At age 21, Greg Oden was the kind of big man NBA teams are clamoring four now — a beast on the boards and protecting the rim who also could get you a fair amount of points.
At age 25, he has barely set foot on the court since then. He’s had three microfacture and seven knee surgeries overall.
All the Miami Heat are hoping for is a shadow of that former player, a guy who can give them 15 minutes a night by the end of the season and some run in the playoffs when they run into teams with big front lines (potentially Brooklyn and Indiana, for example).
But at the start of Heat training camp in the Bahamas, Oden and the team are going slow, reports Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel.
“Really, for me, I’m happy being on the court and playing and getting back into the thick of basketball,” he said at a promotional appearance at the offices of Shelling Orthodontics and Maye Pediatric Dentistry, an event which also served as a fundraiser for the Udonis HaslemChildren’s Foundation.
“I bang a little bit, still taking it slow. I’m taking steps. So I do a little bit, do a little bit of up and down, but we’re not trying to wear out the knee. We’re trying to make sure I can do a little bit and the next day I can do something, too.”
The Heat and their fans get it — it isn’t about November. Miami’s talent level is going to win then a whole lot of games and get them a high seed (teams just can’t really prepare for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in the regular season).
If we get closer to the All-Star Game and there is no Oden, then it’s a concern. Miami could really use him in the playoffs (when teams do have time to really prepare for the Heat).