The Celtics notched another win and two of my favorite non-Celtics players battled. Here's today's NBA recap.- The Celtics crushed the Washington Wizards. Every single Celtics player who was dressed for the game scored at least once. The Celtics also saw Delonte West return to the team after a three-year stint away from the team. West impressed in his first game back, putting up 12 points off the bench. The Celtics shot an outstanding 65% from the field, while Washington shot 38%. it should be noted that Washington was without rookie PG John Wall.
-This was an awesome victory, to say the least. Everybody got into the action (coughdepthcough), and it seemed like the Celtics were having some fun, as Rondo alley-ooped the ball to Kevin Garnett at least 3 times in the game (Rondo had 13 assists.) This is the team I love to see; role players chipping in, centers going for each rebound with ferocity (Erden/Davis combined for 11 boards off the bench), and scoring all-around.
-ESPN "expert" John Hollinger has the "Team that Shall Not Be Named" as #1 in his power rankings, despite being 7-4. Hollinger needs to stop tossing the salad and watch the games. The Boston Celtics have man-handled the Heat in both games. The Lakers will easily dispose of the Heat when they play. One 35 point performance by Bosh is not enough to convince me they're an elite team, especially when their only significant wins were against the Phoenix Suns and the Orlando Magic. They lose to the really good teams, like the Celtics, Jazz, and the Hornets. This Heat boner ESPN has is truly ridiculous, and Hollinger's un-backed rankings show it. He uses stats, but this is basketball, a sport in which a team cannot be measured by numbers alone, but by logic, SOME stats, and intangibles. And a superior record is kind of a dead-giveaway as well.
- Kevin Love and Blake Griffin battled when the Clippers took on the Timberwolves in a battle of Western Conference mediocrity. Love had 14 rebounds, while Griffin out-shined him with 17. Griffin also bested Love in points, having 26 to Love's 24. Both of the young studs had great performances last night. This was Love's 9th double-double of the season. Michael Beasley tallied 33 points, including a game-winner with 2 seconds left on the clock. Beasley is proving people wrong in Minnesota, showing he deserved to be taken second overall in 2008. He is a fine scorer and a solid rebounder for his size. Will he ever be great? Maybe not. But he is slowly becoming a star with the T'Wolves. Darko Milicic cannot claim the same.
- Greg Oden will now miss the rest of the season, again, because of knee surgery, again. I don't care what Enahs says, Oden is now a bust. Hate to say it, but he is injured way too much, and hasn't been overly impressive in the small amount of games he has played. He could still be a formidable player off the bench, but nothing close to what people thought he would turn into.
MVP of the Night: Hmmmm. Tough one, but I'll cop out and go with the Celtics as a whole for a great performance form the whole team.
-Make a career, 4 seasons do not.
ReplyDelete-You cannot predict the future, therefore you should not say with such definition that he will never be what people thought he would be.
-He has been very impressive in the games he's played, don't make things up.
-My definition of a bust is a player whose game does not translate to the NBA.
-Once Oden's career is over we can make the call if he was a bust based on injuries.
-At 22 he's the age of a college senior. He'll have plenty of chances to prove himself.
-Kenton Martin has had microfracture knee surgeries on both knees, at a far older age, and is still contribting.
-Amar'e Stoudemire, Jason Kidd, John Stockton, and Zach Randolph have all had the surgery on a single knee, and returned to full form.
-Instances of failed microfracture surgeries have all involved older players. (Chris Webber, Penny Hardaway, Allan Houston, Jamal Mashburn)
I believe theres a 90% chance that I will come to say that Oden is a bust also. However, it's far too early to call him a bust due to injuries. If this was Bill Walton, you would be saying the same thing at this point in his career, and that guys in the fucking Hall of Fame. I realize that Walton is the exception, not the rule, but it shows that it's possible to recover from injuries early in you carrer if you're talented enough. Alot of things will have to go right for Oden, but to dismiss his talent at 22 years of age is being premature.
...and before you say that Walton won the MVP in his 4th year, he was 27 at that point. He entered the league at 22 couldn't get on the court for 2 seasons, missed 20 games the next season, and then finally put it all together.
