Comments on: Five NBA Players Who’ll Make a Leap in 2010

By: deandre

deandre — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 06:52:01 +0000

i agree with randolph becoming better than last year but not so much as greg oden becoming good at all. we’ll see

By: the tatoo on Oden's back

the tatoo on Oden's back — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:32:14 +0000

I quoting Norkstroll on Blazers edge here: “Greg Oden, the next Robert Parish (or someone of that second tier of superstars)
The only other rookie with more than 500 points, 400 rebounds, and 65 blocks in under 1400 minutes played. Since 1946. And he ended up in the HOF, 4x NBA champion, 9x NBA All-Star.

And Parish also had initial foul problems that he got under control: Starting out with 5.8 per 36 minutes, he slowly got that down (5.3, 4.5, 4.2, 4.9, 3.3, and then it hovered around 3 for the rest of his long career) while playing more and more minutes. It’s disappointing that Greg had this problem keeping him from getting more playing time, but that is entirely fixable with speed coming back and awareness improving (that year observing the game from the sidelines didn’t amount to much, huh).

Parish started 2 years later in his career, so he won’t show up in Kevin Pelton’s similarity scores yet, but I’m convinced the two are pretty similar. There could turn out to be better comparisons, maybe Greg will be more similar to a Patrick Ewing eventually. But there is no way around this: This man will be special. And he needs to be, as KP1 said. He is the guy that can lead the Blazers from a 50+ win team to the next level especially when it goes hard in the playoffs and you need to get easy baskets inside.

The elephant in the room: We need to get a Greg back in the fall who burns to play competitive basketball. Who has fun on and off the court. That for me is a bigger unknown than any injury concerns regarding his knees. I hope an injury-free offseason can help him to get his mojo back and focus him on the things to come with a positive outlook.”

Here’s the link to proof of the Oden’s rookie year was similar to Robert Paris.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/psl_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=0&type=totals&per_minute_base=48&year_min=1947&year_max=2009&season_start=1&season_end=1&age_min=0&age_max=99&height_min=0&height_max=99&lg_id=&franch_id=&is_active=&is_hof=&pos=&qual=&c1stat=trb&c1comp=gt&c1val=399&c2stat=pts&c2comp=gt&c2val=500&c3stat=blk&c3comp=gt&c3val=66&c4stat=mp&c4comp=lt&c4val=1400&order_by=player

By: the tatoo on Oden's back

the tatoo on Oden's back — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:28:46 +0000

All you Oden haters are gonna look pretty stupid next year. I look forward to it. That “Bust” had a PER of 18.1 and had a season comparable to Robert Parish and this was coming off of Micro Fracture surgery. He was VASTLY more mobile at the Team USA practices. By mid season I expect him to be one of the best defensive centers in the game and absolute own the glass.

By: Bingo

Bingo — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:59:49 +0000

how can you even go there with the Oden prediction based on his injury history and absolutely no offensive game.

Greg Oden = Sam Bowie

By: Jungly

Jungly — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:25:35 +0000

What do you think of Rodney Stuckey’s chances for improvement? With Iverson gone, he knows his role and is the man at the point guard position for the Pistons. Also, the additions of Gordon and Villanueva give him guys who spread the floor creating driving lanes and players who knock down (and take) a lot of shots, probably increasing his assist rate.

By: gonzoFan

gonzoFan — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 07:44:02 +0000

Nice to see some positive press on Greg Oden. I can’t wait to hear Bill Simmons and man other writers back out of their “Oden is a bust” stance when he starts showing people what he’s really made of this season. GO BLAZERS!

By: 2007DraftBust

2007DraftBust — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:50:29 +0000

Never happen with Oden…. He is a bust….

By: portman

portman — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:21:13 +0000

i understand anthony randolph will be stellar for years to come. but best player of the 2008 class? that’s too much. derrick rose already owned that from day one, and do any of us really think he won’t get even better next year? i’d say randolph could be top 5, maybe 2 or 3. derrick rose will be dominant at the 1. i think he’s all-time.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:37:52 +0000

Keep an eye on JaVale McGee this year too….

By: tough juice

tough juice — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:33:58 +0000

you are high if you think anthony randolph will be better than derrick rose EVER, let alone in the next year.

By: Bucko

Bucko — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:41:02 +0000

So thinking your Predictions were very bold I wanted to see how you did on some of your predictions from last year and how they panned out.

I found this blog post
http://www.emptythebench.com/2008/10/16/etb’s-2008-09-fantasy-basketball-rankings-bazaar-vol-1-issue-5-hoopsters-81-100/

Below are the stat predictions you made in this post and what the actual outcomes were.

Al Thornton
Prediction: “19 points, 7 boards and 3 assists with contributions in steals, blocks and threes”
Actual: 16.8 pts 5.2 RBs 1.5 Asts 0.8 Stls 0.9 Blks 0.3 Threes

Marvin Williams
Prediction: “17 points, 7 boards and 1 steal per game with room to be much better.”
Actual: 13.9 pts, 6.3 RBs 0.9 Stls

Beno Udrih
Prediction: “As a starter he put up over 14 points a game with 5 assists, 1 steal and 1 three on stellar shooting: 47.5% FGs and 86.1% FTs. There’s no reason Udrih can’t keep that up for a full season.”
Actual: 11 pts 4.7 Asts 1.1 Stls 0.5 Threes 46.1 FG 82.0 FT

By: Zachariah Blott

Zachariah Blott — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:09:38 +0000

I realize the 45% 3FG prediction for Conley may be a tad high. I think he’ll approach it, but that may be a bit much.