Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Greg Oden Suffers Bone Chip

According to ESPN, Portland "rookie", Greg Oden has suffered a bone chip in his left knee. He is out for tonight's game against Memphis, and is listed as day-to-day.

All year long I have been mentioning how Oden does not scare me to anyone who will listen. For a guy who was as highly touted as he was coming out of Ohio State he has to start to be labeled as a bust. He only is averaging 9 points, and 7 rebounds in 23 minutes a game. Obviously his playing time is limited by his injuries, but at what point can we just call him an injury proned draft bust?

Compare Oden to a guy like Marc Gasol, who was taken 48th overall in the same draft as Oden. He is playing 30 minutes a game, and averaging 11 points and 7 rebounds, and has played in all 53 of Memphis' game this year. Who would you rather have on your team?

Another 7-footer from the 2007 draft, Spencer Hawes. For $3m less per season you can have a guy who has roughly the same numbers as Oden (10 and 6 in 27 minutes). Oh by the way Hawes has played in 50 of Sacramento's 54 games this season.

Want more? OK. How about Yi Jianlian?Yi has missed some time this season, but he was hurt playing defense. Something that apparently Greg Oden is still strugglingwith. Jianlian has numbers very similar to Spencer Hawes. He is averaging 10 and 6 in 26 minutes per, and is only on the books for $2.9m this season.

Why do I keep mentioning salaries for these teams? Well apparently Portland is going to have some issues with their salary cap in the upcoming seasons, and having Oden on the books for $25m+ for the next 3 seasons could pose a problem.

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