RealGM

I can say I'm not surprised.

So what do you think will happen this off-season?

This is old news. This was brought up in another thread a few weeks ago when Jason Quick reported it on the radio. Cho wants to see Oden play before throwing money at him and Oden wants more money than what they would throw at him at this point. I even heard Oden wants to prove himself before his next contract. I dunno if that's true or not, but I could see him saying something like that and I really like that attitude.

RW - This off-season is over pal or are you referring to next summer? I don't think anyone can speculate on that at this point based on the upcoming CBA and having to wait and see how Oden plays. I don't really know if there is much to talk about here.

Why would the Blazers offer him a contract? He hasn't earned the check he is cashing right now.

Yep, its tough to pay someone for potential let alone with health issues.

However if there was ever a team that had a player let go only to come
back and dominate, making that team look dumb.. .it would be the Blazers.
lol

This is a smart move. If Oden goes down for extended time again, I have to imagine that we let him walk...

We have the option to let him walk but we don't have to offer him an extension or let him walk. We still have options on his rookie contract.

Not exactly surprising!

Let him walk? This is the guy that half the board wouldn't trade for Chris Paul a couple months ago. And I took some heat for saying i'd trade him straight up for Horford. Letting him walk is not an option. Trade him if he doesn't live up to expectations. Otherwise just extend him.

Walton'sBeard! wrote:Let him walk? This is the guy that half the board wouldn't trade for Chris Paul a couple months ago. And I took some heat for saying i'd trade him straight up for Horford. Letting him walk is not an option. Trade him if he doesn't live up to expectations. Otherwise just extend him.

Letting him walk would be dumb.. I just pray to god that he doesn't have another.. you know what this year I don't want to say it...

I dunno that I ever see the Blazers letting him walk. If he has another season ending injury, I gotta wonder if the Blazers wouldn't offer him an extension. It would be for much less than he'd get if he were healthy, but with his potential, I just don't know if I see the Blazers ever walking away from that. Like Odd said, it would be the Blazers (of all NBA teams) who would have a guy walk away and become an absolute stud. The Blazers definitely hold all of the cards right now. Oden can test the market and the Blazers have the abililty to accept any offer Oden signs with another team. If Oden is worth a big contract, the Blazers will get him. If he's not worth much of a contract, the Blazers can either sign him, trade him or just let him go (a la Jeff Pendergraph). Only time will tell which path the Blazers and Oden go down.

Oden won't even accept one right now, because if he stays healthy and even has a decent year, he'll command a ton more.

d-train wrote:Why would the Blazers offer him a contract? He hasn't earned the check he is cashing right now.

This.

NO-KG-AI wrote:Oden won't even accept one right now, because if he stays healthy and even has a decent year, he'll command a ton more.

Yeah, it goes both ways. The Blazers would be stupid to give him big money at this point and Oden would be stupid to accept pennies on the dollar.

Smart move not to extend him - you gotta see that he can play for an extended period of time...

I worry about the WAY he was injured most recently. He just kind of crumbled on a normal landing. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for him all the way (in fact he's on my fantasy team), the league needs more dominant centers, and he has potential to be that if healthy. But it just seems like something may be off about his build... I mean really... nothing HAPPENED, and he was out for the year... maybe someone has a better explanation for this??

I can think of 3 potentially contributing factors if you need "something"

1. Maggettes metal knee brace apparently chipped his knee a few weeks before his injury. Those should be illegal, especially from a player whos game is to run into other players.
2. Oden had dramatically increased his lower body strength and was running around at the heaviest he had ever been.
3. His jump was unusual. If you rewatch it (it is painful, I dont recommend), you can see that he jumps very awkwardly. He doesn't get his foot rotated out, so he is jumping with one foot pigeon-toed. Try pointing one of your feet at your other one and jumping as high as you can. It feels very awkward and you can feel the pressure in your knee

I really hate to beat a dead horse about getting him on the floor, but I think it would have been good for Oden, the fans, his teammates, everyone if he had gotten some burn in the first game, even if he was sluggish and didn't play long, just a few small spurts.

NO-KG-AI wrote:I really hate to beat a dead horse about getting him on the floor, but I think it would have been good for Oden, the fans, his teammates, everyone if he had gotten some burn in the first game, even if he was sluggish and didn't play long, just a few small spurts.

Who is this Oden guy everyone keeps talking about? Doesn't he play for the Lakers?

His hometown Pacers will have a ton of cap-space next summer. If he can return this season and prove that he can still be an effective center, I wouldn't be surprised to see them offer him a big contract. He and Roy Hibbert would make an excellent twin towers.

Good luck with that cap space and organically growing players.

DeBlazerRiddem wrote:I can think of 3 potentially contributing factors if you need "something"

1. Maggettes metal knee brace apparently chipped his knee a few weeks before his injury. Those should be illegal, especially from a player whos game is to run into other players.
2. Oden had dramatically increased his lower body strength and was running around at the heaviest he had ever been.
3. His jump was unusual. If you rewatch it (it is painful, I dont recommend), you can see that he jumps very awkwardly. He doesn't get his foot rotated out, so he is jumping with one foot pigeon-toed. Try pointing one of your feet at your other one and jumping as high as you can. It feels very awkward and you can feel the pressure in your knee

The Maggette knee brace incident was the previous season. Oden missed some games due to it. However, I agree that may have had something to do with it. I believe Oden broke the knee cap when he jumped, not landed (but I could be wrong).