accuracy is not so high. Could be a bum wrist folks? Not too down on this if the rest of Oden is healthy.

When Greg is walking on the court, he walks with a hitch and does not look coordinated while playing. One side looks like it is walking down an extra step. I suppose all of us wouldnt look so coordinated trying to, bounce a basketball while running on half stairs with 7'+ Andrew Bynum draping over us. Add in other players feet and misaligned hips I would guess this could result in a few rolled ankles, especially when the body has extra weight on it.

Why Greg's knees are prone to injury and has already had microfracture surgery. When a body is misaligned it begins getting wear and tear on the joints. Oden's ankles and knees are the closest joints to the bottom of his feet, where the impact during walking/running occur.

The Ogoscue Method of realignment doesnt subscribe that one leg longer than the other is such an anomoly that its not worth considering(high % of diagnosis incorrect), I am sure it is not the only physical system or method that believes this. Most can be fixed through alternate methods. At this point not any one person should not be calling all the shots to fix Oden. This is a job for everyone to get involved in and come to a conclusion. I got a good feeling the standard method of doing microfracture/rehabbing is not the right solution to Oden or most others. Not when a fix to the cause, not the symptom is in need.

Greg has overcome quite a few things, but he is going to need more help in this field from the people around him. He used to fumble the ball quite a bit. I heard rumor it was from a Sham-Wow he was using to dry his hands. He used to get stripped a lot more. He learned to keep the ball up and dunk quicker. When he came back from his late season injury, it seemed his knee had more spring after getting that short time of rest. A whole summer will be nice.

Oden is a priz e fighter...he needs to be walking on level ground like Dwight Howard or as close as possible. Don't let politics ruin the mans chance at a proper career!

If it helps, Greg, get Brandon doing it....it would help alot.

Hope this was easy to follow.

This is a great jump shooting team...but the shots we should be taking are pretty much only when someone is wide open for three. We shouldnt be jacking shot after shot up. We need to get this team in foul trouble just as they do us. They are experienced and often put their heads down and bull rush the basket. The Blazers gotta force the refs to blow the whistle, because right now The Rockets physical style of play is getting the benefit of the calls. They are allowed 100% more contact before a whistle is called.

Right now the Rockets are winning the game in the game(hence the 2-1 series advantage despite being tied 3-3 in pts in a half). A good way to combat this without experience/savvy is to put your head down and drive to the lane hard. BRoy shouldnt be the only guy doing this. Hes got to protect his body more than anyone else.

To anyone who says that it was Rudy who got us back in the game with long jumpers...I agree! Those should be however some of the few long jumpers we should be taking. Wide-open shots with our better shooters. We should be much more mid-range and attack the basket plays. At first it migh tlook ugly but the refs and the Offense will come around! Be strong and muscle through the adersity of shot blocks and swallowed whistles! It will pay off within a quarter!

I say "we" because, I do refer to the Blazers as "we".

I have wanted Outlaw benched for most of the season. If I were coach I would only put him in to close out quarters/games and we need a shot or a distraction. I don't want him sniffing the court the rest of the time. If you are a one trick pony and can only do this, then you better be able to come in like Steve Kerr and already be HOT.

 

Here's TO's per game stats after 3 playoff games.

min: 28.33

fgm/fga: 9-30 (30%)

ft's: 3-6 (50%)

reb: 2

ast: .67

blocks: .67

to's: 1

smart plays: 0

 

Everyone states-- "how are you gonna get your shot back Trav?" How about-- "How else are you going to help this team Trav?" According to the numbers he is not helping with aggressiveness to the hoop. Thats 3 trips to the line in 85 total minutes. He's not helping with playmaking for others or by rebounding either. 2 rebounds in 28.33 minutes per game? Thats 6 rebounds in 85 minutes Can we finally bench this guy?

What's the hold-up? Travis Outlaw...the BIG leak in the hose.

That the first time he played Andrew Bynum, he was thrown to the ground on some of the first few plays. Shortly after that, he re-injured his foot and Bynum played him more aggressively than I have ever seen anyone play Oden. Oden was hobbling around and Bynum was putting his entire body weight all over the guy. As if to say he did not care if Oden was injured-- he was going to push that injured foot to the limit.

