Greg Oden’s Injury & the Blazers

December 8, 2009

BetOnline

Alex Tichenor is a Blazer’s fan, so I was interested in his thoughts on how the Oden injury will affect the Blazers for the rest of the season.  Interesting enough, he said that it won’t ruin the team’s season, even though with a fractured knee cap, Oden’s 2009-10 season is done.  This is the same knee cap that was chipped last year in a game against the Warriors

Oden had been off to a great start to the season, averaging nearly a double double, and was among the league leaders in blocks.  Plus, in his previous game he was pulled down 20-boards.  It appeared everything was coming together.

There are 61 games remaining that Oden will miss. He missed all 82 in his “rookie season.” He also missed a good chunk of games last season, not even playing in three-fourths of the Blazers contests. That makes three years in the league, but less than a full season’s worth of games.  All this while No. 2 pick Kevin Durant continues to be among the league leaders in scoring as he is leading the Thunder to a surprising start.

Still, players said that Oden apologized to his teammates for getting hurt. He is taking the blame for getting hurt. He feels like he is letting his team down. It’s hard to not like a guy like that.  Oden just had bad knees, and that’s that. He will probably never play a full season. He will probably never be a top 10 NBA center. He will never live up to his hype. Centers with bad knees just don’t make it in the NBA.

Even with how well the Blazers had been playing, Alex says the Oden injury should not be a huge bump in their season’s path. They played fine without him last season, and they feel less pressure to try and get him the ball now.

The injury will make better players out of their two emerging cornerstones, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. Aldridge will need to really bang the boards with Oden out, something he needed to do anyway, although he’s been better on the glass this season.  Roy will have to bring the injury ravaged Blazers together and lead them like never before, but if the Blazers make it through the season as a playoff team, Roy can be considered maybe the best leader in the NBA.

The guy who will replace Oden is a capable player as well. Joel Pryzbilla actually started almost every game last season and is a gritty rebounder and defender. They have shallow depth behind him, but the Blazers will just have to play small with some combination of Roy, Blake, Miller, and Fernandez on the court at many times.

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