And that’s to say that he hasn’t played to expectations. He’s not like other high-lottery rookies, in that the team does not need to rely solely on him for any meaningful production. Plus, most of what he does that makes him so valuable doesn’t show up in the stat sheet. That’ll kill you every time.

While he has been playing outstanding ball the last five games, he has had far too many lows mixed in with the stellar performances. If he continues to play as he has recently throughout the rest of the season, I have little doubt that he will be in contention for the ROY.

must be afraid to eat crow.

It won’t matter by the end of the year. Everyone will realize they were wrong about the kid. There won’t be denying that he’s a special player.

If he keeps putting up numbers similar to what he’s done recently, he will DEFINITELY be in there by the end of the season.

Hollinger had this to say:

Mike (Portland, OR): What do you think about Oden’s recent play. (16-11) over the last 5 games, and he abused Okafor last night. If he keeps this up is he going to get some mention for ROY?

SportsNation John Hollinger: (3:30 PM ET ) Oden has stepped it up of late, which is great news for the Blazers, but ROY is so heavily dependent on minutes that I don’t think he’s going to surpass Mayo and Rose … even though I think he’s the best player of the three at the moment.

(emphasis mine)

Having Oden out of the top 10 at this point is flat out inexcusable. It represents a complete failure to use any stats other than ppg, apg and rpg— no per minute adjustment, no pace adjustment, no realization that Oden is clearly improving as the season goes on. I can live with him being behinds some o the guys playing big minutes like Mayo and Rose, but having him behind people like Jason Thompson, Beasley, Gordon, and Chalmers is flat out pathetic. Kevin Love isn’t in that guy’s top 10 either, which is just flat out embarrasing— Love is already one of the top 5 rebounders in the entire NBA (and Oden’s in the top 10).

Simply put, McMennamin’s list is making use of old fashioned, non-pace or minute adjusted (read: irrelevant) statistics and should not be respected, at all, by anyone.

Greg Oden has been one of the top 5 rookies so far this season. Period.

Cliffs notes: Love got hosed, Eric Gordon shouldn’t be there, Ramon Sessions is way more deserving than Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry and JaMario Moon have legit complaints about being passed over in favor of Al Thornton and Wilson Chandler.

Shiny stats haven’t been there.

Points are the shiniest and he’s 14th.

He WILL pick it up this second half. I’m not worried, yet, about Greg not winning the ROY. He’s been improving a lot every game and at the rate he’s going, i’d expect a double double almost every game after the all star.

He’d have to average 12.8 rebounds and 11.1 points to get to a 10-10 average.

According to the people who selected the rookie team.

I think he’ll average 14-12 for the second half of the season and be considered a killer by the end.

Who would be EVERYONE’S #1 pick again and again and again?

Nuff’ said.

Once he can consistently play more minutes by staying out of foul trouble (which is looking a lot better lately), he will get more recognition and more confidence. I hope that he can help break the national view that their is only one NBA team on the west coast.

Brandon has been in the top ten PER all year, a clutch performer down the stretch, and has the highest scoring game this season. Yet even after making the all-star team, the media hardly says a word about him. Hopefully the rise of Oden can help break this bias towards our team.

That wasn’t exactly on topic. I apologize.