I was definitely one of them ... and really giving him what he ended up getting was probably inevitable given the circumstances around the team and the fact that some other team almost certainly would have taken the risk of offering him a max restricted free agent deal. In the end we'd be in roughly the same place -- no Roy because of injury or no Roy because of free agency (had they let it get that far and chosen not to match).
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys This is a case where "no comment" clearly means they're biting their tongue on something bad. Roy already panned out as a prospect. Oden is a bust if he does nothing more. They can admit hindsight mistakes on Roy and not look bad (aside from the contract mess), whereas doing so with Oden makes them look like idiots.
For me, the worst part of that article was this: " Like many NBA teams, the Blazers medical staff assigns a ranking to a potential draft pick or player they are interested in acquiring. Of the seven players on the Blazers' current roster who were drafted in the first round by Portland from 2006-2010, five were rated as high risk from a medical standpoint, including one who was essentially given a red flag as dangerous to draft. Because of laws protecting the privacy of players, the team would not disclose those players' names. So they drafted one guy who the staff told them they should absolutely not draft??!!
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys Looks like you missed this part: ---- Oden has shown enough flashes of brilliance that there's little doubt he would have been a very good player. There's no doubt the Blazers drafted themselves a very good player. I don't think they have to worry about protecting their image of drafting a "bust". And the bold part is just one reason why the team has no reason to lie. If they're willing to admit that, they'd admit to anything imo. That's really as bad as it gets because we're talking about a lot of money, not just a draft pick. I don't buy the team is hiding anything when it comes to Oden. Besides, it's a lose-lose situation. Share that your grade was a good one, you look foolish because of what has happened to Oden. Share a bad grade given, you look foolish for taking him. I tend to believe(although I have no evidence of it) that he graded out "OK". They at least shared that the MRI's were fine and since he's had no other injury problems that I can think of that would lead me to believe overall his report looked fine. If there were serious severe risks the team could have just taken Durant, a guy they knew would be a star. They weren't tied to Oden. In the end I'm chalking it up more to bad luck than anything else.
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys The article steers blame from Pritchard to Allen. Count the frequency of names. For years, Quick credited his god Pritchard for all draft picks. Now that he casts a shadow on the picks, Quick changes his tune. He mentions the name of Paul Allen about 15 times, Larry Miller about 8 times, every doctor and trainer you can think of several times, but Kevin Pritchard only about twice in the whole article! Even Steve Patterson, whom the paper hates, is mentioned about 10 times, favorably!
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys What surgery was that? He had hip surgery in 6th grade and the wrist surgery the summer after after he graduated from high school. He basically played six years; junior high and high school, year round (including AAU ball) without any significant injuries or surgeries. Neither of those injuries have proven to be recurring. BNM
What the who, now? I was (a) correct (sort of) and (b) acknowledged after the fact as being (sort of) correct? It's a 2011 miracle! Ed O. (Yes, bad grammar. I've had a LOT of rum tonight.)
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys I don't see what makes you think I missed that part... If there was nothing bad to comment on, privacy laws wouldn't be an issue. They would just come out and say he did not have any red flags. You're speaking as a die hard Blazers fan; hardly representative of the average fan the team has to cater to image-wise. We're not still stuck on recurring/related injuries, are we? Not one of Oden's injuries have fit that bill, but the book is pretty much closed on whether he's injury prone...
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys You answered the question yourself. My surgeon thinks the hip injury as a youth probably started a lot of the problems. As someone said in this or another thread, his body just isn't aligned properly to withstand the NBA game. This wasn't a year where one player was a consensus #1 pick and then there was a big drop off. This was a year where there were two players that were consensus #1 picks. If there was even the slightest question about ANYHING concerning Oden, they shold have picked Durant. (and I was definately a pick Oden guy) Especially with our past history with Sam Bowie and Michael Jordan.
Re: Medical staff warned front office about high risk guys The terms "bust" and "injury prone" just seem to set some people off.
Bill Walton was injury prone, and played few games over a short career. Anyone wish we hadn't drafted him?
In his first 4 seasons, Walton played in 209 regular season games. He also managed a trip to the finals, the all-star game, etc. I utterly loathe Walton as a human being - but comparing his basketball career to Oden's is just absurd.
I love Bill Walton as a human being and player. As a commentator, I uh, like him. Quick says: I find this hard to believe. Is this State law or Federal law? What is the exact code section which prohibits the team from disclosing their numerical ranking of a player's health at predraft camps and tryouts? Then how do they disclose the other results, like Durant could do only one set of lifting, Oden beat Durant in racing around orange cones on the floor, etc. I have a whole spreadsheet of such predraft camp stats on my hard drive that I downloaded...I just checked, I have EIGHT big spreadsheets from over the years. How do we illegally know that Andre Miller (and Outlaw for years before that) failed McMillan's little race on the first day of practice? Is it legal to know their height and weight? Pssst....Elliott Williams has a 48-inch leap....If the pigs question how you found out, DON'T mention my name.
LOL -- jlprk -- you are a funny guy. Perhaps Quick, in typical shoddy form, meant the CBA prohibits releasing medical records? Or perhaps these are the types of medical records that are legally protected pursuant to the medical records disclosure form I have to sign once a year -- that I've never once read before signing, LOL.
Even if it is illegal to disclose specific medical records (I have no idea why, especially for a public figure like a pro athlete), it's legal to disclose the diagnosis. For example, someone sprains an ankle in a game, and we are told immediately. But that's irrelevant anyway, because this isn't a medical record that the team refuses to disclose. This a ranking (e.g. 1, 2, 3, A, B, C, D, F) of a player's health, as evaluated at a tryout in Portland, or a predraft camp. Have a snort of this, but remember, you don't know me. http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements
I think the distinction is that the NBA requires an injury report (for Vegas no doubt) and while in the employ of an NBA team I'm guessing a player's right to medical privacy is waived, any diagnoses that existed before they became employees of an NBA team is probably off limits. Either that, or the team just doesn't want any more egg on their collective face.
Bill played seasons of (in order) 35 games his rookie year, then 51, 65, 58, 14, 33, 55, 67, 80, and 10 games. He never managed to play a full season nor average as much as 35 minutes per game in any one season. Walton is done, while Greg has a much higher ceiling still possible. He is young enough that he could end up with all kinds of rings and things, eclipsing Walton's accomplishments.
