Were they wrong v2: Portland takes Oden over Durant

[DeToxRox]

This should be interesting .. Oden is a big who is expected to be awesome but was no where near as impressive as the SF Durant who is also well on his way to an awesome NBA career. It became obvious seconds after winning the lottery Oden was heading to Portland, but were they wrong to take him #1, passing over the NCAA Player of the Year in Kevin Durant?

[JeeberD]

WAY too early to know the answer to this...

[DeToxRox]

WAY too early to know the answer to this...

That's a given but at this juncture it's a fun debate.

[bulletsponge]

WAY too early to know the answer to this...
not if you got balls. i vote NO

[Karlifornia]

Definitely not. I am willing to bet Oden wins a title before Durant.

[Joe]

If you listen to the media praising Durant for his summer league performances of 4-for-15 shooting, you'll pick the wrong answer.

[Jas_lov]

No, Oden is going to be a solid pro. Durant may turn out to be the better player, but I don't think it'll be as big a gap as Sam Bowie vs. Michael Jordan and even looking back at that is results oriented.

[st.cronin]

I only saw Durant a couple of times in college, but I wasn't as impressed as some people. I'm not sure he's much better than Brendan Wright or Corey Brewer. I think they made the correct pick.

[Groundhog]

A bigman prospect like Oden comes along once a decade. A swingman prospect like Durant comes along maybe once every 3-4 years.

[vex]

I vote yes.

[Izulde]

A bigman prospect like Oden comes along once a decade. A swingman prospect like Durant comes along maybe once every 3-4 years.

"

[stevew]

I think we more or less had this debate pre-draft. I will say that Oden does seem to be a bit more fragile than I like in a big, but I think for Portland's team, he was the much better selection. If they get some maturity out of guys like Martell Webster(I think that's his name), Aldridge and a few other guys, I think they will be a force within 2 seasons. I already think Roy is probably on the cusp of being an allstar soon, as well. Bringing in a PG like Blake is a good short term move, if they can move a contract or two(Pryz being the notable one), there's a solid chance they can be players in FA in a couple years, should be interesting.

[cartman]

bump...

[Shkspr]

A bigman prospect like Oden comes along once a decade. A swingman prospect like Durant comes along maybe once every 3-4 years.

"

[Lathum]

Hindsight is 20/20. Every sport you can go back and look at bad trades and guys who should have been taken over other guys in the draft.

[RainMaker]

I'll give Bill Simmons credit on this one. One of the few basketball writers who was in the Durant camp and vocal about it. Brought up the fact that big men like Oden get injured much more frequently and have a much smaller success rate in the NBA.

[Karlifornia]

Not much you can say at this point besides "Yeah, Durant looks like the better pick." If Oden can somehow overcome his injury problems, and be at least a decent part of a very good team, then Portland won't lose sleep. It's not like they're the Clippers, where they suck every year. This would be a lot harder to swallow if they didn't have a decent team.

[Logan]

Hindsight is 20/20. Every sport you can go back and look at bad trades and guys who should have been taken over other guys in the draft.

In fairness though, the people who were pro-Oden generally had the same argument (which you can see posted here): "you can't pass up a big man like Oden for a 3/4 like Durant." It was never, ever "Oden is a better player than Durant" or "Oden will be a better pro." Call me crazy but when the debate extends past "player X is a better player than player Y" you're finding reasons to make a bad decision.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

In fairness though, the people who were pro-Oden generally had the same argument (which you can see posted here): "you can't pass up a big man like Oden for a 3/4 like Durant." It was never, ever "Oden is a better player than Durant" or "Oden will be a better pro." Call me crazy but when the debate extends past "player X is a better player than player Y" you're finding reasons to make a bad decision.

It all depends. If the 3/4 is absolutely a can't miss guy like LeBron James, then you take him p-e-r-i-o-d. If the guy has great potential and you have another who could have be just as good, but is a little more a risk, but is at such a position as a 5 where that similar potential is a bit more rare I say you have to figure what is right for your team. Portland isn't bad at the 3/4 spots, so I say that at the time they made the right move. The 1 & 5 can have such an impact if you get the right guy that you have to make the pick if you think he could be dominant at the position.*






*That is unless it's Kwame Brown.

[gstelmack]

Oden had injury problems leading into this, and they didn't get any better.

[miami_fan]

I would still take Oden first. The better question now is how stupid do those people look now that thought Durant was a bad pick because he could not bench press 185 once.

[Lathum]

It all depends. If the 3/4 is absolutely a can't miss guy like LeBron James, then you take him p-e-r-i-o-d. If the guy has great potential and you have another who could have be just as good, but is a little more a risk, but is at such a position as a 5 where that similar potential is a bit more rare I say you have to figure what is right for your team. Portland isn't bad at the 3/4 spots, so I say that at the time they made the right move. The 1 & 5 can have such an impact if you get the right guy that you have to make the pick if you think he could be dominant at the position.*

.

I think you also have to factor in they play in the west, so the maybe felt they needed a big guy to go against Yao, Duncan, and a few others. That could be the difference in a playoff series.

[Balldog]

Oden had injury problems leading into this, and they didn't get any better.

One broken wrist qualifies as injury problems?

[Logan]

One broken wrist qualifies as injury problems?

He hobbled all over at Ohio State. People who said he looked like a 35 year old, and not just facially, were right.

[Matthean]

One broken wrist qualifies as injury problems?

Wasn't he proven to have one leg shorter than the other, or something like it? I swear Simmons jumped on the fact that big guys who have back/leg issues before being drafted universally will have injury problems in the pros.

For the debate, I never could get into Oden. From what I saw him he just didn't seem to dominate. The guards on OSU seemed to play vastly bigger roles in the team's success than he did. If you are going to be a "once in a generation" type of big guy, or even "one in ten years" you can't appear to be 2nd fiddle on your college team. You don't even need LSU with Shaq vs. Louisville kind of freakish type of games. Just give me a reason to believe.
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

[Atocep]

Wasn't he proven to have one leg shorter than the other, or something like it? I swear Simmons jumped on the fact that big guys who have back/leg issues before being drafted universally will have injury problems in the pros.

For the debate, I never could get into Oden. From what I saw him he just didn't seem to dominate. The guards on OSU seemed to play vastly bigger roles in the team's success than he did. If you are going to be a "once in a generation" type of big guy, or even "one in ten years" you can't appear to be 2nd fiddle on your college team. You don't even need LSU with Shaq vs. Louisville kind of freakish type of games. Just give me a reason to believe.
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

Prior to going down this year he was one of the top 10 players in the league on a per minute basis and one of the top 20-25 overall. The talent to dominate is there.

[Groundhog]

The only fair question is, knowing what we all knew then, was Oden over Durant a mistake? I still say no.

[boberot]

My enthusiasm for Oden is tempered by the fact that he has had serious injuries to both knees -- that can't be discounted.

However, he has shown flashes of dominant play in the pros, and he just turned 22 three days ago. He's got plenty of time.

It's hard to call it a "mistake."

[stevew]

Oden is a big

A bigman prospect like Oden .

Oden does seem to be a bit more fragile than I like in a big

Brought up the fact that big men like Oden

This would be a lot harder to swallow

"you can't pass up a big man like Oden

maybe felt they needed a big guy

If you are going to be a "once in a generation" type of big guy

Maybe if you cut all these posts down, many of us were right?

Or maybe someone in the Portland front office was excited about Oden's "Measurables?"