Everyone Needs to Settle Down About Greg Oden
Greg Oden Photo. MannionFor what seems like forever now, we’ve been reading reports of “awe-inspiring” Greg Oden workouts as the media documents every move Oden makes on his trek to the NBA. The latest comes this morning from an Oden workout that was open to the media:
TUALATIN, Ore. (AP)—Greg Oden can still dunk.
That much was clear Tuesday when the top pick in last year’s NBA draft worked out in front of the media for the first time since right knee surgery wiped out his rookie season with the Portland Trail Blazers.
The 7-footer from Ohio State showed no signs of problems in two-on-two work with teammates Steve Blake and Channing Frye and former Arkansas star Steven Hill, a 7-footer invited to practice with Portland. Oden isn’t allowed to go five-on-five until next month.
“I’m feeling good,” Oden said. “I do not have any pain or soreness in my knee.”Asked whether he noticed Oden favoring his right knee, Frye dismissed it entirely.
“He favors dunking on your head, that’s what he favors,” Frye said after giving up his share to Oden in the workout.
I know that Greg Oden has the potential to be great. I know that he’s a vital piece of one of the most promising young teams we’ve seen in a long time and that it’s easy to get swept up in the Blazers movement, but Oden can’t even play 5-on-5 for at least another month. That puts us at mid-September, with his first training camp coming just a few weeks later. Will he even be close 100% at that point? You can run on treadmills all day long, but there’s nothing you can do in a gym that can prepare you for playing real ball, especially in an NBA setting. Remember how Oden looked in the summer leagues last year? Exhausted. And that was when he was in shape from a full college season.
My point is, that no matter how great he looks banging on Channing Frye’s neck in mini workouts, Greg Oden is most likely very far away from being anything that can really help Portland. There is just NO WAY that he can be up anywhere close to NBA speed come Portland’s exhibition games and the opening weeks of the season.
And will these media outlets, the same ones that have been breathlessly documenting every single he does on his rehab tour, setting the expectations for Oden impossibly high, be the same ones that will predictably rip him for looking well behind the rest of the NBA when the lights go on? Of course they will.
Source – Yahoo!Sports
August 13th, 2008 at 10:14 am
fiyaman says:
i’ve been saying this fro a while now.. let him play a game first. it was all good when he came from college and everybody knew what he was about but now he hasnt played in a yr they gotta let him play first to see if he still got it b4 hyping him up.. right now they setng themselves up to be disappointed
August 13th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Logan Light says:
I hope you’re wrong Patrick…
But honestly, you hit it right on the head. I don’t have any doubt that Oden will be great in the league one day…. but remember how long it took Amare to come back from this surgery? Stat looks good now, but it toook a minute for him to get back in ball shape.
I don’t think we’ll see the GO of the future until at least the middle of the season. And that might be generous.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:27 am
rob stewart says:
Maybe he is being overhyped but I think the addition of an athletic 7 foot shot blocker to any team is enough to get excited about. If he just puts up 8pts, 8rbs, and 2-3 blocks along with his 7foot presence he will make Portland atleast 8-10 games better.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Celts Fan says:
Ya, when you have those ridiculous expectations, then a story starts, “Greg Oden can still dunk,” it’s probably time to ease off a bit.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:31 am
Celts Fan says:
@Rob, yes, but he has to stay upright and healthy to do that. Also, 2-3 blocks per is good for the league lead or really, really close to it. Might want to knock that down a bit if we’re trying to be realistic
August 13th, 2008 at 10:35 am
shake&bake says:
I think the point is that he is getting his explosiveness back. When he can go 5-on-5 then we can critique him more, but this is all anybody can go off for now.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Spliff 2 My Lou says:
If the Greg Oden progress story takes any media attention away from Brett Favre then I’m all for it.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Tha Boddy says:
The funny thing about GO is what his stats will be like. With Portland having so many good scorers on the team already will he be able to get his points. someone said something about him getting 8pts and 8rebs but as the former #1pick those are awful numbers. I’ll say this if any1 says that GO is great with those averages you might as well call him a rich mans Kwame Brown and I want someone to call lies on that.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Brown says:
I don’t put much stock into how someone looks in workouts. Workouts don’t tell you shit. Only games can do that. Remember, he’s still a rookie, so you can’t really compare him to STAT. STAT came back after already establishing his game at an all-star level before his injury/surgery. Oden still has to establish his game, so it’s going to take him even longer to get into game shape because of the steep learning curve that goes along with it.
