I’m going to start this column with a bold statement; “Given what was known at the time of the draft, Greg Oden was the right pick at 1st overall in the 2007 NBA Draft.”
Admittedly, this is an odd topic mainly because there aren’t many people who would agree with me. I suppose that’s understandable given that Kevin Durant was the second pick in the 2007 draft and has had a far better and healthier career. Greg Oden has played 82 regular season games since he was drafted. Kevin Durant has played 461 games not including this season. So when I compare the two, I am doing so based on the 2007 atmosphere, not 2013. Try to forget what you know about their NBA careers.
Let’s go back to 2007, shall we?
In 2007, Kevin Durant won just about every individual award he could possibly win at the University of Texas, including the Player of the Year and he was voted on to the All-American first team. Durant averaged an astonishing 25.8 points and 11.1 rebounds in 35.9 minutes – incredible numbers for a young man in college.
Meanwhile, Ohio State’s Greg Oden won the Defensive Player of the Year award and was voted on to the All-American second team. Oden averaged 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.3 blocks in 28.9 minutes. Stellar stats, especially for playing in a traditionally big man heavy conference the Big-10. Greg Oden never lost a home game in his High School or College career.
In the Big-12 conference at the time, there were not a lot of perimeter defenders that had the size to guard Kevin Durant, nor were there a lot of interior defenders that had the quickness to guard him. It didn’t matter who had the honor, he could get a shot off and a good one at that, because of the difference in size and quickness.
Greg Oden played in a much tougher conference for his position. I want to concentrate on the 2007 NCAA National Championship game, when Greg Oden went up against probably the second best center in the nation next to himself in Joakim Noah. Oden absolutely dominated Noah with 25 points 12 rebounds and 4 blocks. Meanwhile, Durant was watching that game after Texas’ second round exit.
The second reason why Oden was the right pick was because the Portland Trail Blazers were not a very good defensive team in 2006-2007, having a defensive rating of 109.9, good for the 26th best defensive rating in the NBA. Opposing teams were averaging 98.4 points a game against the Trail Blazers, good for 14th best in the league. Respectable, but not good enough. They did not rebound very well, having only one player averaging 6.5 rebounds or more.
They drafted Greg Oden with the first overall pick that summer over Kevin Durant primarily because they needed to address these defensive needs. Oden would end up missing the entire 2007-2008 season due to microfracture knee surgery. Although the Blazers improved on the defensive end without Oden, he came back to begin the 2008-2009 season. At season’s end the Trail Blazers held opponents to 94.1 points a game, finishing with the fourth best defense in the NBA and a very respectable defensive rating of 107.8. Oden also addressed the rebounding needs averaging 7 rebounds in 21.5 minutes.
So while I’m not arguing who has been the better player since, this is why Greg Oden was a smart pick for the Portland Trail Blazers in the 2007 NBA draft. Nobody could have predicted the knee troubles he has run into over the course of his career.
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