god this is so depressing.... made even moreso by how fuckin epic durant turned out to be. we're cursed. fuck it. *cries*
I think you answered your own question, in a way. "I currently don't expect him to provide any value to the Blazers" I think when a fan says, "I have given up on him," they mean that they have no expectations for him anymore. At one time we expected Greg to be a once-in-a-generation center. Now we would just be happy to see him back on a basketball court.
4th Let me try: July 2007: tonsil issue; excuse for playing badly in summer league and reason he won't practice with Team USA September 2007: gets up off his couch and feels pain in his knee, needs MF surgery October 2008: injures ankle in the first half of his first NBA game, misses the next 5 games Februaryish 2009: bone chip in his knee, misses around 10 games December 2009: breaks patella in a non contact injury November 2010: for some reason, he now needs MF surgery December 8th 2011: Oden is cleared to practice. December 9th 2011: Psyche! He's out for the season. Fragile ligament issue?
I guess we still don't know what "setback" means in Greg's latest stint on the injury report, but man ... how many hits can this guy take?
Okay, fair enough. I still like that he's on the roster and represents a hope, he's simply not an expectation. If that's what people mean by giving up on him, that's understandable.
Yeah after being a die hard Oden supporter since the day we won the lottery I've finally given up on him too if the above is the criteria. I'd like to keep him as the 13th man on the roster, but I would definetely consider letting him walk for the full MLE, which initially would've been a dream contract and even just a year ago I would've been estatic to have him signed at long-term. I hope for the best with him and will follow his career no matter what, it would be a great story if somehow he was able to regain his health and get 4 or 5 healthy seasons someday. What a feel good story it would be if he and the team stuck together for the next few years and we were a contender with him in our lineup. But I've fully accepted that building a team with him as one of the primary key cornerstones is not a good strategy.
Not only did I call it, note this part of my quote "again and again and again." 1) Patella fracture 2) Microfracture on the other knee 3) mystery ligament injury that will likely keep him out for the 11-12 season. [video=youtube;OT4B-NJUcZE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT4B-NJUcZE[/video]
How does the saying go "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger?". At this rate, I expect oden to be stronger than the hulk.
Greg oden went from our savior to 13th man on our roster. This is worse than Bowie IMO. At least during the Bowie era, he wasn't considered a savior. He was picked because we just needed a big man. With oden, he would be compared more to us landing Hakeem.
Maybe GO will pay off in the end. I wonder what his trade value is? He is an expiring contract if nothing else. But how about a team over the cap who want to take a chance on Oden next year, trade for his bird rights? Maybe the Blazers can get something for him.
Some people are saying Oden just wants to sit out this year so he doesn't sustain another serious injury, and maybe some team will be dumb enough to give him a long term deal.
I can think of one team that might do this and that's Indiana (because of the KP connection and it being Oden's hometown) ... but even for them I can't imagine they'd want to part with much.
