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Man, if you dont think Oden is a bust, there are no busts. Oden has great talent, it is too bad we never get to find out because he is always, I mean ALWAYS, hurt. Bust has nothing to do with potential and everything to do with production. Oden was very lucky, it's the Blazers who are the unlucky ones.

i think someone like Kwame Brown, Darko etc. are bust, Oden is very unlucky but Oden showed his NBA talent when he is healthy and after such long injury breaks i think thats definately a sign that he has the talent to be a top draft pick.
But he is very unlucky, so maybe Portland did not deal good in drafting him, but for me that unlucky circumstances. A bust is for me, wrong expectation from a drafted player. So maybe we had different definitions from the word bust, and maybe Oden will be lucky in future even when it get hard with his history(which wasn't that bad at draft date in my eyes).

It is unfair to call Oden a bust. It would be like saying Grant hill or brandon roy are busts.

and for Rubio beleavers/haters, (http://nbaplaybook.com/2011/06/20/overseas-scouting-repor...) That will be the deepest, most accurate report I have seen of rubio.

all non-athletic PG had little succes early in their carreers.

Nash is not as good a defender as rubio is, nor is he as athletic. He bases his play in the pick and roll, if you go around the defense he will take and make the shot, if you fight the screen he will attack the rim luring the defence to hit the open man or finding the screener be it rolling to the rim (warrick) or poping to shoot (frye) (stoudamire could do both). Nash is also a very good finisher around the rim, goes to peoples bodies and is very very crafty.

I think love is an ideal partner for this, he can roll to the rim and finish or he could pop out and wait to shoot the 3. Also he has a very good IQ, and very good spacing.B easley could also play pic and roll or pick and pop but he just doesnt have a good IQ and wouldnt recognize when to pop and when to roll.

Then again the problem is rubio, he needs to be consistent at least in his mid range jumpshot and he needs to be able to finish at the rim with both hands. If not defenders will simply go under the screen letting him shoot, and luring him to the rim for the easy block.

Cassel wasnt a very good long range shooter, but made his pic and roll after an isolation and close to the rim. That is one solution to range problem. Also you see Parker who is not a good jumpshooter excel with floters. Rubio needs to master something to get him going. Nash or CP3 crafty finishing around the rim, a consistent midrange game or a good floater. And you see every succesful pic and roll player being good at more than one of those. (or just mind blowingly athletic, as rose or westbrook were in his first season)


In the defensive end rubio is not very ahtletic, but he is very long. He is also quite tall, so if he can buckle up i can see him staying in front of players, maybe he can have trouble with very explosive players like rose, but others that use dribble penetration might have problems with his long arms and fast hands. (and he will have to stop gambling)

He also has a very hi IQ. Long arms hi IQ reminds me of stockton, but he is not even near as tough as Stockton was. and sneaking inside the paint just with craftyness will get you hurt (you see it constantly with CP3 or nash, remember when he broke his nose and put it in place himself?)

Edit: I would love to see him be extremely succesfull, he has the potential to be one of the best. He has the work ethic to improve his outside shot, he has the talent and craftyness to improve his finishing around the rim. He can take advices, he has a great IQ. My only concern would be toughness, both to fisical play and to mental stress. You can not teach that, and he is not there. I think that, and patience, will be the key to his success.

Last edited by Flamen at 8/1/2011 10:19:33 AM

It is unfair to call Oden a bust. It would be like saying Grant hill or brandon roy are busts.

Seems an odd comparison saying Hill, since he has had a long and fairly succesful career. Drafting Hill gave an incredible amount more production than Oden. Roy has been injured alot too, but he also has at least played some and well. Oden has shown flashes of his potential in his few games, but he has also shown quite a bit of mediocrity as well. Considering what Portland paid in both a draft pick and salary, they have got nearly nothing in return. Banking on future Oden glory seems wistful at best.

Wasnt that bad huh? This guy was a #1 pick. Look at the history of #1 picks and over the last 30+ years they are all either great players, or pretty good players. Potential means nothing after the draft, it is after that point that production becomes the measure used. Oden has started 60 games in 3 seasons, playing in 82 total. that is 1/3rd of the games portland has played in that time. When he has played he has had a few good games but overall I think mediocre would be flattering to his play. 22 minutes per game, 9.4 pts, 7.3 RB, 1.4 blocks. I feel confident that knowing what they know now about his knees the Blazers would certainly pick someone else if they could go back, even if Durant wasnt an option. All that to me spells bust considering both where he was picked and what he was paid compared directly to what he has done.

And yes, Kwame Brown was also a bust. He did play more often but he also got paid alot more and put up similar if not worse numbers to Odens. You probably have to go back to 1977 to find a worse or at least equally bad #1 pick with Kent Benson, known more for getting leveled his first game by Kareem injuring them both than he is for anything done on the court. Hel, even Bogut and Bargnani look vastly more valuable for their pick than Oden does. 4 major injuries to his knees his first three years. Bust

Last edited by buzzerbeatme at 8/2/2011 5:34:16 AM

Wasnt that bad huh? This guy was a #1 pick. Look at the history of #1 picks and over the last 30+ years they are all either great players, or pretty good players.

Oden is also a pretty good player but injured, a bad player as number one pick is properly Larue Martin.

I'm not sure we will ever find out how good Oden is. If we ask his mother she will probably agree with you. If you ask the GM of the Blazers, I bet he says....

I'm not sure we will ever find out how good Oden is. If we ask his mother she will probably agree with you. If you ask the GM of the Blazers, I bet he says....

i think the new contract he get from the GM was surely a sign that he agree with you.

Oh wait, he got lot more then the minimum, and they even want to sign him.

Maybe we had o check if Oden's mother the GM of the franchise.