Portland Trail Blazers Breakdown: Oden Showing Signs of Reaching Potential

[Erick Blasco]

With legitimate title aspirations governing the Blazers, their home date with the San Antonio Spurs would be a good barometer to indicate who the Blazers are, and who they will need to be come playoff time. For the game-at-hand, they were 96-84 winners, but lets look at the particulars.

 

With Portland’s offense sputtering and Andre Miller stagnant over the early part of the season, the Blazers added Miller to the starting lineup, moving Steve Blake to the shooting guard position, and bumping Brandon Roy to small forward.

 

The results of the move were noticeable.

 

• Portland was able to get out and go much more effectively, tallying 12 fast break points. They were last in fast break points coming into the game.
• Portland had crisp ball movement, reversing the ball from side-to-side before setting up their post ups and isolations.
• Portland could still play Blake and Roy in their natural positions on defense, while hiding Miller on Keith Bogans.

Despite Miller shooting only 2-9, several of his attempts were forced shot-clock beaters. He would only drive opportunistically, seeing a defender overplaying the post, reading the defense overplaying a screen, or bulling his way into the paint in early-offense.

 

He posted up once and drew a double team, however, Travis Outlaw missed a wide-open three.

 

Defensively, Miller executed several good rotations, and used his long arms to rip Manu Ginobili twice. However, Miller also lacks a quick defensive first step, couldn’t get around several screens, and gave up on a Keith Bogans backdoor cut.

 

LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden represent Portland’s main post offense, but both operated to mixed results.

 

When asked to post Matt Bonner, Aldridge could hardly gain any leverage and wound up missing two twisting fadeaways. Aldridge also tried to post Duncan from the right box in the second quarter, but he couldn’t back him down, couldn’t get past him with his left hand, and missed a twisting contested baseline turnaround. Naturally, Aldridge was much more forceful when posting Michael Finley instead.

 

Defensively, Aldridge was too often asked to guard San Antonio’s guards after switches and he was always a half step too slow. His best play of the night was rotating in front of a rolling Tim Duncan to draw a charge.

 

Oden was also a mixed bag. Early in the game, he rushed a right hook and missed badly, though he also calmly sank a 12-foot jumper. Defensively, he tended to drift and be off balance when guarding the post one-on-one. That tendency to not stay planted strong to the ground resulted in two early fouls and a quick trip to the bench.

 

It wasn’t until after he came back where he became a force. He took his time more with his hook shots, set up Duncan with a baseline drop step, and from the right box, simply overpowered Duncan into a muscular layup.

 

Defensively, Oden played patiently. Not buying fakes, not following penetrators’ dances, but zoning the rim and waiting for the ball to leave the shooters hand before attempting to swat it. As a result, Oden had great success as the game wore on contesting one-on-one post moves, and altering shots at the hoop. Straight linear drives were able to get past Oden, but he stayed with Manu Ginobili and swatted away a late layup attempt.

 

Oden’s interior rotations were precise, though he made no attempt to contest multiple long jump shots by Bonner, Duncan, and McDyess.

 

Still, Oden showed some versatility and raw talent on offense, and discipline on defense, meaning he’s making strides to becoming the dominant center he’s been projected to becoming.

 

Portland’s bench is deep and versatile. Travis Outlaw only has eyes to shoot, but his long-stepping, high-jumping offense puts points up in a hurry—4-9 FG, 9 PTS.

 

Rudy Fernandez had a tough game—1-5 FG, 1 AST, 0 TO, 3 PTS—but he can shoot, slash, pass, and defend.

 

Martell Webster played out of control, but he ran the court hard.

 

Jerryd Bayless certainly isn’t a point guard. When he gets the ball, he’s in constant attack mode. However, while he’s an athletic, fearless scorer, he tends to overhandle and force his offense. Plus, his defense is poor.

 

Joel Pryzbilla grabbed 13 rebounds, including 10 in the first half alone. He set tremendous screens, did a great job protecting the rim, perfectly contested Duncan’s face-up game, and does anybody play better post defense?

 

For 34 minutes, the Blazers shared the ball, executed their offense, didn’t commit egregious turnovers, and were in total control of the game. However, as the third quarter ran down, Portland started making only one pass before hoisting up shots, they started penetrating wildly, they started making sloppy passes, and they started committing turnovers. Their 18-point lead was trimmed to seven.

 

That’s when Brandon Roy went to work. Roy quietly had 13 points and no assists until the fourth, only forcing one play, letting San Antonio dictate where they wanted the dagger. He scored off the dribble, he scored in the post, he connected on a catch-and-shoot, he got to the line, but always in the context off the offense.

 

But when San Antonio made their run, Roy sank a pull-up jump shot with Bogans’ hand in his face, rocked Bogans right-and-left before blowing by him for a layup, threw an accurate lob pass which Oden turned into a layup, and connected on an incredible pull-up, all keeping the Spurs at arms length.

 

Every time Portland needed a bucket, Roy would deliver, hitting all three of his attempts, scoring 10 of his points, and doling out both his assists in the final stanza.

 

The game further solidified Roy’s status as a bona-fide star.

 

What to make of the rest of the Blazers?

 

• If Oden can continue to progress, he’ll give the Blazers another fail-safe scorer to combat defenses, which will be a boon to their playoff chances. However, it should be noted that Oden was double teamed only a single time. Also, it’s imperative he learn to defend early without fouling.
• Portland’s forwards are still a mite soft.
• Either Miller or Blake must stay on the court with the second unit. Bayless is a talent but he isn’t a point guard.
• With Miller on the court, Portland was able to create easy baskets in transition. With the athletes on the Blazers bench, Portland should be best served playing Miller the initial six minutes with the starting lineup, resting him the remaining six minutes, and giving him the entire second quarter playing alongside Webster, Fernandez, and Outlaw to start the period.
• Portland has depth at every position and can survive injuries to anybody except Roy.
• The Blazers offense is precise, but the team loses its way too easily when Roy isn’t on the court. The core of the team has been around too long to chalk it up to inexperience. It’s time for the Blazers to grow up.
• With Pryzbilla in tow, Portland can match up with every center the league offers.
• The Blazers have a good combination of athleticism and strength, talent and intelligence, scorers and support players.

As it’s been since he was drafted, Portland’s future rests in Greg Oden. The one thing Portland hasn’t consistently had has been a post player who can command double teams. Without that post threat, the Blazers have to labor too hard to generate easy points. Miller will help with some of that, but nothing generates offense better than a commanding post presence.

 

Oden’s not there yet, but he’s much better than he was last year. On that basis, Portland’s not there yet, but the team is much better than it was last year.

[Dr. Feelgood]

Great write up man. I enjoyed the read. You made a lot of great points. Portland tends to take a commanding lead and then blow it by playing really sloppy, with the pass once or twice and hoist up a three point shot. It bugs the hell out of me when Rudy, Outlaw, and Webster do that as they're the ones mostly doing that, then when it's rebounded, the other team goes in for an easy layup or knocks down a couple of threes.

 

As far as Oden, I've said this many times on here now, I love watching him play. He plays better and better every game, he's starting to understand the game more and more and he's becoming more aggressive on the offensive side as well. I also love the way he times his blocks. This is a really fun team to watch, especially when they get going on a run and everyone is making shots, getting the crowd fired up.

 

I can't wait until the 5th of December in which we play the Rockets and I'll be at that game. It'll be great as they always like to put on a great show.

 

Good write up man.