DURANT OVER ODEN

I cannot recall a time when scouts, general managers and coaches used the results of a particular players work, in-season, to determine how good, or bad, a player could be when he made the leap from being a college athlete to being a professional one? I always seem to remember hearing about the combine and team workouts, and speed drills, and vertical leap’s, but never about a player’s clutch play down the stretch of the season or his big games against conference foes.

I could spend the whole column writing about the success stories of many of the NFL and NBA's greatest players and how it was easy to predict their success in the Pro's because they succeeded in college, yet all that would follow is a litany of comments from "bashers" who will name all the successful athletes today in sports who did not have a stellar college career. Instead, I am going to ask you a simple question. If you were the GM for the Blazers (Kevin Pritchard), what do you care more about the fact that Kevin Durant was the first freshman college basketball player to receive the game's MVP award or that he could not lift 185 pounds? Digest that for a second and take about ten seconds to realize no freshman has done what Durant did this year. 37-23, 37-12, 30-16, 37-10 are not just the lottery winners for this week, those are the point and rebound totals Durant had in four of his biggest conference games this season @ Texas Tech, @ Ok. St, Texas A&M, @ Kansas. I am not even mentioning a 37-16 performance against Colorado in his Big-12 debut, but I digress.

Greg Oden meanwhile, is "the consensus" number one pick because he is a seven-foot center with freakish athleticism and the ability to control the interior on both ends of the floor. www.nbadraft.net claims Oden is "one of those dominant centers that surfaces in the high school ranks every 10 or so years." Yet, when we look back at his freshman year at Ohio State the numbers are not staggering. Oden had only three 20-10 games compared to Durant's 19, yes you read that correctly, and Oden's best game came on the biggest stage where he had 25 points and 12 rebounds against Florida in a national championship loss. Durant had 12 games this season where had had over 25-12 and had seven 30-10 games.

Can Greg Oden be a dominant center in the NBA? Probably, but do not think for a second that he has more upside than Durant because no one has dominated the college game individually like Durant did this year. Furthermore, if the NCAA Tournament showed any major flaw about either player, my biggest concern about Oden would be his defense because he is prone to getting into foul trouble which plagued him all throughout the season and in every single tournament game up until the championship. Durant, meanwhile single-handedly carried a Texas basketball program back to the tournament after the team lost LaMarcus Aldridge and Daniel "boobie" Gibson the year before. He did it with no experienced players around him and a coach who did not run specific plays for him.

Adding insult to injury was Durant's workout for the Trail Blazers. Having gotten the opportunity to see the footage, I can firmly say he was nothing short of spectacular, and that does him no justice. He made every shot he took, or so it seemed, and looked like a mix of Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett.

My final thought to add is when you think of the Portland Trail Blazers, ask yourself do they really need a Center or do they really need a small forward? They spent their number four pick of last year's draft on another Texas big-man (Aldridge) and he seems ready to step into the starting line-up on that frontcourt with power-forward Zach Randolph, but who is playing small-forward for that basketball team? Last year it was former NBDL stud Ime Udoka starting at the 3 with former first round bust Travis Outlaw getting minutes as well. It is evident they need Durant more then they need Oden, because why should they be forced to trade Randolph and create room for Oden when his upside is nowhere near that of the small-forward who would slide right into the Blazers starting rotation and make their starting five look like this: Jack, Roy, Durant, Randolph, Aldridge.

That Ladies and Gentleman is a 2007-08 NBA Western Conference Playoff team.

(You can also start reading me on armchairgm.com as I was invited to begin writing for their sports blog website as well. My name wil be jaygomp33 and look out for upcoming articles their as well)