Greg Oden the Enigma Marcus Camby has no idea what's happening with Greg Oden. That, at least, is what he told Ben Golliver from BlazersEdge when Camby was prompted about his main competition for minutes at center in Portland this year. "I haven't really seen him all summer," Camby said. "He hasn't' really been around the team since I've been around the team." We know that Oden had microfracture surgery last winter on his left knee (it was the right knee that got the ol' microfracture treatment his "rookie" year) and has been rehabbing like crazy for going on three-quarters of a year. Blazers GM Rich Cho has said Oden is running and doing reasonably well, yet there's still concern as to whether or not he'll be ready to play in the preseason. The fact that he hasn't been around the team enough since Camby was acquired in February is symbolic to how little the casual NBA fan considers him an active part of the National Basketball Association. Non-Blazer fans rarely think of the guy except occasionally in the context of Kevin Durant getting picked one slot behind him. During the last two seasons, in which Oden has played in a total of 82 games, the number of comments from readers declaring that Oden was among the best center prospects in the league have rapidly decreased. In chats, I used to get two or three confrontational questions a week about how dominant Oden could be. Now? Even his own teammate has little to say about the guy. Still, Oden shouldn't be disregarded as a potential force in the league. One of his 21 games last season resulted in 20 rebounds, and in another game he matched his career high of 24 points. In only 24 minutes a game he averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 boards, and 2.3 blocks. He shot 61% from the field, which would have easily placed him in the top five of the league had he maintained that through 82 games. The short of it is that he's really, really good when he's playing. The long of it is that he's almost guaranteed to miss several games a season. It's already gotten to where Houston is with Yao Ming. Fans and the organization know entering the season that their stud center is going to miss a huge chunk of time. Coming back to Camby—why do you think Portland would have worked so hard to keep the guy they acquired last February if they thought Oden was going to come back strong and then stay there? So here's the thing—we have absolutely no more idea what to expect out of Oden this season than Camby does, even though Cho keeps insisting that the big guy will be just fine. Portland's going to be good with or without him, but with him the future certainly looks a lot brighter. Camby can't hold down the middle forever. Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=17360#ixzz0zznWCD4V
Yup. And rather than admitting his mistake, he smugly made up some bullshit about how he thought Roy was a PG. http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=13622
Another article about Greg having micro fracture surgery last winter. Did I miss the memo? I thought he broke his kneecap. Go Blazers
Quick Question: Hasn't Bynum's injuries been almost as extensive as Oden's? Have people written him off too? They don't seem to have.
If you go by games played, no comparison really. Last 3 years: Oden: 0, 61, 21 (playoffs: 0, 6, 0) Bynum: 35, 50, 65 (playoffs: 0, 23, 23)
Kind of pointless to bring up the 0 playoffs in the 1st season for Greg, since the team didn't play in the playoffs. Plus, you got your #'s wrong. Bynum played in 5 playoff games in 06-07
Once a "fact" is posted on the internet, it has a cyber life of its own. Greg Oden's second microfracture surgery is probably on Wikipedia by now, LOL.
You're probably right, but that's pretty freak'n annoying. Give it two weeks and we'll be reading that we should just cut Greg, because there is no way he'll ever be shit with two MF surgeries. Greg already takes a mountain of shit from the Negative Nelly crowd, he sure doesn't need some ignorant pseudo-reporter fueling the fire. Go Blazers
I was just thinking I could make a ton of money by just making random shit up and praising Durant and then talking shit about Oden while now and then saying something nice about him. The writer has no clue what he is talking about. I would rather read Simmons then this guy because Simmons is actually funny and now and then has a good point.
Yeah, kind of pointless, but he was out for the season so he wouldn't have played even if we made it in. And 06-07 was before these 3 years. I was talking about 07-08, 08-09 and 09-10.
As far as how they can be projected going forward, I'm pretty sure the type of injuries Bynum has suffered are more concerning then Greg's. Does anyone have AB's injury history handy? The way his knees visually seem to buckle backwards too far when he stands erect just looks wrong to my eyes and may be part of the reason he keeps having knee issues STOMP
I remember hearing that Bynum had knee issues in high school, and played very few games in HS. I remember hearing something about loose ligaments. Whereas Greg's injuries weren't something that affected him in college or high school. We're just lucky enough to be stuck with him. btw, moment of truth here...as I was typing "enough to be stuck with him", my fingers typed quicker than my brain did, and I typed "we're just lucky enough to bust"
I guess I don't see the problem with that article other than whiffing on the surgery. He states that Oden is "very, very good" when on the court, but that no one knows what to expect out of him because of his injury/surgery history.
