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and just think how badass the Blazers would have been if they had taken Durant instead. LOL
I've admitted it previous, joyfully, many, many times. But, I'll refresh it this Sunday morn:::We got f'ked by the league & the Celtics many times and I'd and everybody would just snicker & bellow and I'd be left standin' there with my in my hand. Finally we started doing the f'in with the Alcindor trade the Magic hit and the Worthy hit, and the Mychal Thompson hit, and the Kobe hit, and the clear out to get money to send for Daddy, and the Kings series when we played 6 on 5, and now the Gasol hit. I'm like that Malcolm X fellow: "by any means necessary."
and just think how badass the Blazers would have been if they had taken Durant instead. LOL
Durant looked pretty flustered with Artest sharin' his BVDs.
Post of the Year!
The only reason that you hear about it from them so much is because it's all they have. They're having a hard time dealing with irrelevancy. Forgive them. Doctors say its a 5 year whining process. We're in the 3rd season now. We have 2 more to go.
On topic, Hate to see Oden go down again. I hope everything goes well for him in his recovery.
Bust
30 out of 30 GMs would've taken Oden over Durant. It was conventional wisdom at the time.
Nothing like 20/20 hindsight when everybody knows who ends up being the better pick.
I think it's impossible to fault the Blazers for doing what everybody else would have in the same position.
Sons Yao gives his regards
I know Hollinger just said that in his little Portland piece but I'm calling complete bull .
The Durant hype was in full motion after his incredible college season. There was plenty of rumblings about KD being the better NBA player. Bill Simmons was far from unique in his opinion at the time.
And think about what you're saying here. Houston, LA and Orlando for sure would not have taken Greg Oden as the 1st pick in that draft.
Portland had just used a top 5 pick on Webster the year prior. Of course they're drafting Oden no question. That doesn't mean all 30 teams would.
Oden was being hyped as the next great franchise center. It's kind of a moot point since those teams had no chance in of being lottery teams. And I don't know why you lumped LA in with those two teams, since there's no way the Lakers would've passed on Oden because of Bynum....in 2007.
I see your point though, and I'll amend my statement to say that 28 out of 30 NBA teams would've taken Oden. For any lottery team in rebuilding mode that actually would've come into possession of the #1 pick, Oden would've been the safe, conventional pick.
Yes they would have passed on Oden. I can guarantee you that.
The Lakers were in desperate need of a SF. And at the time Bynum looked like a much more polished player than Greg Oden and was only 4 months older.
Again I don't agree at all. Durant's college season was legendary. Oden's was nothing spectacular for a center with his level of hype. Constant foul trouble the entire tournament. Horford even outplayed him the first time Oden played Florida.
i haven't seen tlong.
and the beavers lost, too.
anybody have any suicide reports?
What I remember most about that draft is that they were both considered Can't Miss prospects. I know Bill Simmons was slobbing Durant's knob nonstop, but he thought the Blazers couldn't go wrong either way - it's like choosing between a Ferrari or a Porsche. You can't blame the Blazers for taking Oden, it's just ty luck that he is fragile and injury-prone. He had the one broken wrist in college, but that was considered a fluke injury.
Oden was a freshman and Horford was a senior, right? Oden was getting drafted #1 because of his size, defensive a en, and the projection that he hadn't even begun to fulfill his potential. It's easy to say now that he's Black Bill Walton, but it was hardly controversial or considered wrong to take him ahead of Durant. The Blazers would've made the more controversial pick at the time selecting Durant.
This. Look at all the criticism Portland is getting for taking Oden over Durant, multiply that by 100 if they took Durant and he wound up being the bust.
Also, Oden fractured his patella due to a fluke play. That has nothing to do with being injury prone or a bust. He was having a great year before the injury, Portland had no way of knowing he'd fracture his patella 20 games into his 3rd NBA season when he was starting to consistantly produce, and neither does anyone on this board talking about how Durant would have been the better pick. Hopefully the guy makes a full recovery, it's disgusting to wish injury on someone just because of an obnoxious Blazers fan you've never met who posts on the same message board you do.
Oden went from Lebron levels of hype in Highschool to "eh I guess he probably goes number 1 because he's a true center but this Durant kid looks better when you watch them play".
I'm just taking issue with the 30 teams would have drafted him over Durant claim. Hollinger was just being a Portland homer. I know the pick made sense for the Blazers because they had Roy and were still waiting on Webster.
You know that was Oden's 5th career college game right?
It's a gamble portland had to take. When you draft the right center, you can build a dynasty that lasts a long time.
Wilt, Russell, Kareem, Shaq, Duncan (I don't care, he's a center to me), Hakeem....
Of course you get ed some times....
Olawakandi, Bowie, Kwame...
He was still outplayed by a smaller player. In fact Oden saw plenty of undersized guys that season and never really put up gaudy numbers.
Ohio State even won a couple tournament games with Oden planted on the bench for the majority of it due to foul trouble.
You guys can go search LG/Club Lakers circa 06/07 and read my posts about how much better Bynum looked compared to Oden at the time. Funny enough he still does.
Overall that entire lottery was pretty overrated. The media was predicting it to be "one of the best ever".
I actually agree with most of that. Bynum's 06/07 wasn't spectacular but he had plenty of bright moments. I agree that LA would have taken Kevin Durant, they had too much invested in Bynum to take Oden and as you said Bynum was still really young and it was only his 2nd year. At the same time, I never said otherwise.
My only point is that Portland shouldn't be criticized at all for that pick. He had a broken wrist in college, there's no possible way of knowing that translates to micro-fracture surgery and a broken patella. He was a perfect fit for that team. Aldridge could slide down to his natural position and utilize his mid range game, and Portland could build around what looked like a well balanced, talented core in Roy, Aldridge, Oden, Webster and Outlaw.
What I agree with most was how overrated the 2007 draft class, a.k.a. the 2nd coming of the 1996/2003 draft class was. Conley, Brewer, B. Wright, J. Wright, Jian Lian, and Law have all been complete top 15 busts, while Durant is the only player from that class who has shown enough to be considered a future all star.
Also keep in mind only like 3 teams worked out Oden before the draft. I think quite a few more GMs would have warmed up to Durant over Oden if they had the to chance to see both in a closed workout setting. That's basically how Westbrook shot up to number 4 in 08 and Kobe avoided going higher back in 96 by refusing to workout with certain teams.
If you get injured without even coming into contact with the other player, and if you will miss 2 out of your first 3 NBA seasons, doesn't that make you injury prone by definition? And if it looks increasingly unlikely that your NBA career won't amount to much of anything, doesn't that make you a bust by definition?Also, Oden fractured his patella due to a fluke play. That has nothing to do with being injury prone or a bust.
Nonetheless, you can defend why Portland made the pick. They didn't need Durant with Roy at the swing spot. It made sense for them. Who were they supposed to start if they had drafted Durant? Who handles the ball and takes the last shot? They would have had too many similar players and it would have been a bad fit.
But I also disagree with the "30 out of 30 teams would have taken Oden" statement. Yes, most of them would have, because of the dearth of franchise centers. But several would have gone Durant, I'm sure of it. Certainly any team that already had a dominant or solid big man would have given Durant the longer look.
I never said he wasn't injury prone, I'm saying a broken patella doesn't mean you're injury prone. I highly doubt his patella breaks easier than most patellas.
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