That may seem strange, since he was drafted two years ago and actually played last season. However, when it comes to evaluating his potential as a young player, he’s really a rookie.
After all, this is the first time Greg has gone into an NBA season after having an entire summer to work on his game. For that matter, it’s really the first time he’s been able to work on his game in any off-season since the summer after his junior year in high school. That was 2005.
Remember, Oden had off-season surgery on his right wrist in June of 2006. He had surgery on his knee in the summer of 2007, and wasn’t cleared to play basketball until just a few weeks before the 2008 training camp. He wasn’t even cleared to run until just a few weeks before that.
Looking back at last year, there is no way anyone should have expected anything from a young player, especially a big man, who had literally not played basketball for 13 months, and who had literally gone three ye ...
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Article written by Brian D.