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Sports Illustrated’s Frank Hughes revisited the Greg Oden saga in his recent column and revealed something very interesting involving the San Antonio Spurs. According to Hughes’ services one of the big reasons why Kevin Pritchard decided to go with Greg Oden was because the offers he was getting from other teams were so outstanding.

You expect good offers for the top overall pick, but reportedly the San Antonio Spurs were even willing to put Tim Duncan on the table in a possible deal. It’s hard to believe that judging by the Spurs track record but if you want to talk about a dodged bullet. As upset as Spurs fans may get with the aging Tim Duncan at times, there’s no way they’d rather have Oden.

By: Yannis

[the I in winParticipant]

2 years from now Oden will be a pretty good center while Duncan won’t be relevent.

[Anton123Participant]

Or Duncan will in some way help the Blazers, while Oden will continue to get hurt

[QUINCEY]

^exactly

[NYK2010Participant]

Duncan irrelevant I don’t see it, if Oden can stay healthy and thats a big if.
Just becaz he’s getting older doesn’t mean he’ll be irrelevant look at Shaq at 36 still had game.

[BothTeamsPlayedHardParticipant]

Is it Tim Duncan’s fault for the decline of Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson? In very un-Spur-like occurrence, they erred in their evaluation of how Richard Jefferson would fit in with their team. It has not worked out as well as they planned, but at last check they are still 38-25 largely because Tim Duncan is still a top three or four big man in the game.

Not only that, but they will have assets this offseason to rebuild their cast around. Nando De Colo and Tiago Splitter are playing well in Spain. I think they will not only entertain the possibility of signing those two, but also dealing them. Certainly Splitter is a guy whose rights could probably net them another first round pick. The not yet 24-year old pick from the 2004 draft Viktor Sanikidze is starting to produce in Italy and could be an asset as well. I wouldn’t dismiss the possibility that either Hill or Parker is shopped. Jefferson will be an expiring contract that could be dealt. I wouldn’t put it past them to see if DeJuan Blair would possibly be overvalued by some team. I don’t think the team they will enter 2010-11 with will look all that similar to the one they have right now.

[QUINCEY]

the thing about splitter is he still shows lil interest of leaving europe of the nba, which in turn isnt that big of a deal since blair has been looking pretty good

[sheltwon3Participant]

Oden is not a good fit for Portland but he could wonders for the Spurs provided he can stay healthy and I think he may have gotten his injuries early but he should bounce back. people compare him to Sam Bowie which is stupid. Medicine advances have come a long way. I actually like this trade because he helps the Portland get good right now why they have some young promising players with experience and allow Miller and Duncan to be their elder vet so to speak. Spurs need to get younger while Portland needs experience.

[QUINCEY]

i dont see hopw he fits with them(without duncan)..lamarcus takes alotof pressureoff of him in portland and oden even when healthy wasnt a go to guy. hes a banger so he needs a pf who can hit a open jumper consistantly. playing with another banger would only clog the lane for him making him less effective

[jamesofwhite21Participant]

makes me LOL so hard

[M-DYMESParticipant]

The problem hasn’t been that Oden isn’t a good fit in Portland.  The only problem has been the injuries and the way they have been handeld.  Oden is very skilled, has immense size, and is a fit for damn near every NBA team.  People seem to forget he is only like 23 years old.  He has plenty of time to put together a great NBA career.  The blazers and their fan base should continue to place hope in Oden.  If by 25 he hasn’t shown any ability to stay healthy or ball, then I start to move on from him and label him an unfortunate bust. 

[iguapops420Participant]

 Unfortunately by the time he is in fact 25 The Blazers will have either been outbid by another team thinking Oden has something left and overpays for him the way LAL did with Kwame Brown in 06 or they end up overpaying themselves. If they do end up overpaying and he pans out(hich is somewhat unlikely for what was expected of him), then cudos to them for sticking with him, otherwise, they’re put in a rather lose lose situation. This year is an extremely important year for Greg IMO, he either make3s it, or he doesn’t . 

Like M-Dynmes said, it’s not about whether Greg has the talent to do it, as he’s proven when healthy to be a dominant player even if it is usually only for 20-25 minutes due to fouling, it’s all about staying healthy for the kid. The foul issues will eventually go away if he ever manages to stay healthy an entire year. Personally, If I’m SAS, I’d take a flyer on the kid hoping his health returns and he can learn from the best PF of all-time how to truely defend and stay in a game. At this point, a deal involving either Splitter or Blair and contracts could be enough.

[aamir543Participant]

I said this in a post a couple months ago, if the Twolves get Drummond, than he’s a bust, but if the Spurs get him, then he is a superstar in the making. That’s the way it works.

[iguapops420Participant]

 I don’t see the comparison aamir. If the Wolves get Drummond he could easily still end up a 25-12-4-2 player or the Spurs could get him and he could end up injured all the time like Oden. 

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