On Tuesday, Portland beat the odds to lock up the top pick in the 2007 NBA Draft.
According to a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article, Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard told Oregon reporters afterward that he is going to take “the best player available.”
That’s verbal foreplay to Rip City.
Blazers’ loyalists have patiently watched their team miss the playoffs the last four years. After defying 5.3 percent odds, one of many destined climaxes for the franchise and its fans will come on June 28 in New York, when it takes that “best player.”
It feels good to be back on top, Memphis and Boston.
While we know who is coming, the most uninteresting and perhaps even detrimental thing Pritchard could have done was say Oden is the guy. But the Blazers know who to select, and make no mistake – it will be the former Ohio State freshman.
Pritchard is smart; he knows how the NBA operates. He’s surely lusted over the ingredients that make up a championship-winning recipe, and now that he has the coupon for the main ingredient – a good center – he’s not going to forget how to cook.
Six-foot-ten-inch forward Kevin Durant is a treat, but Oden is a full meal.
Pritchard will inevitably stop to reflect on a painful memory and wonder if going big is the right move.
In the 1984 NBA Draft, (then) Hakeem Olajuwon went first to the Houston Rockets. Portland then picked Sam Bowie and the Bulls selected Michael Jordan with the third pick.
Jordan would go on to, well, become a logo. Bowie, on the other hand, would have a decent career after a few injury-plagued seasons in Portland, but for all intents and purposes, the Blazers blew it. Big time.
Wait, though – why doesn’t Houston get as much flack for taking Hakeem the Dream and not Air Jordan in that year’s draft? Other than because Olajuwon didn’t end up becoming a regional punch line, it’s because he was the best big man available.
One of the NBA’s unwritten rules is that you take the center if he is decent, or as long as he’s not Jordan or LeBron James. That strategy almost always works, too. If Pritchard hasn’t already realized it, he is in a position where he can’t lose.
Dwight Howard. Yao Ming. Tim Duncan. Shaq. I’m not going to pretend that I have studied Bill Russell footage, but you get the picture.
Of course, sometimes it doesn’t work, but often times drafts don’t have talent to bank on at the center position.
Consider this: Michael Olowokandi was NOT the best player in the 1998 Draft, but he was the best center. Other options included Raef LaFrentz and Robert “Tractor” Traylor.
Never mind.
Big men are cherished commodities in the NBA, which of course has seen its fair share of mediocre tall boys. Why would Mavericks owner Mark Cuban snag a geezer like Kevin Willis, who has been in the league for 20 years, late this season for what he thought would be a deep playoff run? Because Old Man Winter is seven feet tall. You remember Calvin Booth? He overachieved in Dallas one season and was rewarded with a contract that paid out a now embarrassing $5.4 million a year in Seattle.
Oops.
Owners somehow find it easier to sign big paychecks to tall people with potential, but it’s all for a practical reason: You need one to win.
If it is a mortal sin to trade big for small – especially when a center has proved himself over the course of a few years – Pritchard’s got an easy decision on his hands. He realizes that teams can live or die depending on who is both healthy and tall, who is posting up on offense and who is protecting the paint on defense.
It’s clearly not a foolproof system but, most of the time, it works.
Enter Oden: A seven-foot man-child with an NBA frame who is begging to help Portland win a few championships. He possesses Amare Stoudemire’s bulk but is taller. He dunks hard and adds flavor. His defense will terrorize opponents, his attitude will please teammates and the likelihood that he’ll improve every year is sky high.
Come on…the guy played with his off-hand last year and still dominated. He never lost a home game in high school or college. (Thanks for that tidbit, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas.)
Just as he alters shots, Oden will redirect the Blazers’ future toward a much brighter path.
But with all this center talk, is Durant still a tempting option? Hell yes. The guy averaged 25.8 points per game and 11.1 rebounds per game at Texas. With his freakish athleticism and amazing range, he’ll play both small and power forward to get the Sonics back on track.
At the end of the day, though, all seven feet of Pritchard’s man will be waiting in Columbus, Ohio.
Oden at least knows he’ll need to invest in a good rain jacket and some Starbucks gift cards.