How can you say that about a player that has never made a penny playing basketball? Apart from college tuition of course.
I don't think there has ever been a Lebron. There have been great players to hit the league, certainly, but Lebron's package of size, skills and athleticism (especially when considering he came straight out of highschool) are entirely unique to him. I doubt there will be a 'next Lebron'. Also, Greg Oden is not a project. That's why there is so much talk about him. He's the most skilled big man to come along since Tim Duncan. He's already 7'0 260 lbs too. I'm sure he'll prove this to you when you see him play for Ohio State. And yeah, OJ Mayo is the next highly touted guard to come out. He is comparable to Lebron in the fact he's been expected to make an impact for years and years now. He'll be starting his senior season next year and he's been making top 10 highschool prospect lists for years already.
I don't know about that. Every scouting report I've seen on the guy is saying that he's got the size and agility of a David Robinson, and will impact the league immediately as a defensive force, but is a bit behind in his offensive skillset. What set Duncan apart was his highly developed offensive game, which is not something that I've heard about Oden. Course I haven't seen the guy play, just going on second hand reports.
Like you said, Oden can have an immediate impact on the defensive side. I've seen quite a bit of footage on Oden and I would say he is behind in his offensive skillset when compared to Robinson or Duncan when they came into the league, of course both of those guys had long college careers. Maybe because the videos I saw were highlight films, but almost all of Oden's points in h.s. came on dunks. It isn't a bad thing since he is over 7'0" tall but he hasn't shown much more than that like some of the other posters are making him out to be.
I've seen a couple of Oden games on ESPN2 and it's obvious to me that he is going to be a very good defensive and rebounding center in the nba. he has great size, strength, and athleticism. but i don't see the duncan comparisons or that this guy is a slam dunk as the next great big man in the nba. he doesn't have much of a nba-ready skill set offensively. he just uses his size and athleticism to dunk on your typical 6'5 high school center. he didn't show much of a polished post game or a consitent 10 footer in the games that i've seen. he can easily drop 25-30 points on high schoolers, but it is going to be a much different story in the nba. he doesn't deserve all the lebron-type hype that he has been getting. i know he's big and an excellent athlete, but that's it right now. he's got a ton of potential but to try to compare him to tim duncan is really setting the kid up for failure right now. i think he'll become a very good center in the nba, possibly great, but he's got a long way to go.
Ok, I just read on another forum that Derrick Rose is better than OJ Mayo. About 5 people agreed too. This video was posted: http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Z3SrBNfh0A&search=Derrick Rose
Well that settles that. Might as well draft the 2008 class already. All these kids are two to three years away from the NBA. And who knows how they will develop (remember how Felipe Lopez was supposed to be the next great when he was a high schooler). Considering the new age limit, can we at least wait until they hit college before annointing them as the "Next Lebron".
That's not the point of this topic. I know they are two to three years from the NBA. I am asking for the next highly touted guard so I can look forward to them. I want to know the next hyped prospect.
Fine. For some reason I was totally put off by the "five people said so" comment. It seemed so falsely authoritative, as if these five people (who for all we know have never seen any of these guys play) were the sole arbiters of who's going to be great, and who isn't. Go ahead and do what you want. Not my business if you want to check out the hype. Although from that video, this Rose kid didn't look that special. Sure it's impressive for 16 or 17 or however old he is. But nothing he showed leads me to believe that he could break into the NBA the way that Lebron did. He doesn't look that big, he doesn't look that athletic, and nobody challenged his dribble, so it's hard to tell how good his handle is.
Yes the next great one is already in the NBA but is developing slowly and will shortly be the topic of the media. He is 7'6" tall and plays for the Houston Rockets, his name is Yao Ming.
Uhh... you took it totally the wrong way. I made that statement to see if there were any that disagreed with it, so I can read their opinion. "Five people" was a way to show that it wasn't just some one guy that said it. My logic was that if five people over on that forum knew about this Rose kid, then there must be some on this forum... then I wanted to know their point of view on that kid. Wow, you're frustrating.
P.S. In the most recent edition of SLAM magazine, OJ Mayo is listed at 6'6". I know that doesn't make it fact, but I just thought it was worth mentioning. Also, I recommend you getting a subscription to SLAM, McGrady. A lot of posters say it's a worthless magazine, but I find it an entertaining read and it's got a great section in the back of every issue called "Punks" that keeps you up on the top highschool prospects in the country. I think their coverage of highschool players is probably the most interesting aspect of the magazine. They're pretty good at picking out the good ones too. They make some mistakes here and there - personally I think they have always given Sebastian Telfair way too much credit, but over-all it's good stuff.
Oden only averaged 14 points in high school, even Ryan Bowen probably scored that much in high school. Yea sure he is a big guy, but i dont think he deserves lebron hype. Kevin Durant could blow up big at texas this year. 6'10 athletic swingman.
making a case for Oden didn't amare just dunk on 6'6 high scchool kids. he was said to have a really raw offensive set. that dunking turned out really well it seems
On the flip side they said the same stuff about Kwame Brown, Eddy Curry, and any number of high school big men. So you can never tell how things are going to work out.
He played on one of the most talented college team ever and still wasn't motivated to FIGHT for the championship. How could he be motivated right after signing a 8 digit contract?
