Batum but it's not about who was guarding Grant Hill. It's about who Hill was guarding. Hill was put on Andre Miller in Game 2 and shut him down for the rest of the series. He also had some big rebounding games and one game where I don't think he ever missed a shot.
I'm thinking that if Oden is healthy, he'll eventually average more than 11 points. It's really the health thing that I'm worried about.
As a surgeon myself, I guess I have a different interpretation of what a sucessful surgery is as compared to the majority of readers here. On my patients I consider a successful surgery one that achieves what I set out to do (ie: fix an ankle or foot fracture, tendon tear, bunions/hammertoes etc). I also see diabetic patients and have performed many toe/half foot amputations for severe infections (during my time working at a Veterans hospital). Now, I consider those surgeries a success since I eliminated an infection but in reality now a patient has less of a foot so how successful was it. In this instance, I think what the Blazers are saying is that it was a success since everything that needed to be surgically corrected in order for Oden to be able to play basketball was achieved. But we all know that regardless of the outcome the PR from the Blazers was always going to be that the surgery went according to plan. On a side note, and information that none of us will ever know, I wonder how bad Oden's knee really looked once they opened up the joint. The reason I say this is that many times MRI's, although great can miss some pathology. I have seen tendon tears at the ankle level barely mentioned on an MRI report and then I open the patient up to fix it and I find the tear to be 6 cm in length. That said, this is a knee which shows up much different on MRI and is easier to see (since it is a bigger joint).
He may be chronologically 22 but ever since the latest news, I've been thinking that perhaps he looks 52 for a reason. Perhaps his physical age is 52 and is on a quicker aging schedule. 22 in human years. 52 in Oden years. Still, I think I'd take the risk and sign him as well. Gramps...
I don't care if the man looks like Benjamin Button. When he's on the floor, he's an elite rebounder and pretty good defender.
He stays. We resign him. People have been in a frenzy. He's still very young. he still has potentially 10-15 years of NBA playing ahead of him. It should be for the Blazers. Key: Plan for him to be the 8th man. PG? - Matthews - Batum - Aldridge - Camby with ?? , Roy and Oden off the bench.
I think planning on him being the 8th man is cool, but I think most people should be disabused of the notion that Oden's body can handle the rigors of the NBA. By the way, no time more than now would I like to be wrong.
Can someone help me out...I wasn't under the impression that the problem that caused the MF surgeries ("damaged cartilage on femur") was a "wear-and-tear" injury...or that Oden had played enough to even have his body subjected to the "rigors of the NBA". Was this one also considered a "preventative" one like the first, where he might've been able to get by without it, but it was hoped the MF would extend his career?
Doc Rivers thinks that this is revisionist history... http://www.necn.com/11/18/10/Rivers...anding_sports.html?blockID=356024&feedID=3352
Leave aside the foot injury he sustained landing on Derek Fischer, and the knee cap injury he sustained when Corey Maggette plowed into him with his brace. Those were just physical, on the court accents, totally explainable. But I have a serious problem with his cartlidge at random times off the court, due to actions which aren't particularly stressful. And his knee cap blowing up...come on....I've never seen that happen to any athlete before. Greg is 22, but it's been firmly established that his body, for whatever reason, is very injury prone. How is that going to magically change? He's still young enough, that I think we should resign him, but I just really doubt him at this point. I used to be a believer.
Saying it was "Preventative" is a misnomer. Jay Jensen said there was a divot in his articular cartilage, "like somebody had hit his knee with a nine iron." The MF procedure is meant to fix the defect as best they can, and also extend his career and hopefully prevent that cartilage damage from getting worse over time. But it's not like he had a minor injury.
