Greg Oden interested in joining HEAT

[RRR3]

the Heat have an excellent world class medical staff.

Wade continuing to play on his bad knee

Haslem coming back 6 months earlier than normal for the 2011 playoffs, etc

It's well known that the Heat have a world class medical staff to anyone who actually follows the team and team news. Arison brought in the best

Yeah but the Phoenix staff is on some magical shit. Grant Hill and Michael Redd suddenly became healthy again after going to the Suns.

[Scoooter]

If one leg's shorter than the other, then just put a lift in his shoe. Nike can figure something out.

Have any of his injuries been demonstrably and conclusively a symptom of his mismatched legs?

[NumberSix]

Not sure I even want him

[Pra]

Not sure I even want him

Can't hurt if he takes the Vet min though.

[DropStep]

He wanted to take this season off too? WTF wouldnt this be the 4th season in a row? Dude needs to retire.

[reppy]

He wanted to take this season off too? WTF wouldnt this be the 4th season in a row? Dude needs to retire.

Yes, which makes me wonder how true all those "Blazers rushed him back!" claims were. Sounds like the guy pushes himself too hard to prove that he's not a bust . . . and then ****s himself up.

[jlauber]

Oden was something like a 16-10 guy in HIGH SCHOOL forcryingoutloud. I could never understand the HYPE that this guy generated. He was supposed to be the next Kareem. Kareem probably never had a high school game that BAD in his entire high school career. And take away one game in which he played blind, he didn't have that bad a game in his three year college career, either.

I never saw a HEALTHY Oden doing anything remarkable, much less the injury-prone Oden who can't stay healthy for an entire game.

Most over-rated player in my era.

[MetsPackers]

When I recently read that Oen wasn't playing, I thought Miami would b the perfect place for Oden too. MIA is in desperate need of a center, and even if he still needs to rehab his legs a little, there won't really be pressure on him to score anyway. But MIA would really benefit from his rebounding and defense. Just a huge body in the paint. I think it would be a great pickup for MIami if they can stay healthy

[triangleoffense]

Offensive liability? I watched some of his games early in his last season.

He was scoring. he wasnt just taking guys one on one and showing a lot of skill...but he wasnt out there hurting the team. He had 16, 16, 24, 18, 13, 9 and 13 in the last 7 games he played. And he only played 30 minutes in one of them. And he had 13 points, 20 rebounds(11 on offense), and 4 blocks in that.

That is far from something to mock out of a guy who has barely played since high school and wasnt supposed to be a bigtime scorer to begin with.

Yea ONLY 30 minutes right? 9 points or even 13 points in 30 minutes for someone who is 6'11 and the clear-cut #1 pick is pretty pathetic.

With Oden it's not like he just got dealt an extremely unlucky injury hand, he's an overall lazy person who just doesn't seem to have the fire in him to play like some other guys do in the league. Anybody else with that fire would be killing themselves in the gym just to get back. Oden seems like he's been content just getting paid his guaranteed money and seeing which title contender he can sneak his way into.

Disgusting move by Oden, which is why he'll still amount to nothing in the NBA.

[MiseryCityTexas]

He gonna sit on the bench next to eddie curry.

[Kurosawa0]

If Miami fails to grab either Haywood or Darko, why not?

[CelticBaller]

even my dog wants to join the Heat smh

[Shepseskaf]

My thoughts of him being a potential 20/10 player is completely plausible when you look at his stats and consider he had just scratched the surface of the game.

To be so closed minded as to shut out the opinion of another person is childish and a major problem humans have these days. Sure, Oden could have been what you say, a 14/10 or worse guy. But there were absolutely signs that he could've become a 20/10 guy, and to deny that is to be childish and unfair.

So, now everyone who disagrees with you is "childish and unfair"? Where does ISH find people like this?

What you're apparently not grasping is that 20/10 is not an easy thing to do. You're tossing around the stat like its something common. Since you're into research, why don't you look up how many players averaged 20/10 for an entire season for the past few years.

Hint: there are only about 4 or 5 each year. Again, its not an easy thing to do.

Add that to the fact that, to my knowledge, Oden has never averaged 20/10 in his athletic career.

In my view, Oden's potential has blinded people for years. All of those pronouncements of his being a "once in a generation player" and comparisons to Kareem and all of the great big men was nothing but a fantasy. He is tall and mobile, and was at least competent on the court, but not exceptional.

Far too my hype for a player who will never live up to it. That's why it makes no sense to idly speculate about him reaching a goal that he never has before, even when he was playing against competition that was far inferior to that in the NBA.

[Owl]

So, now everyone who disagrees with you is "childish and unfair"? Where does ISH find people like this?

What you're apparently not grasping is that 20/10 is not an easy thing to do. You're tossing around the stat like its something common. Since you're into research, why don't you look up how many players averaged 20/10 for an entire season for the past few years.

Hint: there are only about 4 or 5 each year. Again, its not an easy thing to do.

Add that to the fact that, to my knowledge, Oden has never averaged 20/10 in his athletic career.

In my view, Oden's potential has blinded people for years. All of those pronouncements of his being a "once in a generation player" and comparisons to Kareem and all of the great big men was nothing but a fantasy. He is tall and mobile, and was at least competent on the court, but not exceptional.

Far too my hype for a player who will never live up to it. That's why it makes no sense to idly speculate about him reaching a goal that he never has before, even when he was playing against competition that was far inferior to that in the NBA.

As a full time player Oden would project more as a rebounder than a scorer. In the games he played he averaged 15.3 and 11.9 per 36 minutes. So whilst it certainly isn't unthinkable that he would have gotten up to 20 ppg in an ideal hypothetical world where he had time to develop, your basic point that he was more a rebounder (and shot blocker) than scorer would stand. In any case we can assume you don't forsee any circumstances under which he would have been able to play such extended minutes and thus be able to develop as a scorer, wheras I'm guessing DStebb's prognostication is based on the idea of him having a normal NBA career. So you're both arguing about hypothetical production based on entirely different premises.

The use of 20-10 is often used loosely to seemingly cover all players 16-8+. Over the past 20 years as you say it has been done at about 5 players per year http://www.basketball-reference.com/...t=&order_by=ws but the distrubtion is skewed as in the first 3 years 25 player seasons reached the 20-10 threshold whereas over the past 4 seasons only 14 player seasons have been above the threshold.

I've heard a lot of references to comparisons with Jabbar, but who was making these? Apart from being phenoms from a young age (as was, say, Sebastian Telfair) I don't know what would prompt such a comparison. The understanding I got from reading about him was a much more defense oriented Shaq, or what Patrick Ewing was initially thought to be i.e. a dominant defensive presence with a limited offensive repetoire (primarily power dunks).

Anyway as I said before there's almost no risk at this point (other than becoming dependent upon him, as one poster suggested, but that would assume playing him big minutes which I wouldn't forsee any team doing) so for a team like Miami why not take a flyer.

In any case I wish him well.

[Timmy D for MVP]

Are we seriously denying that Greg Oden had the potential to be a 20/10 player? For at least 2-3 seasons? The man had the potential, without a doubt.

Kareem comparisons were silly, I saw Oden like this during the draft: the best defensive big prospect since Duncan. I thought Portland made the right move (it bit them in the ass. Portland just has no luck. I cringed when they selected a C again. )

I still think he can be an above average defensive player. He relied on his timing ability and length, I think that stays even when your athleticism is out the door. The issue I see is that his limited development means he will still be a foul liability. But seriously if he ended up on the Heat and put together a solid season... I no longer see any threat to that team.