Portland Fans Still Delusional RE: Oden vs. Durant

Durant is a ballhog and he does shoot too much.

Besides Durant went first, Portland had to take Oden.

He is a bum though.

 

I would trade Tmac for Oden + others.

 

I don't agree, I mean a guy is still to young to put him as Sam Bowie.

Sure he had bad luck but I wouldn't write him off yet.

And let's not forget that his first postseason duel is with arguably the best center on planet right now, Yao.

I guess Durant would have made Blazers immediately better but Oden is a long term project and centers usually take some time to develop.

I guess a lot of people regretted drafting Yao in his first year or so but as the time passed they saw a glimpse of a star in him.

 

Nevermind Im a fool. Yeah they messed up. But Roy + Durant? Not sure if that would work.

 

Portland had the first pick and took Oden.

 

2 flaws
Durant went 2nd, portland had #1 pick.

Second, Durant is a ballhog but he makes the shot at least and has developed at a rate much faster than Oden

 

Portland had the 1st pick and they took Oden.

 

Quote.

 

None of your statements are true.

Durant does not shoot too much. And Oden was taken No. 1. The Blazers had a choice to take Durant, but they already had Roy. Does this remind you of something?

 

There is talent on the Thunder, you wouldnt know it tho with Durant shooting 25+ times a game.

 

Obviously Durant > Oden and its not even close. Just saying.

 

Give Oden time. Durant has one more year over him and during Durant's first year, I only saw a pretty low efficiency chucker, and look where he's at now.

 

There's no question that Durant is the much better player right now and may ultimately be better. But his opportunity for development and Oden's were polar opposite. Durant was given the keys to the car and ample opportunity to drive from the beginning. Anyone getting that many touches as the go-to guy would develop quickly.

Conversely, Oden sat out his entire rookie season with an injury and has to try to develop on a team trying to contend. That's just tough. Before this year, the Rockets almost never developed any meaningful players (outside of Yao) in their hopes of making the playoffs every year. Plus Oden's team already has two budding stars: Roy and Aldridge plus several other talented players. When you also factor in that big men just take longer to develop, Oden really is at a substantial disadvantage when comparing early development.

I'm not saying I wouldn't take Durant over Oden, but direct comparisons at this point are obviously going to be one sided.

Another thing to consider is that, Oden could develop into the only good, real big man other than Dwight Howard. That could be a real advantage to the Blazers later. Although the counter point is of course that Durant is looking fairly unique too.

 

This is a Portland thread, it should be posted in their fan site or in the NBA threads

 

i agree durant was the better pick. However, it wasn't as clear-cut as you make it sound back then. Durant's 1st year wasn't even close to as good as his 2nd. He made a great leap, and they don't all do what he did.

gotta give oden time.

a) we've all seen so many bigs take longer to develop

b) he just finished his first year. He's not as good as Durant was last year, but if he makes the same caliber of leap that Durant made between years 1 and 2, Oden will be very solid. Never gonna be in Durant's stratosphere in my opinion, but he could still turn out to be very good. 1 freakin year in college and 1 in the NBA (limited by injuries and foul trouble, as is sometimes the case with bigs)

 

what he said, too

 

If we are looking back then what they should have done is draft Durant then traded him and Lafrentz for a stud in the post or a PG.