Swingman Lovefest

[Kim Malo]

At 03:54 PM 3/1/2007, Berry, Mark  S wrote:
>Understand. And I don't throw "next Russell" around lightly. I really
>think Oden -- while not Russell -- is the closest thing we've seen
>since. That's not saying he's better than Kareem or Walton or Olajuwon
>... just that he's very similar to Russ in the way he plays (and I say
>that as someone who admittedly never saw him play, other than ESPN
>Classic and NBA TV.
>
>Oden is a very smart, 100 percent committed to winning basketball
>player, who values defense above all else. That's why I make the
>comparison.
>
>By the way ... Look at Oden's W-L record over the years -- high school,
>AAU, and now college. The kid doesn't lose.

Yeah, I actually did understand that you meant that style of play 
based in defense and blocks. It's tough for me to judge him. I've 
just seen him the one game (can't even recall the opponent) and was 
under impressed, mainly because he seemed to often be a bit out of 
position and slow responding/rotating. Or maybe he was trying to 
cover too much, which can look the same as being slow sometimes. But 
it was very much just one game and I don't know as I'm the world's 
greatest talent scout anyway. While he definitely seems the one who 
offers more what we need. And while I understand the issues with 
drafting purely on need, I don't think you want to totally ignore it 
either. Defense in the paint covers a multitude of sins, from 
stopping the sort of layup drills we've given opponents at times to 
look at how much Perk's ability to body Curry just a bit away from 
where he wanted to be affected NY's overall offense, which focuses 
around Curry pushing around most everyone short of Shaq in the paint, 
most of last night.

Kim