Greg told Canzano that the decision regarding his next contract and the qualifying offer is his, not the team's, meaning, he can take a 1 year offer and then bolt. Except. It seems to me that he really could not pass up, say, a 4 year $40 mill offer. He can't risk that given his injury history. Given that sort of offer, he would have little choice but to take it. If he were to take a 1 year offer and get hurt again, he would likely never play in this league again, so a multi-year offer would seem to lock him up, no? The ball clearly is in the Blazers court, not Greg's, no matter what he says.
Oden is not forced to sign out of fear. He can gamble on the 1 year.....if he feels good enough. I think he's done with his knee problems, the point of the MFs are to strengthen his knees. so hopefully he's past that all! by not extending him earlier, the ball is clearly in Oden's hands.
If Oden is already talking about having control over his future then you can bet he does in fact hold the cards if he's willing to merely play out his QO year (if there even is a league year?) As for the 4yr/40 million dollar extension you're talking about, the Blazers lost their exclusive rights to extend that to him last October. Greg is a free agent, which means that if he chooses to he can decline to sign any offer sheet another team might extend him (ensuring that the Blazers will have nothing to match), collect his 8.8 million QO while he rehabs for another 9-12 months, which would ensure no further on-court injuries (can the Blazers really force him to play if he says he's not ready?) and then take the best offer he can get, which will probably be be half-way decent. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Greg is correct, the Blazers don't have much control here if he really does want out (ala Ben Gordon in Chicago a couple of years ago).
So, you admit that Oden can make a choice, yet that ball is in the Blazers' court, based on what your opinion is of what Oden should do with that choice? The choice is Oden's. Hence, the ball is in Oden's court, no matter why any poster thinks about that choice.
I disagree. Teams paid Kwame Brown $8 million per season after he played nearly every game as a bust. Darko got a $20million deal. Outlaw got a $35 million deal. Oden has played at an elite level when healthy far above any of those players. He had an all-star PER above 20 while playing superb defense, which PER mostly ignores. Oden could not play a single game next season and still get at least a max MLE deal when he is an unrestricted free agent. Add that to his nearly $9million qualifying offer and he is assured a heck of a lot of money no matter what option he goes with this off-season.
The ball is in Oden's court... because, when it comes down to it, he can say yes or no. He can turn down more money from the Blazers or any other team if he REALLY wants to leave somewhere or go somewhere else. Unless the rules change, of course, in which case Oden might be stuck with the Blazers. This is true of every free agent (or pending free agent), though, so I'm not really sure that defining who has the ball in which court means a lot Ed O.
Are you saying they can't offer him a 4 year contract before July 1? Or that other can as well? That's only true in one year, as I understand it if, as you say, he's "willing to play out his option year." That's my point. If the Blazers offer several years, how does he turn it down, given his injury history? Realistically, there is no way he can risk a 1 year deal.
The Blazers only hold matching rights, nothing more, nothing less, they can't offer a free agent (including Greg) any kind of contract until the new league year starts because they waived their right to offer him an extension when they held exclusive rights before October 31st (or whatever day it was). And what I'm really saying is that he's going to get an offer for several years regardless if/when he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2012. Plus taking his QO in a lockout year when most of the season might be wiped out and the fact that he's supposedly a very long way from getting back to the court tells me that he might just hold himself out claiming that he doesn't "feel right" thus minimizing his potential for another injury and then can enter the open market and take whatever awaits him. Really it all boils down to how much he wants to be here and something tells me that he's looking for a change of scenery as much as he's looking for a payday.
We as Blazer fans CAN'T have Greg go elsewhere and play well!! I don't know about you guys, but that would CRUSH me!
Well ... it would suck a little bit, there's no denying that. But in all honesty I kind of empathize with him; I would find it hard to hold it against him if he decided to start fresh somewhere else (no matter how it ends up affecting this team).
I only hope that IF he is healthy enough to play this upcoming season, that he does suit up and not fake injury in order to not risk getting injured. If he can come back and put in the majority of the season healthy, playing next to LMA and the rest of the already good blazer team, then I think this team will become elite. Then, he can make a decision to leave a good situation in Portland instead of leaving the way things stand now.
Where is this idea coming from that Greg is going to want to sit out if healthy? I always got the vibe from him that he desperately wants to play and misses being on the court. The whole reason he is depressed and sad with his time in Portland is because he can't get on the court as much as he'd like. He talked last season (09-10) about returning early for the playoffs until it became impossible, that was one of his big motivations for rehab. I see zero indication he would consider for a second sitting out extra games if healthy just to avoid a chance of injury. If anything I think he would push himself to hard and rush back before he should which I don't want him to do.
Oden could retire today and he'd be just fine. He's already made more money than most posters here will in a lifetime, he's a well-known sports figure, and he's not stupid.
If he leaves, it will be to escape Canzano. Plus, he's looking for an easy way to let down Quick on the stupid weekly tennis match, followed by the thoughtful talk.
