May 29 2009
Positional Progress: Center
I apologize for the delay, first of all. A lot of things were going on in the last week, so I couldn’t quite get to the site. What makes it worse is that the center position is somewhat of an anticlimactic ending to this whole series. The meat was in the point guard, small forward, and to a lesser degree, power forward pieces.
What We Have
The most hyped center of the 21st Century
The best backup center in the NBA
What We Don’t Have
An experienced injury free most hyped center of the 21st Century
What We Need
A little time to let all the ingredients settle
Let’s start with Joel Przybilla, mostly because his play was the only constant for the Blazers this season. He played through minor injuries all over the place and never missed a game. His defense, as usual, was strong, and his rebounding rate was the best in the NBA, pulling down an absurd 22.4% of all available rebounds. He was the red matter from Star Trek. Put him near alien planets, and he’s pulling that in too.
Greg Oden got a bum rap the entire season. His season was injury-marred, albeit not as much as last season, and he had trouble establishing any sort of rhythm. Luckily, the Blazers didn’t need tangible massive contributions from the center spot this season; they needed only strong rebounding and good defense. Greg Oden was a solid contributor in the regard. He was the best offensive rebounder in the NBA this season, pulling down 15.7% of all available rebound opportunities on the offensive glass. Sure he had freak random injuries to two new parts of his body. To me that’s a good sign. Maybe he’s getting it all out now when it doesn’t matter. Greg Oden is a reason for Portland fans to believe in karma. We get the bad out early, the good will come later.
Going Forward
We really have nothing to worry about. Przybilla has at least four good seasons left and even then, he’ll be a solid contributor for years and years after that in a Dikembe Mutombo mold. Greg Oden will get better. The fouls will go down, the scoring will go up, the defense will improve. I’m not too sure he could improve on the rebounding. Just give him a little time. Once he gets up to 82 games, we can start judging how good he is on this level. It’s easy to forget this, but it just takes a long time to develop a good big man. We can remember how awkward LaMarcus Aldridge was during his first season. It took until after the All-Star break this season (two and a half seasons!) for him to truly arrive as a good NBA a player. Have a little patience, and this position will be fine.
