Durant.

durant

Oden, by a whisker.

Brad Newley

Durant. They will draft Oden and trade Randolph though.

Depends, would i need an offensive player or defensive?

Oden

I didn't know much about the blazers roster - but Gil does. On Gilbert Arenas Blog he gives a pretty good situation summary of who they'll pick.

I've been thinking about it. If I was Portland & I mean the smart thing to do is & You have Aldridge, who is a young five. You have Zebo. You don't have a three, I mean a real solid three. I mean you have Ime Udoka at the three, but he's a defensive player. You get Durant at three, you have the Rookie of the Year at the two and you have a young one in Jack. Hey, two or three years from now, that might be good!

I read that earlier today and he does suggest that both are decent options for Portland, but I'd take Durant and I think that'd be Gilby's style too.

Just had the funny idea that Portland know that they can't make a bad choice, so they've decided to start a thread on this forum to let people decide for them...

Don´t forget that Portland past on Jordan for Sam Bowie because they already had Clyde Drexler. So that theory did not quite work in the past.

And Patrick Ewing won the ........??? not much.

And Jordan won the........??
Everything that Patrick should have.

for that reason Durant.

I think I would be happier being Seattle than Portland, they can't lose.
Whoever Portland select, Seattle get the other, who is not playing with pressure of being No.1 pick.
Portland picks Oden and Seattle get a fantastic player to put alongside Ray Allen as one of the best perimeter pairings in the NBA. Portland picks Durant and Seattle get a potential 10 year defensive minded centre & can move a guy like Collison to his correct spot as PF & they still have Allen.
Yes, a very good year to have the 2nd pick I think.

I think you have to go Oden ... but I would like to be Seattle coz you know you are getting Durant

With the Jordan/Bowie thing, about 7 years ago I was walking by a used book store and saw an old basketball magazine - it was a preview the 1986 season - it had a breakdown of all the teams.

In it Jim Paxson (as I recall) said (almost word for wordz) that Bowie was the safe pick cos "no matter how good Jordan becomes we will be a better team with Bowie". He then went on to talk about the fact that they could draft Jordan coz they had Drexler.

It is an incredible read

have a read of this article (great read) at

http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/bowie.html

Some snippets from the article

"The Bulls' decision to select Jordan, a 6-foot-6-inch All-America guard with unlimited potential was dictated by their No. 3 position in the draft order. Lack of a dominating center is the major reason they have lost 111 games in the last two seasons, but there are only two can't miss pivotmen this time - and both will be gone by the time the Bulls make their choice."

Indeed, no one forsaw the mercurial rise of Jordan. Even the Bulls did not know what they had and were considering trading the pick for a center such as Jack Sikma or Tree Rollins.

I am thinking that Portland might just go the left field route and take Durant... The guy is an offensive machine... I have been far more sold watching Durant than Oden PLUS there is the baggage of the Conley Jr spectre hanging over the team that takes Oden... Portland have Jack - who would be the perfect PG for a team loaded with ofensive options - for me Durant makes a heck of a lot of sense (just as Oden does) - either way both guys would be justifiable... However Durant would slot in at their most precarious position - wheras Pryzbilla (if he still has any years left on his contract), Aldridge, PLUS Oden means a deal would need to be made...

I think you have to draft the best player available, especially in this draft. You can always trade to get good players to fill around a good center, but it is hard to fill players around a gaurd. Other than the two Jordan 3 peats, it hasn't really happened that much, its always big centers that win it for teams: Shaq, Ducan, Olajuwan...

Basically, if you think Durant could be as good as Jordan, you draft him. Otherwise, you go Oden.

Thing is, like TR said, even the Bulls didn't know what they had. You may not know how good Durant is for 3-4 years time.

So, I would say there is no way Portland would ever not draft Oden. Its a lock.

the rumour going around is that Portland will trade Aldridge and Jack to Atlanta for the number 3 pick so they can get Oden and Conley Jr. But I'd deffinatly say its a lock that Oden is gonna go number 1 you dont give up a dominant C

Greg Oden without a doubt. The only chance he has at playing for Seattle is if there is a trade involving the first and second picks. He might not be as flashy or high scoring as Durant but he's the type of player that will guarantee championships for a franchise.

McGrady, Kobe (without Shaq), Garnett are all good reasons not to take Durant. MJ is the exception (and maybe LBJ - but that was a no brainer that year anyway).

Shaq, Olajuwon, Robinson, Duncan are all good reasons to take Oden.

The thing with centres tho is there seems to be more flops too. I bet you could write a pretty convincing list for the case not to select Oden too! I guess you just have to be confident that he is/will be in the same class as those championship winners above.

