Heat And Cavs Show Interest In Signing Greg Oden
One June 28th, 2007 the Portland Trail Blazers selected big man Greg Oden with the first overall pick in the draft. Since then Oden has had 4 major surgeries, 3 of them being micro-fracture surgeries on his knees.
In the 5 seasons that he’s been in the NBA Oden has played a total of 82 games, which would account for one season of NBA ball.
Oden is now known as one of the biggest draft busts in history, and it doesn’t help that the man chosen after him in the draft was superstar Kevin Durant.
Oden now has a chance to change his legacy as he is drawing great interest from Miami and Cleveland. Oden, who is still rehabbing from his latest knee surgery, is set to meet with Heat owner Pat Riley later this week to discuss a possible contract.
The Heat, who don’t have much money to spend on free agents, will most likely offer him the veterans minimum ($992,680/year).
The Cavs on the other-hand would be able to throw a bit more money at Odom. According to CBS Sports’ Jeff Goodman the Cavs would be willing to pay Oden up to $4 million per year largely in part to the recent loss of their big man Anderson Varejao.
Regardless of who gets him you got to feel bad for the guy he’s been injured basically throughout his whole career but still has tons of potential In his last season in Portland he averaged 11.1 points 8.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks.
Granted it was only in 21 games but the man was picked #1 overall for a reason, he can flat out ball. There’s no doubt that he could be a top center in the league when healthy, so hopefully this comeback will be a successful one.
Mike Block | Elite.
