Rip City Project » Shaq

Summer Reading: Greg Oden

Coup — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:52:39 +0000

This is part of an offseason series on various things of certain natures that each Blazer can work on during the summer to prepare for the 2010-2011 title push. This is strictly about on-court performance, so topics like trades and contracts are not discussed at length. Remember to click “Continue Reading” at the jump.

If you want to make a joke about Greg Oden’s health and how he’s only played 82 games in three season, do it now. We’ll only judge you a tiny bit.

…waiting.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can talk about the Oden that has played, and been pretty darn good in doing so. In fact, without even getting into the numbers and mentioning his PER of 23.1 in 20 games — whoops — or obscene offensive rebounding of 15.6 — would have led the league, by the by — we can say he had a good shot at being an All-Star, at least as one of the many injury replacements. If Chris Kaman could do it, there’s no reason Oden couldn’t.

(more…)

The Big Shaqtus now the Big Shaqalier

Coup — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 04:26:09 +0000

Looks like the oft-rumored Suns/Cavaliers deal has finally been agreed to, with Shaq headed to the Valley of the LeBrons in exchange for magic beans Ben Wallace, Sasha Pavlovic, tomorrow’s 46th pick and, surprise surprise (this is Phoenix after all)…cash considerations.

This deal has been talked about for months and for most of today we’ve heard it was any minute now. Apparently Stephen A. Smith broke the news and Yahoo! is running with it, so there’s little reason to doubt the legitimacy of the deal. There’s also little reason to analyze the deal. The Cavaliers just gave LeBron a great big presence in the middle for literally nothing. The question is, will Shaq really matter to James staying in Cleveland after this year, even if they win a title? I can guarantee you that will be a major plot point on ESPN all day tomorrow.

For Portland, this could mean the Suns are entering rebuilding mode so Steve Nash might be available after all, but that’s just speculation right now. The road to the playoffs got a little easier, too, but if we’re worried about the 7-9 spots in the West next year, something went wrong.

Rip City Wednesday Links

Coup — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:41:43 +0000

-Kevin McHale is out of Minnesota, and this might have been the first news broken by a player via Twitter. This means something for the future of sports media, I just haven’t quite figured it out yet. I smell a long, theoretical post on the way…

-Sammy Sosa’s recent quotes sound pretty dumb considering his positive steroid test from ’03, but maybe he just needs a translator. (My reaction, I don’t care, nor am I surprised.)

-Shaq going bananas on Chuck Lidell. The Big Tweetcus is priming himself up nicely for a post-playing career.

-Roasting the new most winningest coach in NBA History.

-The six ACC players to know that are staying in the draft.

-The Magic aren’t the only ones dealing with a post-Finals hangover.

-Trevor Ariza wants to return to where he just won a championship. Smart move? It’s a tossup.