Nick Young has really been working hard to get into the paint and separation for mid-range shots.

He’s only taken three 3s in two games, so I’d say that Young is aiming to be less of a gunner.

Interesting project you guys have at BlazersEdge….thanks for stopping by.

I’d like to think the majority of Blazers fans are taking the long view with him — he’s still a phenomenally talented basketball player, a game-changer defensively (even in the limited minutes we’ve seen of him) and a guaranteed dunk attempt once he grabs the ball within two feet of the basket. I’m an eternal optimist; given that, I’m taking the glass-half-full approach.

But there’s definitely a small-but-vocal minority saying that we blew the pick, we should have picked Durant, Oden’s a bust, et cetera et al. It’s wholly obnoxious IMO — perhaps we did screw up by drafting Oden, but I think it’s far too early to ascertain that at this point — but c’est la vie. We’re definitely impatient to see what he can do, but not necessarily impatient with the vagarities of basketball injury, if that makes sense.

I agree with BlazersOrBust on that count. I had a funny feeling that I suppressed when Kevin Pritchard called Oden our opening day starter during the telecast of our final game against Memphis last year. Like I said, I suppressed the feeling and took his comments as a sign that he was further along to recovery than expected and would be ready not just for the season, but to make a huge impact.

It might have helped everybody, Greg, the team, and the fans, to have KP say something like, “We expect Greg to be ready to compete for the starting spot in training camp” instead of designating him the starter in the spring. He then could have come into spring with the pressure to make the starting line-up instead of the pressure to be a world beater from minute one. His focus could have been on his development instead of on meeting the expectations of fans and himself.

All that said, I think he just needs to get on the court and play and let it all come back to him. The Blazers have Roy and Aldridge to take the pressure off of him on offense and I am confident he will be a beast on the boards at least and that will be a big help to a team that struggles against big, physical teams.