Quote:
Originally Posted by BGMaverick9
The Mavs have to see what they have in Azubuike (I hate spelling that name) first before they can really figure things out. If he's healthy and able to shoot the 3 and defend with some poise, that gives more freedom to work with.
Carlisle said that the hope is that he can help this year. So it definitely sounds like a wait and see process.
As for Odom, the options behind him are very limited, so they have to make it work. Personally, I don't think he was that bad heading into the Lakers game. The energy was improving. The thing that was lacking were the shots going in. He was good at facilitating for guys and showing good poise with blocks. It's just way too up and down with game-to-game analysis. I know he wasn't great earlier, but I did see an uptick after he came back.
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I really didn't mind his offense, even if the numbers weren't there. He drove a lot and got a lot of layups-- just missed them. He seemed genuinely angry with himself. I don't like to see that on the court because it seemed to impact the next possession, but at least he showed he cared. Had those 3-4 layup attempts gone in, the box would have looked better. It was just one of those games where no one was making shots that they usually did. If it wasn't a trend for him, he'd probably get a pass from people but its been the norm. Still, I liked the commentators that said they judged a shot on its way up and not based on its result. If you judged only the selection of shots based on aggression, location and position, he'd have fared well.
His defense also wasn't optimal and sometimes lacked intensity (in addition to his brain farts) but it is an improvement for him.