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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 1, 2006 3:46:01 GMT -5
I know, I know, the chances of us landing Greg Oden in next year's draft is nearly impossible. For one, I don't believe we'll be in the lottery (at least not with our own pick) and for another, the chances of us being the worst team in the league is out of the question. But if there's a chance, even if its one in a million, I'm holding out for that chance because he'll be that player who puts us over the top.
If you consider how good Dwight Howard is right now, and how good he will be in the next 2 - 3 years, he didn't get the same level of hype that Greg Oden has received as a senior in high school. That just gives you a glimpse of what experts and GM's think of this young kid. They are calling him the next big thing to come out of high school since Lebron James, and the best big man since Shaq.
In last year's McDonald's All-American game, Oden was playing at about 75% due to an injured right wrist, but yet he still dominated on defense and on the boards, and looked like a veteran big man. This kid is as agile as many of the athletic SF's in the NBA, but he's 7 feet tall with incredibly long arms and a giant wing span. And he catches anything you through up at him because he's long, tall, and quick off his feet.
Perkins may be the best shot blocker we have on the team right now, but I'd venture to say that Oden can out do him right now, even without NBA experience. Maybe not by much, but he is a more dominating shot blocker, even as young as he is.
Oden has the making to be the type of Center you build a franchise around. Like the way Houston did with Hakeem and with the way the Spurs did with Robinson.
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Post by freshnthehouse on Sept 1, 2006 4:53:50 GMT -5
Basically we have only two ways to get Oden:
A) Make a trade with Chi to get NY's #1 rounder(odds are it would have to involve Pierce)
B) Tank.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 1, 2006 10:48:04 GMT -5
Well, we know that tanking won't do it, and I doubt Ainge resorts to doing that (unless we are talking about 5 games left in the season).
What might be our best option is to load up on first round picks. I think we have 2 this season (our own and the Lakers), but if we can get some lowly team to give up their first rounder, we may be able to stockpile enough high first round picks to get a team to bite. You mention Chicago and the rights they have to NY's first round pick. Maybe we can entice them to do a trade with us where we give them something they need right now to help them be a better team this year in exchange for NY's pick.
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Post by eja117 on Sept 1, 2006 11:33:45 GMT -5
If you had the possibility of getting Oden in this draft would you make any kind of trade whatsoever that could result in not getting him? That is a one way ticket to being an out of work GM. If we wanted a shot at Oden we needed to make a trade for a future pick years ago the way Detroit got Darko. We would have needed to do this before people even knew who he was. Other than that we could maybe do what we should have done with Duncan. At the time they said it would require Toine who had just had a very good rookie year and was a future all -star, our two picks in that draft, and our pick in the next draft, which presumably with Duncan and nobody would have been a top 3 pick. We now know Toine, Billups, Mercer, and Raef for Duncan would have been a steal but nobody on Earth knew that at the time. Duncan had had his butt kicked in college by Camby and never did anything in the tourney. He also hadnt been better than Rasheed Wallace. Billups, Mercer, and Raef all had all-star possibilities. Raef had been discussed as the likely top pick at one point. Mercer and Toine were champions. So if we want to offer two draft picks, Al J, Rondo, Perk, Gomes, and a future pick maybe we can get him. Maybe it will be worth it. Maybe it won't.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 1, 2006 13:39:51 GMT -5
Sometimes, teams don't think they'll be a bad team and they'll end up trading away their pick for some immediate help. Its the luck of the draw, and that's what we are hoping for at this time. There's overwhelming odds that we have no chance to land Oden. But some crazy luck has been landing our way so far since Ainge has come aboard, and I'm hoping for that to continue.
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Post by freshnthehouse on Sept 1, 2006 13:53:21 GMT -5
Well, we know that tanking won't do it, and I doubt Ainge resorts to doing that (unless we are talking about 5 games left in the season). What might be our best option is to load up on first round picks. I think we have 2 this season (our own and the Lakers), but if we can get some lowly team to give up their first rounder, we may be able to stockpile enough high first round picks to get a team to bite. You mention Chicago and the rights they have to NY's first round pick. Maybe we can entice them to do a trade with us where we give them something they need right now to help them be a better team this year in exchange for NY's pick. We dont have the Lakers pick anymore. Thats the pick we gave up for our 2 month Antoine rental, and the pick wouldve been around top 8 protected anyway. NO amount of first round picks would score us the Oden pick. No team would be dumb enough to trade a once in a decade big man for a bunch of lesser talent. And in regards to Chicago, the only player they'd want in exchange for that pick is Pierce.
