Durant going pro

Just saying that sometimes the best college player doesn't always translate into the best pro, nothing more.

 

The argument was made on Slate.com earlier this season, and I totally agree with it, that Durant can be a difference-maker if the team that takes him is smart.
Durant is essentially a very tall guard. Treat him as such and surround him with a true center, a true power forward, a point guard and another shooting guard or a small forward and you've got a very good team.
Try to make him be a forward or take advantage of his height by matching him up with stronger players and you've created your own liability.

 

Just ask Harold "Baby Jordan" Miner.

 

Right and often times the best college player does translate into the best pro. You quoted my initial post and I didn't think what you posted responded to what I wrote.

 

That's one way to look at it, sure, but I think position in basketball can be overrated. Give me the best player and you can have the biggest (albeit a very talented big guy) and I'll be happy. Garnett and Nowitzki may not have a ring but neither does Yao or Patrick Ewing. It's a bit too simplistic for me to say big guys win more. Kobe's never won without Shaq, but Shaq's never won without him or Wade. Jordan won 6 without anything resembling a great center. Duncan and Robinson were two great big guys and they won. The Pistons won with five good players, none great. The Rockets won with the Dream. The Pistons won the first time around led by a great backcourt. The Lakers and Celtics won with great teams top-to-bottom, although each team's best player wasn't a center.

I think it's clear that it takes more than one player, at any position, to win.

 

Oden without a doubt.
As dominant as he was on defense in college, that impact will be more profound at the next level, where the 3 isn't as prominent and teams can't avoid him.

Durant will likely be good, but it's not like he's the second coming of MJ. Or LeBron for that matter. As good as he was in college, I wouldn't say he's a sure thing.

The dude is skinny as a rail. You have to see him up close to really understand how skinny he is. His rebounding at the next level will suffer dramatically. Remember, Melo averaged about 10 rebounds per game in college. And offensively, physical players at the next level will push him around.

Dirk is the best comparison to Durant. But it took him a while to really blossom into what he is today.

All that being said, I think Durant will be great. I just don't thin he's any more of a sure thing than Oden.

 

Fair enough. My opinion is no more right than anyone else's, it's just an opinion. I respect your stance more because you at least back it up with specifics about these two individuals, and not some general "Big guys are better, therefore Oden is better" rational.

 

probably 2nd. ive watched the kid since he was a junior in HS. well about as much as you can watch a HS kid from maryland while you live in texas, but you get what im saying. i was slobbering at the prospect of seeing him in carolina blue and was saddened that Roy decided not to hold his scholarship while he got his grades up.

all that being said, he has always been a special talent. i think he was over-shadowed b/c of the hype of oden (duh!). that and the fact that he was slight of frame. he really opened eyes at the McDonald's game. we've just never seen anyone like him in college. we've seen it in europe and in the nba (interestingly enough, with european players). there have been the tall kids that could shoot in college (pittsnogle, etc) but none that could post, dribble, create his own shot and rebound. imagine how much better he couldve been if he had a coach that actually had a clue of how to use him.

however, as much as i love KD, i would take oden to build a team around. and this comes from a man that was one of his most vocal critics in january. from HS til then, i just never saw what made him possibly one of the all-time greats. defensively, he was a game changer defensively but his footwork on offense was horrendous. he played timid at times and generally looked lost. but the growth in his game from january til april was astounding. he literally got better every game. and im not talking about the "wrist injury". the kid became more fluid, more aggressive and just a spectacular player. you mix that with his attitude and you have all of the ingredients for, yes, an all-timer.

how many great centers are in the league right now? oden becomes top 5 at his position the second he shakes david stern's hand. durant, while great, wont be. not yet anyway......

 

Durant is the truth and nothing but the truth. When he fills out, he's going to be something special, not that he isn't already.

 

Uhh, No, maybe the pick didn't look as horrendously historically bad as it does now, but it was incredibly stupid then also. At the time of the pick, Bowie was already broken down: he was a 23-yr-old 5th year senior who'd only played in 3 of his 5 seasons at UK because his absurdly brittle and injury prone legs kept breaking, he barely averaged 10 ppg as a senior, and was clearly less mobile and athletic than he'd been as a freshman 5 years earlier. Conversely, Jordan had just been the National Player of the Year, was about the best athlete anyone had ever seen, and was uniformly projected as a future great pro (although we had no idea just how great). I don't care how much the Blazers needed a center, that pick was fairly indefensible from any perspective.

 

But I can't fault the Blazers. Everything you say is true but NO ONE knew that Jordan would take off like he did. Back then, it was a big man's game and Portland desperately needed a center.