After five seasons in which he only played 82 games, Greg Oden’s time with the Portland Trail Blazers is up. The Blazers officially waived Oden yesterday to make room for their new trade acquisitions: Jonny Flynn, Mehmet Okur, Shawne Williams and Hasheem Thabeet.
It’s been a rough five years for the Blazers. After drafting Oden with the number one overall pick in the 2007 draft over Kevin Durant there were questions about Oden staying healthy, but I don’t think anyone would have predicted it would be this bad.
“Looking back on it, I would still draft Greg,” said Blazers interim GM Chad Buchanan last month. “[With] hindsight, it’s easy to make an assumption [now]. … You can’t predict the injuries that would come. Going back on it, I wouldn’t have changed anything in drafting Greg.”
So now what happens to Oden? He’s already had five knee surgeries since he’s been in the NBA, is anyone going to pick him up? Oden isn’t even expected to be able to play again for almost a year, and we all know that’s far from guaranteed. There’s a very good chance he may never play again, so would any team want to take that chance? I’m going to guess not, but you never know.
Right now, Greg Oden isn’t worried about playing basketball, he’s just focused on getting healthy. His agent Billy Duffy and Mike Conley Sr. said they weren’t going to worry about free agency in July.
“We will be in no rush. The first priority is Greg’s health … with no timeline.”
My guess is that we haven’t heard the last from Greg Oden. Whether he has a team or not, we’ll eventually get news that he’s running again, then that he’s playing, and hopefully someday he’ll be able to return to the court. I hate it every time I hear that Oden has another setback, but I’m never surprised. Now we just have to wait to see what happens next.
