Oden to Miss 2007-08 Season

After everything seemed to be looking up for the Portland Trailblazers, things took a turn for the worse today when it will be announced that Greg Oden is going to have knee surgery and likely miss his rookie season. This is the same surgery that transformed Chris Webber from one of the league's best athletes and most versatile players to a slow, immobile big man who gets by on jump shooting and passing.

Now before Portland fans begin to panic, let's remember that Webber was much older when he had this surgery and a complete recovery is possible, just ask Amare Stoudemire. According to a report by ESPN.com, the damage is relatively minor and a full recovery is expected in six to twelve months. Nonetheless, this puts a damper on a team that many were looking forward to watching, with Oden joining Rookie of the Year Brandon Roy and a number of other talented young players.

If Oden is able to fully recover, this may not turn out so badly for the Blazers in the long run. There would have been tremendous pressure on this team to improve and it is debatable whether such a young team would have been able to play .500 basketball, let alone make a playoff run as some analysts had predicted. This will alleviate that pressure and free up playing time for LaMarcus Aldridge (who would have started anyway), Channing Frye, Josh McRoberts, and perhaps even Travis Outlaw, letting Portland find out what pieces they really have to place around Oden and Roy.

This will also likely leave the Blazers as a lottery team once more, giving them a chance at another high draft pick. With some luck, and without the consistent scoring that Zach Randolph provided, the Blazers could even land a top five pick. Who knows, the 2008-09 Blazers could feature Oden AND O.J. Mayo. Obviously the chances of this occurring are pretty slim, but the point is that the franchise is far from ruined.

Of course, if Oden is unable to regain the full range of athleticism he's displayed in high school and college, it's hard to know how good of a player he can be. With his offensive game still developing, Oden is primarily a defensive force right now. His greatest strength is his shot-blocking, which is attributed to his height and athleticism, as well as impeccable timing. He can still be an effective shot-blocker if he loses some athletic ability because of that timing, but he will not be the same player he was in college.

One has to wonder how the recovery process will impact Oden's game. When his right wrist was injured during the Ohio State season, it forced him to use his left hand, which ought to pay off dividends in the long run. Similarly, Oden may take some of his recovery time to improve other skills, such as shooting. It is hardly necessary for a player like Oden to be a strong jump-shooter, but it certainly couldn't hurt. Obviously there is no guarantee that he works on this skill and this is purely speculation, but it seems a safe bet that Oden will be doing something basketball-related during all this downtime.

Portland fans have much to fear, but Oden is in as good a position as anyone to make a full recovery from knee surgery and help the Blazers become serious contenders down the road.