How is dunking on a softie like Channing Frye anything to get excited about? It’s not like he’s dunking on a big man who can actually play defense. That’s like saying he dunked on DJ Mbenga or Shawn Bradley. EVERYONE dunked on those guys in games, I can only imagine how bad it would be in 2-on-2.
Like everyone said, let him play before jumping all on his nuts.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Eric says:
It took Amare over a year (and more than a full season) to get back into top NBA shape and become an elite player again.
August 13th, 2008 at 11:21 am
shake&bake says:
I agree with Spliff 100%
August 13th, 2008 at 11:58 am
word says:
every1 knows he can still dunk, what a stupid article
media are bored
August 13th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
doc says:
Greg Oden is better than Bynum and Bogut.With that said hes gonna need some adjustments in the league.Thats somthing you have to get used to.And Celts those were realistic numbers.Greg will lead the league in blocks a couple times before its said and done.His D is so strong his O can come around.We all seen what KG did with his D.He had Kobe and Bron ass scared to come in that lane.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
J says:
I cannot beleive that I am reading this on dimemag.com. I stopped ordering your magazine because 80 percnt of it is hyping unknown players and them claiming you were there before anybody else. Not to say that players are bad but you guys hype lance stephenson like nobody else, like he is the next lebron. you hype second rounders as mid first rounders and undrafted players sometimes as second rounders. all you magazine is is hype so to me it is very hypocritical for an article like this. It is not that I disagree about your point, I am a huge oden fan and dont expect to much from him, though I will be jacked whenever he does anything, I just find it shocking that dime the hype machine is telling us to settle down. definately a first.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Young Lebron 23 says:
@ Spliff I agree also
Leave him alone.! He was winded during last year’s summer league but he should be cool going through an NBA training camp.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
TJ says:
J,
You mean you don’t think someone who’s ranked 7th in his high school class would be an NBA star right now?
I completely agree with you. They hype everyone so Dime looks nice when one out of a hundred is an NBA star.
August 13th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Young Lebron 23 says:
J actually everyone hypes Born Ready
August 13th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Scottee says:
@ Patrick Cassidy:
This story is amusing. It seems to me that Dime posted a story describing how Greg Oden was “dunking on Frye’s head” and looked like a beast. Now Mr. Cassidy is taking back the hype that Dime was a part of creating?
With that said, I agree, let the man play a game with the Blazers before we start critiquing his level of play. He has until November to get 100%. That’s almost 4 months of time to get into shape, continue to get the knee stronger and jell with his teammates.
I know it seems like I’m hatin, and maybe I am, but this story seems contridictory.
August 13th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Joe says:
If you guys at Dime are so tired of this coverage of Oden’s workouts, stop posting these stories! We here in Oregon get excited about this stuff because the Blazers are the only team we have. Not to mention we have been waiting longer than anyone has ever had to wait for the #1 overall pick to play an NBA game. This is simply LOCAL coverage for us in Oregon, and in no way is this supposed to be a national story.
August 13th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Rob says:
Absolutely correct.
Greg Oden=Bust waiting to happen
August 13th, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Joe says:
way to go Rob, brilliant post, and all the things you put in there to support your argument, how can that logic be questioned?
August 13th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
GEE...Burn baby burn like Lisa Lopez...poor Rison. says:
Fall back.
First dude has to make it through the whole season with no injury. No flu, no broken arm, fractured wrist, hurt leg or bruised sternum. No mad cow, bird flu, crabs or anything else.
He more than likely will do ok, going on into well, going on into very good, going on into possible All-Star. Just starting out though he will most def. get it on rebounds and def. end. Offensively might be another question outside of dunking and learning how to stay out of foul trouble.
If he gets through the whole season well I will be pleased everything else will just be extra. I am not getting to hyped on dude like he is the answer to all that is wrong. Not yet. Probably not for a while. Possibly not ever.
August 13th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Big Sia says:
You guys are obviously not ready for the Oden Era
Prepare yourselves now
August 13th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Rob says:
Joe,
Let’s see here…suspect offensive skills, micro-fracture surgery done on the knee at 19, hasn’t played a single minute of actual NBA competition, and insurmountable expectations created by the media
=
A Bust Waiting to Happen
August 13th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
dagwaller says:
Completely agree, been saying it for a while. Whenever people say that Oden and Bynum are GREAT, better than guys like Mek or Bogut, I’m like – wait a second. Oden hasn’t played a single minute in the NBA, and Bynum had how many games last year? He wasn’t even doing well til a month into the season, and then a month or two later, he got shut down.
Same people are probably still on the Stro Show train. OMFG he’s got potential!!! He’s 7 feet tall! And then they bust on European players who have just as much “potential”. Biased mofos.
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