Is Oden a bust?

[wdleehi]

It's obvious that in this point in Oden's career, we have sufficient evidence that strongly suggests he is a bust.

Your definition of "bust" is pretty wonky, imo.   Michael Olowakandi was a "bust", because he came into the league at 23 and never showed much improvement in 9 years.

Gerald Green is considered a "bust" to people who had high expectations, because he hasn't amounted to crap in 5 seasons.  Same with Kedrick Brown.  Sam Bowie was a solid NBA player early in his career, but not nearly good enough to justify being taken over Michael Jordan.

Kwame Brown is unquestionably a bust... 8 years into his career and he's still a bum.  Darko is unquestionably a bust...

Greg Oden has only played 46 NBA games while unhealthy and statistically has been one of the best players in either his draft class or rookie class... assuming he gets healthy, his potential is still extremely high.   

You can say, "his rookie season is a disappointment... I though he'd magically be like Tim Duncan as a rookie despite only playing a handful of college games, taking a year off of basketball and playing at 60% all season... instead we got rookie-esque Dwight Howard"

But saying, "he's a bust" is kinda silly.   Wait a few years to see what happens.  I'd be foolish to call him a bust right now.  Way too many questions and variables.  I'm not sure how much pain he's playing in, how limited his athleticism, strength and explosiveness is from coming off surgery, how limited his timing and feel for the game is after taking a year off...  how limited his game is from missing the preseason and the first couple weeks of the regular season... how much he's struggling to fit into a playoff team as a rookie and how difficult he's finding it to fit into his specific role (they aren't asking him to be a star) in limited minutes... how much the pressure of the rookie season is weighing on him and how much a difference it will make if he learns how to stay out of foul trouble... etc.

Durant got to spend an entire season in an empty Seattle arena jacking up shots, shooting a dreadful percentage on a team without any expectations whatsoever... got as many minutes as he needed and wasn't asked to play defense.   Now he's a 2nd year player in Oklahoma, making a lot of shots, shooting amazing percentages... without any expectations whatosever... gets as many minutes as he needs and isn't being asked to play defense.     I'd be equally foolish to say Oden is anywhere near Durant so far (especially considering I've posted like 8 threads about how amazing Durant is), but... It would be interesting to see how a healthy Oden would play in 40+ minutes on a bottomfeeder team that just let him do whatever he wanted.

Time... need time...

Oden couldn't play 40 minutes because of foul trouble (a problem with almost all young big men). He can barely play 20 min. So I'm not sure it's more time that he needs, he just needs to be healthy.

Also with Durant, it's not that hard to believe that once he is on a better team and gets good defensive coaches, he will be a good defender. He certainly has the drive.

He hasn't played heaver minutes (when he was playing) was the Blazers were keeping his minutes down as he came back from micro-fracture.

[LarBrd33]

right.. he'd average 5.6 fouls (had just edited my post as you responded)...   And that's something he'll adjust to.  He has good insticts, but you can't really know how much his timing, familiarity with his teammates/NBA game and health limitations are impacting his foul trouble... not to mention his limited "wind" as he continues to try to get into basketball shape and the fact that the Blazers want to try to "take it slow" with him to prevent another major injury as he continues to rehab from microfracture surgery.

[cordobes]

Through two years he's a bust, sure. 

But it's impossible to know what the sum of his career is until it's over.  Look at the injuries Ilgauskas came back from.

True.

But am I the only one who is more worried about all the reports and rumours about his mental stability and off-the-court stuff than with his injuries?

Plus, it's not fair to compare him with guys like Kandi or Kwame Brown. There's a lot of revisionism going on about the expectations people had about Oden. He was supposed to make an immediate impact (and he made it, but exclusively on the boards and in limited minutes) and expected to become a one in a generation big, a dominant big man on the level of Shaq, Duncan, Kareem, Wilt, Russell, etc. People weren't expecting exactly that from other players.

[Scalablob990]

If he can play 3 months w/o taking a day off i'll go and order a AUTHENTIC SCALABRINE jersey for full price. Luckily since Big Greg has the skeleton strength of a 90 yr old man I can assume i'm safe on that bet. 

[Rida]

Yes he is a bust.

he is the Sam Bowie to Durant's jordan

[cornbreadsmart]

i say he's a future hall of famer if he ciould stay healthy. that looks like a longshot though. too bad. he seems like a very likeable dude.