It seems it has been the only way to go since the game began over a 100 years ago, your big man picks up two early fouls and out he comes. Thats standard coaching 101 you are not going to lose one of your best players to early foul trouble, your going to need him when the game is on the line at the end. In the case of Oden I think this strategy shoud change as long as he is playing well leave him in no matter how many early fouls he picks up. Say you play him 8 minutes in the 1st & 3rd quarters and the last 6 minutes of the 2nd & 4th, as long as he is playing well he plays those minutes. If he fouls out in the first half or even quarter so be it the rest of the team will take it from there. I think it would help him to get into the flow of the game knowing he is not coming out due to some ticky tack foul he just picked up. Playing short periods of time coming in and out of the lineup due to foul problems I think its hard to get anything going. Its better to get one solid half and playing your best than a full game of just being there and going through the moves. The blazers are very deep and can afford to make a move like this, they will have a hard time finding minutes for everyone this year anyway. On nights when he does foul out early it would give some much needed playing time to some of the bench players. The blazers were 14-7 last year without Oden and 13 of those games were against teams with winning records so if he does foul out of a few games early I think we will survive. There is always the chance he will cut down on his fouls as his learning of the NBA game progresses and I am sure he will as the blazers look forward to some NBA championship rings in the future.