Whitlock- Oden Better Prospect than Durant

I don't like the headline on this thread... The column is mostly about Durant and how he's a ballhog right now and could benefit by finding his inner Larry Bird and/or Magic Johnson.... Deeperbackground only cut and pasted an excerpt from the column. He took out the numbers. (I'm glad he did because it provided Fenian an opportunity to make a fool of himself again.)

Texas is good enough to win it all this year. Durant doesn't elevate his teammates though. The guy has 44 assists (92 turnovers) in 33 games. That's inexcusable when you draw the kind of defensive attention that he does.

Right now, Durant is gonna be the next Glenn Robinson or Dirk Nowitzki. We should be saying Durant will be the next Dirk Nowitzki or Larry Bird.

 

Umm...

 

Double Umm

 

the window should be bigger... at worst he should be nowitzki, at best bird...

 

Ahhh.

 

Durant doesn't have a good TO-assists ratio because the "coaching" Barnes does doesn't put Durant in much of a position to do anything besides jack it up and force a pass to a defended teammate. Some kind of pattern would make the flow work better and make Durant rely less on his freakish scoring skills. I'm a little concerned that Oden seems to be a reactionary player rather than someone who demands to instill his will.

 

Wait till Oden's healthy enough to take it out 18 feet, let alone a 5-foot turnaround jumper. He's taken one jumper this season so far and his shot most of his free throws lefty, and not poorly, either.

It could be a case where his game's so far ahead of the others that they have trouble feeding him and playing to his level, but Christ, I can't say it's Matta's fault. What more do you want the Buckeyes to do? 30-3 with losses to what were at one time the only three teams ahead of them? One was without Little Chief, the other was his first game back and the third was avenged twice.

I'd be shocked if the Buckeyes lose before the Final Four. I'd be shocked if they lose at all next year with Oden or at all with or without him in two years (assuming Conley stays).

Oh, and I'm anything but an OSU homer. Scratch that. Yes I am.

 

Except Oden's 32... or just looks it.

 

I agree, makes perfect sense to me. I don't quite get the Umms.

 

Satchel, I'm near Indy and have been watching Oden for years, and the next time he takes it "out to 18 feet" let alone "turnaround jumpers" will be the first. Even with a healthy right wrist, that was never part of his game.

 

Valid point, there's rarely been 2 more innately skilled passers than Pete Maravich and Rick Barry; there's also rarely been 2 more selfish ball hogs. Those 2 traits are hardly mutually exclusive.

 

This is Bowie/ Jordan all over. It's a huge mistake if anyone takes Oden over Durant.