Greg Oden has all the right stuff
Story Tools: Print Email
Mike DeCourcy /
Posted: 5 days ago

The most gifted basketball player who won't be paid to play next season will not suit up for Duke, Kentucky, Michigan State or Connecticut. He won't be preparing for his high school graduation. He won't enter the NBA draft. Greg Oden still is two months from starting his junior year at Lawrence North High School in Indiana.

Oden, 16, is 7-0, 240 pounds. This is what I wrote about him last summer: "Oden is the most polished prep 7-footer since -- no kidding -- Lew Alcindor." Since then, he has improved.

The NCAA's summer evaluation period sent coaches and scouts from college and NBA teams on the road earlier this week to elite talent camps sponsored by Nike, Adidas and Reebok. Wherever Oden plays, he'll be the best player in the gym, and the buzz about him is about to get very loud.

He was the MVP of the Indiana state tournament, where Lawrence North won the Class 4A title. He was MVP of the Bob Gibbons Tournament of Champions during Memorial Day weekend, when his Spiece Indy Heat team claimed the title. He was named the most outstanding prospect at the NBA Players Association Camp in June. Oden's acclaim has been earned, not manufactured.

Recruiting analyst Dave Telep says Oden is "a go-to move away from being completely dominant." Oden still wonders whether he's any good. He is humble and committed to improving.

Oden has quick feet, handles the ball well and understands how to use his body to score. He is even more advanced as a defensive player. Analyst Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com saw Oden block five shots in one 30-second sequence at the Nike Peach Jam tournament last summer, but that's not what impressed Coleman most.

"This is something not everybody is going to get excited about, but Greg Oden is a great student of playing the game," Coleman says. "At the NBA players camp, he worked all week to look like Tim Duncan: dropping off passes immediately on double-teams for layups or dunks, trying to use his footwork.

"He's not content to be the most athletic big man in the gym. He's becoming a player."

http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2560136
----------------------------------------------------------------------

I figure it this way. He will come out in the draft in 2006. And at that time we will have 30million in expirering contracts. So maybe we have a shot at this guy.