I will (hopefully) be at the Portland Trail Blazer game tonight and have a chance to see Oden first hand. It definitely plays to his favor – in the eyes of the fans – that he won the tip off and scored Portland’s first basket. I’d look for a similar performance tomorrow night.
If Oden can come out and score 115 points in 25 minutes, most fans would continue to be happy. Oregonian columnist and 95.5 The Game talk show host, John Canzano held an “Expectations of Oden” call-in-a-thon a few weeks back where most fans said they would be happy with a season of 12 points and eight rebounds per game.
As for Oden, this is a great time to get physical with other NBA players. He hasn’t played in a meaningful NBA game since college and hasn’t had a chance to, as W.C. once put it, “Bang Loose” against other big men. In the Blazers locker room there aren’t too many guys with size and strength equal to Oden’s and these exhibition games will give him a chance to bang around down low and learn a lot about his playing style will hold up in the NBA.
The question isn’t if he has the talent but how that talent will translate versus equally talented opponents. His size alone gives him the upper hand, but Blazer fans and the rest of the country are going to learn a lot about his ability to square up against the rest of the NBA in the next few weeks.
As for my thoughts on the season for Oden, I’d say anything less than 10 points and six rebounds per game would be disaster for Portland. Chances are though, he will be a 15 and nine kind of guy.
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