I am not a mind reader, but I am sure the goal was to not preserve any health Greg had left. All of that work to get back after microfracture only to sniff a few minutes of a game and be gone once again.

I hope you remember that tomorrow Greg.

I hope the team remembers Ariza's hard foul on Rudy.

I hope the team remembers Odom's hard foul on Roy.

This team does not deserve any friendly thoughts or contact from the Blazers.

The last 3 games have been absolutley spectacular from LaMarcus. He is running the floor and attacking. During an interview he said that he wanted to do everything better and it shows.

LaMarcus, you have just joined Roy as my two favorite Blazers.

I never thought he was soft, just young. A 20 y/o is always going to have trouble physically against a 28-35 y/o who does the same things as you. As Lamarcus gets even older and stronger he is going to be incredible! He is showing he wants to bang down low and he's still young! With this attitude and the fact he is getting older and wiser by the day.
So props to you LaMarcus--- it's all going with notice and you da man.

Nick, you're up next.

Oden, you could or couldnt happen at any time. I'm betting you will.

Bling Bling goes the Rings

19 out of 20 games he kills me. Forgive me for not posting to the Denver game section, but I need to vent!

They put Outlaw into the game and Carmelo nails shot after shot in his face. Does he even read the scouting report? Does he not know he shouldnt give up space to Carmelo?

He does not rebound. He does not pass well. He does not play like he reads a scouting report. He does not make smart plays. He makes dummmm plays. He hardly ever knows who to gaurd on his way back on D, if he even gets back fast enough to gaurd someome.

All he seems concerned with is wether or not he can shoot the ball.

I am so tired of watching the same BS ball from this guy I am about to quit watching this team. He is the weakest link and I do not understand why Nate plays him so much.

For all the Travis apologists who say he makes so many clutch shots--- he is the reason most of the time the team is down and must come back. IMO he brings everyones +/- down and Roy has to bailout the negative play Travis brings to the team.

I wouldn't be ripping him so bad if I did not see him, rebound, defend and hustle when his family is in town. If I was a coach, this would be unacceptable!

Now I will go back to watching the Blazers try to climb their way back into this game. Hopefully Travis will be riding the pine.

I have seen alot of Bynum apologists around forums saying things like, "to all you sick *expletive*'s who said it's Bynum's Karma for hurting Wallace, it won't be a season ending injury!"

Many Laker fans seem to think that Bynum comes out in this debate squeeky clean. Well I would like to be put on record as saying that he absolutely does not. Many people remember Bynum "owning Oden" in their first encounter. My recollection of the game goes like this-- Oden takes Bynum's best moves in the post then proceeds to block his shot almost off the court. Unfortunately, that was not shown on national TV, so here's the link in case you missed it. They then go down the court and Oden gets such deep post on Bynum, Andrew literally throws him to the ground. Sometime between then and the next minute or two Oden is hobbling around on a clear and tragic injury. What does Bynum do? He rides Oden as hard as he can while playing D in the post. Oden can barely walk and Bynum is pushing him out of the paint with all of his body wait and trying to generally being as physical as possible with Oden as he possibly can. I am not saying Bynum in this instance needs to take it easy on Oden, but thinking about how much Greg had been through at that point, the whole league knew, in his first game back and you have to do him like that? There are many different ways to react to what happened on the floor and seeing Oden barely able to walk and Andrew chose one of the scummier ways to handle the situation. Being as that you threw the man to the ground a few moments before probably paints more about your character than Laker fan would like to acknowledge.

The elbow-led, lung-collapsing flagrant on Wallace did not surprise me in the least. Let's face it, Bynum has some scum-bag in him. I wonder how Laker fan would take Oden doing the same to Bynum on his first game back from his newest injury.

It also cracks me up despite all the Laker-Memphis conspiracy going around, that this is the same team Bynum gets his injuries against. Karma leveling itself out here? Hey, I didn't wish any of this on Bynum. Laker fan(not all of them, but quite a high percentage) is just upset they have to feel some of the pain that the same guy has doled out to other teams/organizations and they cannot handle it. Where was the outrage then?