Greg Oden Watch

[WD]

^Miami will have to modify it's style of play when he's on the floor for him to be effective. He's a traditional BIG...If we force him to play in this system, he won't progress. I still think he's good for 5 fouls on another teams BIG THIS YEAR...less wear and tear on another player.

[kyphi]

Greg Oden got a watch?

[Mars]

A bit of perspective on Oden. Shaun Livingston suffered his knee injury in 2007. He didn't fully arrive physically or fully believe mentally until this past summer; more than six years later...

How Shaun Livingston found NBA life after ugly injury

Jeff Zillgitt | USA TODAY Sports
March 20, 2014

...At one point last season, Livingston said he didn't know how much athleticism he had left and wanted to work on facets of his game he could control. It happens to all players as they age: they have to rely more on smarts and less on that fading natural ability. It happened to Livingston faster than most.

It also took him longer than most to adapt, not surprising since then-Clippers team doctor Tony Daley called Livingston's injury one of the worst he had ever seen.

After winding his way through several NBA cities — Miami, Oklahoma City, Washington, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Washington again and Cleveland — and rebuilding his leg and knee strength to where he could trust them, Livingston has found a spot with the Nets. He has worked with a variety of trainers, including Tim Grover, but he spent the past two summers with Miami-based trainer Manning Sumner.

"He ran me through hell," Livingston said. "Some of the work that we did, he was like, 'You're not hurt. You're going to do everything that we do and you're going to doing it better than everybody.' I'm going to give it my all and find my last bit of athleticism. … I really dedicated myself in the summer, pushing myself past the brink of mediocrity."

Sumner said Livingston still had reservations about his knee in the summer of 2012. "He was holding back and not trusting himself or the process," Sumner said. "It was like starting over. We had to build a foundation from the ground up."

By the summer of 2013, Livingston "believed in himself," Sumner said. "He worked his (butt) off. He didn't always like it, but he did it. I'm not going to call anybody out, but he would be running circles around guys. He pushed the envelope, and I knew there was a big difference."...

Link

[Bourne85]

He's exactly where I thought he would be, on the bench never to play. I knew he just didn't fit our "style" which is more suited for fast mobile centers like Sanders

[dancing2thabeet]

Next year, I hope...