Oden was amazingly effective when he was on the court last year.  Oden had the 2nd highest PER of any second-year player in the last ten years, behind only LeBron. The rest of the top ten in order: DWade, CP3, Yao, Steve Francis, Kirilenko, Shawn Marion, Boozer, and Durant.

The list essentially breaks down into 3 tiers:
LeBron 25.7
Oden and DWade 23.1
CP3 22.0 to Durant 20.8

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tiny.cgi?id=mSnTo

Greg is now entering his third year.   Let’s look at what the other nine players on this list did in their third years.

LeBron: 1st team all-NBA, PER +2.4
DWade: 2nd team all-NBA, PER +4.5
CP3: 1st team all-NBA, PER +6.3
Yao: 3rd team all-NBA, PER +1.3
Francis: all-star, PER -2.5 (missed 25 games)
Kirilenko: all-NBA 2nd team defensive, PER +1.5
Marion: no honors. PER -1.2
Boozer: no honors, PER -1.6 (missed 31 games)
Durant: all-NBA 1st team. PER +5.4

Six of these players made an all-NBA team, one more made the all-star game, and only two didn’t make the all-star game.  So when Greg says he’s preparing to make the all-star game, it is a reasonable goal.

Incidentally, all five of the Blazers starters appear high on the list:
Oden 2, 1st among centers
Miller 16, 3rd among PGs (CP3, Francis)
Roy 20, 3rd among 2-guards (dWade, Redd)
Aldridge 30, 10th among PF
Batum 40, 5th among SF (LeBron, Kirilenko, Marion, Gay)