I can’t remember, but wasn’t Oden considered the “sure thing” right around the '07 draft? Like, if you had the No. 1 pick and drafted anyone else but him, you ought to be fired?
People seem to have forgotten that freakish athletic specimens like D12 and Shaq are the exceptions for centers, not the rule. It used to be common to see lanky 7 footers, that suffer all that abuse in the paint, break down and have their careers cut short (although they at least played the better part of a full season unlike Oden). Then Shaq got drafted, and perhaps blew everyone’s expectations for that position out of proportion.
I remember there being alot of questions about his health back then. But everyone was talking about how guys like him don’t come along very often. If he could stay on the could stay on the court i have no doubts he could be a 20 and 10 guy. But the dude ages in dog years. Just one look at the guy and you can see that he is a weird dude.
I was thinking the other day about kd with lebrons muscles.Who in the world could stop that.
The pool of great centers was a lot deeper 15 years ago than it is now. With Yao and Oden broken down by injury, Duncan’s decline, Shaq’s irrelevance, and a bunch of centers that are bad, mediocre, or just good, it’s safe to say that Dwight is the league’s best pure center and it’ll remain that way for a while. Bynum could rival Dwight, but his knees are always giving him problems. It also doesn’t help that the notion of needing a dominant center to win championships has been going the way of the dinosaur.
Carmelo with a brain would be more dangerous.
… How dominant are we talking? Because in the past 10 years, every champ (except for 04 Detroit), and nearly all of their Finals opponents, has had a top 10 C or PF/C-type playing.
Well I think you answered your own question.
Oden had the greatest upside in the draft without question.
I’m talking maybe Top 5. We obviously can’t include the likes of Shaq, Duncan, David Robinson, and Hakeem since they’ve obviously won.
But do I really want to include Robinson in this discussion when he was no longer the main guy in San Antonio from 1998 to 2003?
Another question to consider is how far back am I talking…
Dating back to 1989, the Pistons ('89, '90, '04), Bulls ('91, '92, '93, '96, '97, '98), and Celtics ('08) have won championships without a dominant center.
As for Finals opponents, which is something that you interestingly brought up, the Lakers had Vlade Divac ('91), the Blazers had Kevin Duckworth ('90, '92), the Jazz had Greg Ostertag ('97, '98), the Knicks had Marcus Camby replacing an injured Patrick Ewing ('99), the Pacers had Rik Smits ('00), the Nets had Todd MacCulloch and Jason Collins ('02, '03), the Pistons had Ben Wallace ('05), the Mavs had Erick Dampier ('06), the Cavs had Zydrunas Ilgauskas ('07), and the Celtics had Kendrick Perkins ('10).
EDIT: This isn’t to say that these centers were bad (well, NJ’s centers may have fit that category), but they weren’t dominant. They fluctuated between good and serviceable.
Also, what about Dikembe Mutombo? Was he considered a dominant center when the Sixers made the Finals in 2001? He was also used as a reserve in the 2003 playoffs and played behind Jason Collins.
No he did not, he was just the best college big man going into that draft.
No the hell he didn’t, he was just hot at Center in college,he came into the league with an injury to his wrist and early problems with his knees (ala his current state) he fit the jinx of sam b threw in threw.
K.Durant had the upside and then some,all the critics including me said "if this kid packed on the pounds,he’d be unstoppable"
and look at him now, if that kid was even close too bulky he’d be beyond scary!!!
People always waiver on the “Oh they should stay in college longer” subject, G.Oden is one of those players I REALLY feel should have stayed in college, that young,that much height,his offensive ability was so-so,defense great BUT it would have been nice to see him play one more year in a college format and see him pan out either better in player development or body development
Too be fair both Camby and Big Z are former All Stars and were pretty damn good centers. Also Dikembe will be in the HOF.
Have you guys seen this?
Eric Spoelestra Wants To Work, Chris Bosh Just Wants To Chill - From Our Editors - SBNation.com
If the rest of the players share this mentality (I know LBJ does), then they will never be better than the Celtics in the East.
I read it early this morning before work, Bosh is trash. The only two people I would even worry about buying into Spoelestra’s coaching would be Bron, and Wade.
Bosh is the new Lamar Odom, “Much Potential, but doesn’t bring it every night”.
LeBron has clearly established his desire to play by his own rules and hang out as much as he can with his buddies (staying additional days to hang out with CP3, in big cities to enjoy nightlife, etc). Wade seems to be the rock of the team that basically is “I’ve won a ring, I want another, you guys are on my team, let’s figure this out”. Bosh and LBJ seem to not want to put the work in.
Or the Magic. I mean, at least Stan is getting everyone on Orlando to buy into the system. If you’re Miami and your 2 big free agent acquisitions just want to chill in South Beach, then that’s not going to translate very well in the playoffs. Poor Spoelstra. This is going to result in his coaching demise.
His demise was sealed already 
Riley’s going to coach the Heat.
Poor Miami stuck with that scumbag for 5 more years.
I agree Wade is the only player out of 2 and a half men that’s seems like he’s totally into it.
Not to say Lebron is not playing his hardest, he just doesn’t seem like the Lebron we have known.
Maybe it’s being on a new team trying to adjust, but I think the majority of it is what you said about him playing by his own rules.
Really, it came against the Suns, any big man could have a monster game against them right now. I think Robin Lopez is still out with a leg injury.