Andrew Bogut says Portland Trailblazers couldn't have predicted Greg Oden's disappointing career
In hindsight, the Portland Trailblazers would have likely made a different choice at the 2007 NBA Draft. Armed with the first pick, the Blazers selected 7'0" centre Greg Oden, known for
his smothering defence and his proficient shot-blocking. With the second pick, the Seattle Supersonics, now the Oklahoma City Thunder, selected shooting guard Kevin Durant.
Back then, both players were highly regarded but Oden went number one mainly because true NBA centres were harder to come by. But now, with Oden’s recent announcement that he would miss
another season as he undergoes microfracture surgery on his left knee, the Trailblazers might be kicking themselves just a little bit for not going with Durant, considered by many to be the league’s next superstar.
While Oden's tale is a sad story for a player who entered the league with so much promise, Andrew Bogut, the Milwaukee Bucks’ centre, told FanHouse that Portland fans need to stop thinking
about the 2007 draft. “I think he’s three or four years from that now. So I think people should probably forget about that. The way I look at it, at that time he was the best player in the draft. People might argue Durant now in hindsight. But back then it
was a toss-up between those two, and he was probably the best player at that time."
The injury-prone Oden missed his entire rookie season, undergoing surgery on his right knee. In the 2008-09 season, he played only 61 games and only 21 the following year. That means that
at the end of this year, Oden will have played in 82 of a possible 328 regular season games, only 25 percent.
Bogut, selected number-one overall in the 2005 NBA Draft, has also battled injuries over his career and said that Portland couldn’t have known that Oden’s career would stagnate while Durant’s
soared. “The (Portland) GMs didn’t make a mistake. He just happened to be injured, and hasn’t really had that good run that other guys have."
Tags: