Wow, Oden is just a fricking mess, has 3rd MF surgery

I never chime in about Greg Oden threads because the dude is a flop of epic proportions. Remembering back to the time of the draft I remember without knowing his injury history I didn't think the Blazers could do wrong either way whether they picked Oden, or Durant. In hindsight now with Blazer brass knowing that he was a 7 footer with one leg way bigger than the other, it was huge blunder. Its definitely a reason KP who was once thought of as such a hot commodity in the GM circles hasn't got a GM job since.

 

KP will likely be Indiana's GM next year, because David Morway is in the final year of his contract. It's been less than two years, and Pritchard spent last season being paid by Paul Allen.

Thinking that KP picked Oden all on his own, and that everybody else wanted Durant, isn't realistic.

 

1/2" difference is big when your dealing with a pigeon-toed 7 footer. They found out about his limp caused by the un-even legs when he was in just the 6th grade.

 

Yeah, Bird Rights are irrelevant. It'll just be about where Oden wants to be among whichever teams are interested. I think the Blazers may well be one of the team offering him something, maybe a two year deal, low on base salary but perhaps incentives (I've lost track...do basketball contracts allow for incentives?).

 

Time for dental school for Greg.

I wonder: would it have been better to have drafted a Olokandi/Milicic or an Oden? Obviously physically, it's better for the players involved to be the former. But you've got to think the mockery gets to them (yeah, yeah, they can cry to the bank, but that doesn't change the fact that it's insulting). But then again, people seem to want to blame and mock Greg for his body's failings, as if him being paid a lot gave people a right to berate him for the crime of having bad knees.

Sigh. If I were a center drafted by the Blazers, I would retire immediately. It's not even enough to stay overseas, as Sabonis found out.

Maybe the solution is to call yourself a PF, as Aldridge seems to have survived the curse...so far.

 

I'm not saying its 100% KP's pick. But, what do we not give the GM credit for making some picks, but then give him credit fore making others. If it happened under his watch, it goes on his resume.

I've seen quite a few GM openings being filled over the last 3 years and have yet to see KP hired. I remember him being mentioned as an interview candidate for a few of them.

 

Looking back on it, what could the Blazers have done differently?

Hired a babysitter/nutritionist to live with him instead of having his obese uncle living with him?

 

Stupid things that people need to stop saying:

1. This was foreseeable.
No it wasn't. Lots of players have injury histories and do fine. Oden didn't walk any worse than Patrick Ewing. And his only significant injury in college was to his wrist, which has not been a problem since.
2. We should have taken Durant and therefore made a mistake.
It was only a mistake if it was foreseeable, but see 1.
3. Pritchard was an idiot for not taking Durant.
Again, see #1. In the little time that Oden played, his PER and effect on the game put Durant's to shame. Durant was always a flashier pick, but in a choice between Bill Russell and Bernard King, you take Bill Russell 10 times out of 10. Besides, we had Brandon Roy (yeah, yeah - let's not pick THAT scab) and Durant and he would not have complemented each other well.
4. Oden should somehow be blamed for this or is somehow a bad person because he made a lot of money just sitting around.
Go fuck yourselves. He never made anyone pay him money, and you don't know what it's like to be him.
5. Oden is some kind of gold-digger who has been planning all along to shaft the Blazers.
Nobody comes right out and says this, but it is the subtext of an awful lot of shit that people say.

Look: shit happens. As a fan of the Portland Trail Blazers, you of all people should be prepared for this. It's nobody's fault, except maybe God's, but he/she/it's got a lot more to answer for than that. Now be a halfway decent person and just hope that Greg can walk without pain when all this is over. It wasn't your fucking money, so stop acting like it was.

 

Why? Just so you can get closure? Sitting at home in street clothes he's more useful than Armon.

 

The NBA is a billion dollar business. Teams make business decisions. The reality of the situation is that someone is going to take blame for that pick. It was a botched pick.

 

If Greg Oden never plays another game for the Blazers, he will have been paid $11,454 per in-game minute.

 

So? People blaming you doesn't mean you should be blamed. That's like marrying somebody who then gets terminal cancer and thinking "wow, I made a mistake - I should've married someone healthy!"