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Whoa RUN TMC i agree with all your Cs but one - ROBINSON... The Spurs did very little with him as the leader... It was only when Duncan came along that the Spurs became an "Elite" championship caliber team... Robinson was the KG of the 90's... My opine but...

The way I look at it is that an all-star potential center doesn't come along as much as a all-star potential small forward.

Potentially in Oden's case, maybe every 10-12 years. I'd have to go back to Shaq (Sorry DC).

The Durants of the world seem to come around every 3-4 years.

Just comparing some players which could be viewed as similar to Oden and Durant and see the time frames and numbers for an all-star.

I'm going back to 1984 draft and looking at all stars etc, and yep, there is some issue with positions (Duncan and Dwifght could be called PF, whilst T-Mac and other could be called SG/SF)

Centres:
1984 - Hakeem Olajuwon #1
1985 - Patrick Ewing #1
1986 - Brad Daugherty # 1
1987 - David Robinson # 1
1990 - Derrick Coleman # 1
1991 - Dikembe Mutombo #4
1992 - Shaquille O'Neal #1
1992 - Alonzo Mouring # 2
1996 - Zydrunas Ilgauskas #20
1997 - Tim Duncan #1
2002 - Yao Ming #1
2004 - Dwight Howard #1

Hell of a lot of #1 in that list.

Small Forward: (I believe Durant will be a SF in the NBA)

1985 - Chris Mullin #7
1985 - Detlef Schrempf #8
1987 - Scottie Pippen #5
1987 - Reggie Lewis #22
1989 - Glen Rice #4
1990 - Cedric Ceballos #21
1991 - Latrell Sprewell #24
1993 - Jamal Mashburn #4
1994 - Glenn Robinson #1
1994 - Grant Hill #3
1995 - Michael Finley #21
1996 - Predrag Stojakovic #14
1997 - Tracey McGrady #9
1998 - Antawn Jamison #4
1998 - Paul Pierce #10
1998 - Rashard Lewis #32 - Rd2
1999 - Wally Szczerbiak #6
1999 - Shaun Marion #9
1999 - Ron Artest #16
1999 - Andrei Kirilenko #24
2001 - Joe Johnson #10
2003 - Carmelo Anthony #3
2003 - Josh Howard #29

Only one #1 at the SF position.

Looking at that list I wouldn't be willing to wait for another Oden, but I'd be willing to wait for another Durant.

I have to say i find the David Robinson draft sitation fascinating... Imagine getting the no 1 pick, drafting the centrepiece of your dreams and then having to wait 2-3 years before he can even join your team!!!... I still find it hard to beleive -

I think at the end of the day Portland are stacked. They still have some talented guards in Roy and Jack, they don't need to trade for a PG now.

I think they should just draft Oden, and see how the team goes, and only trade if something has to be done. Oden might like less pressure in his first year, with other big guys around him.

If it in fact does come down to the best player - it is a coin flip... I personally think that Durant is the better player by far and can potentially grow some more just as Oden could (- but the extra inches would make FAR more of an impact on Durant`s value)... Oden has more intangible value clearly due to the center factor... But Portland will be having puppies the closer this draft gets... I am looking forward to see what happens... And Seattle shopping their pick??? - Yeah I call BS - unless it is for a top 10 player - which `aint gonna happen... But would i ever be floored if it did happen...

ODEN, play aldridge as a back up centre and have randolph at PF. u cant pass up on a big solid player like oden he can score and is a great defender. Sonics would be laughing taking durant..

well said TR .... , ODEN , ALDRIDGE , ROY , and JACK are a nucleus to build around .
Add to that RODRIGUEZ , WEBSTER and OUTLAW and PRYZABILA and that is a solid seven .

Dump MILES ,trade MAGLOIRE and RANDOLPH if possible .

team would look like .

JACK / RODRIGUEZ
ROY / F.JONES
UDOKA / WEBSTER
ALDRIDGE / LaFRENTZ
ODEN / PRYZABILLA

plus a couple other pieces to the puzzle .

in a few years time when webster develops that starting five is awesome .

Also do not underestimate sergio rogriguez , spanole can play and will push jack for minute share .

"A few weeks ago, I would have said it was 100 percent the Trail Blazers took Oden," said one of the league's elite personnel executives, who has grown enamored of Kevin Durant.

"I don't know if I've ever scouted anyone with this much talent," he said of the Texas freshman, who was the NCAA's player of the year. "The kid is unbelievable. He doesn't have the explosiveness of a Michael [Jordan] or LeBron [James], but he can score, dribble, shoot, post up, jump hook, drive, pass, make every correction out of the double team, shoot threes, block shots and still get 10 rebounds.

"You put LeBron after his freshman year and maybe he gets 25 and 10, but not the blocks, not everything this kid does. He's an all-timer. He's the best player I've ever scouted. To me, it's 50-50 now who goes first."


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