Empty the Bench

Fifteen years from now, when you dust off the 2020 edition of Trivial Pursuit and force your friends to indulge your inner trivia nerd for a few hours, the answer to “Who was the first-overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft?” is Greg Oden. Of course, Portland Trail Blazers GM Kevin Pritchard, not to mention the ever-growing Blazers faithful, hope their big man turns out to be worth much, much more than a pie in a Trivial Pursuit piece.

ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher says that Portland has contacted Oden and his peoples, and told him that they will make him the top pick in tonight’s draft. This despite the fact that by all accounts, future Seattle SuperSonic Kevin Durant outshined him across the board in preparations for tonight. Hey, everyone needs a legit big man to win a title, right?

“You can see why he’d be a No. 1 pick,” Durant told reporters. “I think he’s one of the best centers to come out of college. He’s quick and agile, he’s 7-feet, 250. I’ve never seen that in a center before.”

Players like Durant don’t come around often, either. The swingman from Texas was the college player of the year after averaging 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds, ranking fourth nationally in both categories. And if he indeed falls to Seattle at No. 2, he’d make a terrific consolation prize.

“Without question, Kevin Durant’s the most talented player in this draft,” Texas A&M point guard Acie Law said. “But if I’m building a franchise, as most teams at the top of the draft are, you can’t pass up a guy you can just build your team around. Because there’s guys in the league that can score 20, 25 a game, like Kevin Durant can, but you’re not going to find a 7-foot manchild that can just patrol your line for 10, 12 years.”

For his part, Law is also a lottery-pick hopeful himself, and most likely will end up either in Atlanta, Los Angeles (with the Clips), or Detroit. Please check back at Empty the Bench for coverage of tonight’s happenings; we’re not sure if we’ll be writing in real-time tonight or not, but we *do* know that we’ll have post-draft reactions from a few guest writers either tomorrow or Saturday, at the very least. Enjoy the draft.

And by the way….

Empty the Bench will be participating in a “NBA Bloggers Live Draft” this evening on ESPN.com, along with a slew of other fantastic writers. We’ll be covering the Timberwolves, and are thrilled to have the opportunity to second-guess Kevin McHale’s every move. For more on what to expect, please click here. Not coincidentally, that’s also where you’ll “tune in” to see what ETB and everyone else has to say. Bookmark this link and check back tonight!

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4. Blazers Exercising Caution with Greg Oden


5. Five Reasons Greg Oden Could Be An All-Star Center In 2009-10