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Post by freshnthehouse on Sept 1, 2006 14:00:17 GMT -5
If you had the possibility of getting Oden in this draft would you make any kind of trade whatsoever that could result in not getting him? That is a one way ticket to being an out of work GM. If we wanted a shot at Oden we needed to make a trade for a future pick years ago the way Detroit got Darko. We would have needed to do this before people even knew who he was. Other than that we could maybe do what we should have done with Duncan. At the time they said it would require Toine who had just had a very good rookie year and was a future all -star, our two picks in that draft, and our pick in the next draft, which presumably with Duncan and nobody would have been a top 3 pick. We now know Toine, Billups, Mercer, and Raef for Duncan would have been a steal but nobody on Earth knew that at the time. Duncan had had his butt kicked in college by Camby and never did anything in the tourney. He also hadnt been better than Rasheed Wallace. Billups, Mercer, and Raef all had all-star possibilities. Raef had been discussed as the likely top pick at one point. Mercer and Toine were champions. So if we want to offer two draft picks, Al J, Rondo, Perk, Gomes, and a future pick maybe we can get him. Maybe it will be worth it. Maybe it won't. In regards to the Darko draft, if we wouldve been smart, we couldve held on to the pick that we took Joe Johnson with and used it in the 03 draft, where we wouldve had Denver's #3. That wouldve have been a franchise changer. And again, whoever lands the #1 pick this year would laugh at that trade. You win championships in the NBA by being lucky enough to get a trancendent player. These kind of players do not get traded unless they want to be, and even then it rarely happens.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2006 23:47:24 GMT -5
Basically we have only two ways to get Oden: A) Make a trade with Chi to get NY's #1 rounder(odds are it would have to involve Pierce) B) Tank. option (A) would not happen especially with the hype this draft is getting. I wouldn't expect many trades to happen if the experts think this will be one of the more talented draft since Lebron's draft class. Only way to get Oden is if this team falls apart and it will probably cost us paul pierce in the long run.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 6, 2006 18:23:32 GMT -5
Check out this youtube mix of Greg Oden. Incredibly fluid and coordinated 7 footer. I want this guy on our team real bad. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSD_67PAO0QI can't wait to see him play for Ohio State this season. I hope there are a lot of television coverage.
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Post by freshnthehouse on Sept 6, 2006 19:00:54 GMT -5
Check out this youtube mix of Greg Oden. Incredibly fluid and coordinated 7 footer. I want this guy on our team real bad. www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSD_67PAO0QI can't wait to see him play for Ohio State this season. I hope there are a lot of television coverage. Im guessing the OSU will be top five preseason pick, so Im sure theyll get tons of pub. They were a top ten team last year w/o oden, so Im sure theyll be a powerhouse with him.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 7, 2006 0:51:34 GMT -5
Oden will miss a handful of games early on, after having surgery on his right wrist not long ago.
One thing you'll notice about Oden and his shot blocking technique, if you watched the youtube mix, is how he doesn't look to swat shots out of this planet. All he's really doing is getting his hand in the way of the ball. Lot of players these days take wild whacks at the ball and this causes them to get easily pump faked. He stays under control and waits for the ball to get in the air before committing himself.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2006 11:55:12 GMT -5
Tanking is the only way to get this guy. In other words, as long as pierce plays for the celtics, we don't have a shot at getting Greg oden.
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 7, 2006 12:39:46 GMT -5
I'm not going to stop wishing until the fat lady sings ;D Stranger things have happened under Ainge's watch and I'm not going to count anything out.
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Post by eja117 on Sept 7, 2006 13:37:20 GMT -5
What happened that was stranger? Or less possible or likely? I mean trading Gary Payton and getting him back , and trading both away and for Toine was weird but I just don't think anything stranger happened. Although GG dropping to 18 was strange. I think our best shot would be to win a highly unlikely lottery, and that assumes we are in the lottery which I think is 50/50
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Post by DERRENMATTS on Sept 7, 2006 17:34:34 GMT -5
-Al Jefferson dropping to 15 was not expected -Gerald Green falling to 18 was a far fetched dream -Ryam Gomes falling all the way to 50 is downright lucky I think those can be considered strange events that happened under Ainge's watch.
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