ReplyDeleteFinally, a comment:
ReplyDelete-Oden's been OK at best in his 82 career games. He averages only 9 points and 7 rebounds, nothing to write home about. Impressive? No. Bad? No. Average? Yes. Worthy of being #1 overall? Hell no.
- He was taken before a potentially HOF player in Kevin Durant, and has failed to play long enough to make his team a contender, the main goal of every player in the league. Ask any Trailblazers exec if he's been a bust so far in his career, it's a resounding yes. Ask any expert, it's a resound yes. Bowie had a similar career, not great, but people make it seem like he was a slob out there because he was picked before Jordan. His career averages? 10 PPG, 7 RPG, eerily close to Oden. Hell, Bowie played better in his first 82 games than Oden has. Ditto Walton.
-He's been out since December, and won't be back till next season. That's 1.5+ seasons out. On top of that, another missed season and only 60 games in his "full" season.
-This is not his first, or second, major injury, it's his third. His first microfracture surgery obviously failed, because he needs it again, so your older player argument is negated on that one. If this was his first, fine, but this is his second, meaning the first one obviously failed.
SO far, BUST. In the future, most likely a bust. If you don't play, and help your team, you're a bust. The Blazers put a lot of stock in him, and he has done squat for the franchise.
-"His first microfracture surgery obviously failed, because he needs it again"... You couldn't be more wrong on that one. It's the other knee this time. So ya the surgery worked, and my older player argument still stands.
ReplyDelete-I find his statistics to be impressive. In 2009 he averaged 11.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, and shot 60% from the field. All that while only playing 23 MPG. So thats 17.07 rebounds and 4.6 blocks per 48 minutes. Thats better than Dwight Howard's career averages of (and i'm not making this up) 17.07 rebounds and 2.82 blocks per 48 minutes. Per minute in 2009, you were getting more out of Oden on the defensive end than Dwight Howard, the consensus #1 center in the league. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
-Who are you quoting when you say "'full' season"? ... I didn't say that. I never even eluded to him being on the court for any extended period of time.
-"Bowie had a similar career" you can't say that. At all. Oden's career isn't over. You can't go comparing Bowie's 11 year career to Oden's 3 years.
Once again i'll say that as of right now Oden wasn't the right pick at #1, but if I were to go back to the 2007 draft, knowing what we know now, i'd still take him in the lottery, no doubt. He still has all the talent in the world, and i'll take the guy who has all that talent, over a guy who will just be average his whole career, because you never know what can happen. The fact that he is so talented, he's still so young, and he'll get so many more oportunites to show his worth, makes me hold off on the term "bust". All it takes is one season of staying relativly healthy to change everyones mind's because the on the court stuff isn't a problem for him.
I think "full" wasmeant to imply that it was Oden'sonly real complete season.
ReplyDeletePersonally, so far he's a bust. But I can't say for his career. Do i belive he will be one? Probably, but we cant know for sure.
You would seriously pick him in the lottery for potential? The guy's bones are more fragile than Mike Tyson's sanity. You'd seriously take a guy in the lottery, pay him top dollar, so MAYBE in four or more years, if his knees miraculously hold up, even though he is playing a position where knee injuries are frequent, he could turn out good. I certainly wouldn't, no matter how shallow of a draft it was. The guy hasn't helped the Blazers win because he's always hurt. That's a bust, to me anyway. His career, so far is a bust. As a #1, he's a total bust. We'll never agree on this, so whatever, you've made your points, I've made mine. Sportsnation resoundingly voted Oden a bust, but take that with a grain of salt.
ReplyDelete-Just because the majority of people think something, doesn't mean it's right.
ReplyDelete-Go back to the 2007 draft and give me 14 players that you'd take over Oden. I'll take someone with his skill over people like Thaddeus Young or Brandan Wright. If you have the knowledge you have now, why would you ever draft someone who you know is going to be an average player his whole career, over a player you know can produce at a top level.
-I love how you don't even acknowledge that his per minute statistics were better than Dwight Howard's, It took me forever to do the math on those stats.