Oden - Not impressed

My opinion is he only has 1 hand, OSU doesn't emphasize him on offense (he is a fresh on a talented team after all) and big men rarely do look impressive due to the restraints of the college game.

 

Oden is a defensive juggernaut, and defensive juggernaut centers with offensive potential come only once every while. Just based on positional value (and probably based on who's drafting), I think he has a great chance of going first no matter how Durant does.

 

I think oden's hand is fine now he shot a free throw with his shooting hand yesterday. The guy will be a monster in the league once he develops an offensive game the key will be getting to a team with a decent point guard. I see many times OSU not getting him the ball when he has position.

the thing that sometime raises ?s for me is his intensity he doesnt show any emotions. After ron lewis hits that 3 to send it to OT everyone around him were cheering and clapping all his teammates and he slowly got up and half-heartedly clapped (the type of clap you give because everyone else is clapping)

even the most "boring" of stars in the nba show a whole lot more emotion than this kid does sometimes makes me wonder where his head is. i could completely wrong in the end but at least for now i dont see him with the same desire as durant

 

Just keep this in mind. Up until this summer, Oden had NEVER used his left hand for anything basketballwise. But over the summer because of his broken right wrist he developed the left hand to the point he was shooting FTs with it at a 65% clip. Over the summer, with minimal coaching because of college rules he did that on his own.

Now, extrapolate that learning curve over his NBA career. He is going to be good. A top 10 center of all time? Who knows? But REAL goood!

And remember, the college game does not lend iteself to having the C position look great stats wise. However, with that said, The Sporting News had a recent article where it looked at Ewing's, Shaq's and Oden's freshman year stats. Oden's stats were slightly better.

 

he's got one foot in college and the other in the nba. he woulldn't be at theOSU if he didn't have to be. that being said he has the size and ability to be dominant it is just a matter of will.

 

He looks forty and he acts forty. Nothing wrong with that if he's blocking the crap out of everything and his underlying work ethic remains.

 

He's playing with the wrong hand and he's STILL holding his own.

"Not impressed?" The kid is a freak, he not only deserves to be the #1 pick, but he will eventually dominate in the NBA as well.

 

Gotta agree with DD. Oden doesn't have the feel yet (maybe he can get it in the NBA with coaching). Looked like the refs were definitely favoring Oden in the game, not calling fouls on him that they should have (though he did eventually foul out). Oden's hand does not appear to be a factor NOW, yet he didn't show me too much yesterday to think he should be #1. Though I am a big Durant fan...

 

Exactly - Hakeem averaged like 8 points and 6 rebounds his freshman year.

 

On the flip side though, Olowokandi averaged something like 22 points and 11 rebounds in college, so eh. The coin flips both ways.

Although I think Oden's coin is going straight up.

 

7 feet and somewhere in the neighborhood of 260 pounds.

runs the court as well as anybody

huge wingspan

good defensive fundamentals. gets good positioning and actually blocks out. great rebounder on both ends and is a shotblocking monster. he's very polished defensively.

offensively, he doesnt have much game. the bulk of his points are scored on putbacks, tipins, dunks, and a funny looking hook shot. he doesnt have any spin moves and isnt very crafty. his footwork is a bit mechanical and he's a little stiff. pretty much just overpowers anybody that gets in his way.

7 footers who can run and jump as well as oden dont come around often. right now, he's somewhere around Okafor and Dwight Howard, except he's a legit center and should be a better shot blocker than both. he commands the middle of the paint defensively, and that can change a whole team's offense. i really dont see him turning into an offensive monster like Robinson was, because Robinson was much more skilled and had a jumpshot. i think he'll be more of a Mutombo type player as far a rebounding and shotblocking goes, but should average close to 18 points his first few years. his offensive potential will be determined by his footwork in the post and if he can ever have some sort of jumpshot facing the basket.

 

If it were my choice I would take Durant regardless of what my team needed.

Passing on Durant is like passing on Vince Young.

 

I was convinced, i like Oden, especially his defense. He deserves No. 1.

 

The kid is doing fine. He is playing with his off hand, what more could people expect from him?

 

if i were boston, who has the #2 pick right now i think, id trade pierce, green, their 2nd rounder, and a future 1st so they could take Durant and Oden. unless it doesnt work under the cap. i doubt either team would do it though.

 

he looks really raw.

 

You can't make the mistake of judging a player based upon their tournament play alone. Oden has been playing with one hand and has still managed to gradually improve. Let's compare Oden with the 2005 #1 pick: Andrew Bogut.

Look at what Bogut did in the regular season and tournament two years ago. With his post game, rebounding and astonishing passing ability you would have thought we were watching a future NBA All-Star and look at how he has panned out. Instead you have a soft 7-footer that can't guard anybody, doesn't block shots, doesn't rebound that well and simply hasn't improved offensively AT ALL since he entered the league.

Oden is probably already better than Bogut. Sure, Oden relies on his size and athleticism to be effective and his fundamental skills aren't where they need to be, but just imagine how good he'll be once he develops a post game and starts playing with a mean streak. He can already finish and shoot with both hands, do you really think he's not going to develop a vast array of jump hooks and pivot moves?

Oden is probably going to average in his rookie year something similar to Dwight Howard's 12/10/2 rookie campaign and will only continue to get better.

 

Yeah, he's no Langhi