Report: Celtics, Cavaliers, Spurs have interest in Oden (and he could sign soon)

You can throw a couple more teams into the “we’re interested” file for Greg Oden.

As we told you recently, Oden is taking classes at Ohio State and working out and rehabbing to attempt one more NBA comeback. This is a long shot — he has already had three microfracture surgeries on his knees. And seven total surgeries. At age 24.

But if he does teams like the Heat and Mavericks are reportedly interested (although who has spoken to his agent and how serious they are remains up for debate). You can also add the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers to the mix, reports Ken Berger at CBSSports.com.

Part of Oden’s plan is to sign with a team in the next month and get into a training and conditioning program with an eye toward returning to the floor next season. The Celtics are among the teams monitoring Oden’s progress, and sources tell CBSSports.com’s Jeff Goodman that the Spurs and Cavaliers have expressed interest, too.

If you are saying “why would you sign this guy?” you need to look around the league at the dearth of quality big men. Oden is never going to live up to the No. 1 pick potential, but if you could get him at a good price to give you 15 minutes a night off the bench, a whole lot of teams could use that.

Look at the teams going after him — Spurs, Celtics, Heat. These are some of he NBA’s smart, well run teams.

Teams want to sign Oden and get him before another team grabs him. He can work out with them all summer and then they can make a run at it next season. Hence the desire on both sides to get it done now.