Our favorite Page 2 Columnist

him some B-roy. Top ten trade value and top five favorite non-Celtics to watch in the league? We moan a lot about not getting national respect, but he has a huge readership and is plugging us. What annoyed me more than his Oden comments were those that he made about KP. You’re privy to what entails the last nerve for 29 GMs in the league? Really?

“Rudy Fernandez: Cheap contract, tons of skills and the female fans dig him. Although it’s hard to evaluate the Trade Value of Portland players fairly, because Kevin Pritchard is delusionally convinced every Blazers’ ceiling ranges from "Hall of Fame” to “One of the top 10 players of all-time.” Pritchard always gives you the feeling that he calls Michael Lewis once a week trying to convince him to write a “Moneyball” type book about the NBA … with Pritchard as the Billy Beane figure, of course. He’s just about worked the last nerve of the other 29 GMs. And that’s an understatement. I don’t know, I kind of enjoy him. There’s no question Jeremy Piven will play him in “Moneyball II: The Kevin Pritchard Story.” None."

Just fueling the fire, frat boy.

That “fluidness” comes almost directly from experience and poise. Power comes directly from size and a need to exert yourself. The same exact thing happened to Patrick Ewing. Came into the league a powerful diamond in the rough, and over time develops a fluidity that made him extremely successful and improved his longevity.

To expect a 20/21 year old kid who has played 40 NBA games to look like Yoa Ming out there is incredibly brash and impatient.

Bill Simmons is going to look very foolish.

but I suppose the column was written before last night’s game. Durant looked more mortal out there, and Oden was a beast.

Of course, in both OKC/PDX games so far, the best player on the floor has probably been the only All-Star on either team, Brandon Roy.

A question—I ask in the JD but I’ll ask here, as it’s probably more relevant:

Who would trade Roy for Durant straight up?

I would have to think hard on that one…. Roy’s a better overall player right now; Durant has a higher ceiling. (Whether he reaches that ceiling is the big issue). Give the current structure of the Blazers, Roy is a better fit—were we to move to Durant then I’d want a top-notch playmaking PG (more Sergio and less Bayless, albeit with better D) and a SG who can hit open shots and play good defense. Roy would be great next to Westbrook and Green in OKC.

That would not have happened last season or even in November when he and other pundits were calling Oden an injury prone bust left and right.

BTW, here’s the link to the Simmons article, since it’s not in the lead.

At any rate, were Portland to call up Dallas and offer Oden straight up for Dirk Nowitzki, no way do the Mavs say no. Oden’s probably not in the top 10 right now… but many NBA talent evaluators seem to think we have a beast and not a bust on our hands—and that Oden merely lacks seasoning, not skill.

I understand Simmons’ POV, but you have to compare apples to apples. Durant looked decent last year as the primary weapon on a horrible team, but he is just now coming into his own, a year later. Nobody was really singing KD’s praises at comparible points in their respective careers. Saying KP screwed up with his pick (keep in mind we already had Aldridge and Roy from a scoring standpoint, and no LONG TERM plan for a big man…don’t get me wrong, I love Joel, but he’s not someone you build a championship team around) is very premature.

We are optimistic as Blazer fans (I definitely am in this camp) that Greg will continue to develop, polish skills, gain fluidity and poise, and in the end dominate.

However, it hasn’t happened yet (at least not anything near consistently), and until it does, you can’t expect people to be convinced. What Simmons said is legitimate for what Greg has shown so far.

The awesome thing is that Greg does seem to be putting some things together as of late, and the foul-happy games are a smidgen fewer and further between.

but he wants the Blazers to succeed. He is the forebearer of the “Lebron James to Portland in 2010” movement, as well as advocating Nash to Portland, Butler to Portland and pretty much every veteran superstar that wants to win a championship to Portland. He knows what is going down here.

November to January
+2.2 mpg (shrugs)
+2.2ppg (nice)
-.8 rpg (boo)
-.4 apg (boo)
+.4 spg (nice)
-.8 bpg (booo)
-.1 topg (shrugs)
+.3 pfpg (small boo)

Other than the +2.2 ppg, we’re not seeing him move up in anything really.

His scoring + rebounding per month has been 15.8, 15.3, 17.2, 16.6 (5 game in Feb.) I’d like to see him at least stay at 17-18 in February and hopefully improve to 19-20 in March. Going 12/8 over the final month of his rookie season isn’t too much to ask of Oden if he will be what we hope he can be.

but I didn’t like Simmons contract. This is a kid with a PER of nearly 18, 2nd among rookies and 12th among Centers, despite not regaining his full pre-surgery explosiveness. A PER of 18 is really good for a 21 year old big man.

In short, Simmons didn’t under-rank Greg but the comments were unreasonably disparaging in my opinion.