A broken kneecap is hardly seen as the worst injury out there, and yet more than five months later Oden is still not cleared to do anything on the court that remotely resembles basketball — he says he’s mostly focused on things like lifting weights, watching his diet and walking up and down stairs. He’s timid in making the most basic predictions about his future. Can the Blazers count on him to be ready to play in the fall?

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen,” he says, “but I feel for sure that I’m going to be ready for training camp next season. … I’m going to have me a really good summer, go see me a whole bunch of different doctors and try to figure out what’s going on with my body that makes me keep getting injured.”

The one thing that’s been sticking out among the Oden information that trickles down the gutter is how on point he and the medical staff seem to be about finding preventative solutions to these injuries through diet. You get the sense, as Oden himself admitted to having weight issues following the microfracture surgery, that two years ago everyone was so focused on Oden rehabbing and just getting back on the court that finding an answer to “Why did this happen?” got left by the wayside. So it’s good to hear he’s getting his body right outside of oiling up that kneecap.

The part in the video where he admits Kevin Durant’s success bothers him and that he wants to block Durant a couple times wasn’t bad, either.

According to Henry Abbott of TrueHoop, as reported on ESPN’s Sportscenter, the Portland Trail Blazers have reached an agreement in principle with free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu.  The terms of the deal have not been finalized.

This has seemed certain for a day now, but the confirmation is always nice. As I’ve said before, I like the deal because Roy doesn’t have to initiate all the offense now, and all the Blazers bigs have a wing with court vision to get them easy buckets off the pick-and-roll. We’ll analyze this later, though. Right now we’re waiting on the terms of the deal. Keep an eye on the length of the deal, whether it includes any team options, and whether or not it eats up all of Portland’s cap space (since they were bidding against themselves at this point.

UPDATE (3:00 ET) John Hollinger’s take on the deal:

Turkoglu for $50 million is an imperfect solution, certainly, but it’s a far better one than squandering the space by waiting, or by paying similar money to jam a square peg into a round hole. And as Turkoglu’s soon-to-be-former teammates in Orlando showed last month, even in the current economic situation overpaying for a part that fits can work out awfully well.

I’m glad brought up the Rashard Lewis deal from two years back in his article. Almost everybody with a pen or a keyboard trashed the Magic for giving Lewis $122 million two years ago, but he was a good fit on the team and helped them get to the NBA Finals. Who’s trashing that deal now?

UPDATE (6:11 ET) According to Jason Quick, Hedo has not yet agreed to a deal with the Blazers, though a 5-year, $52 million deal is on the table. I don’t see how Turkoglu wouldn’t accept the deal, seeing as how Toronto has offered a deal to Shawn Marion and probably wouldn’t be able to offer more money.

Despite published reports to the contrary, Hedo Turkoglu has not reached an agreement with the Trail Blazers, a team source announced at 2:20 p.m. Friday. ESPN first reported that a deal had been reached in principle, but general manager Kevin Pritchard and Turkoglu agent Lon Babby have not confirmed the deal.

Ric Bucher again mentioned the tidbit about Turkoglu’s wife liking Toronto, which may (I guess, who knows) be holding things up. Or Hedo’s agent might be holding out for a few extra bones. Turkoglu is said to be in Portland for another day, so I don’t see how this doesn’t get done. There’s not exactly a huge rush to get it done today.