Kevin Pritchard Defends His Greg Oden Pick
May 25, 2009 – 8:30 am by Tas Melas
If there was a textbook for building an NBA team through the draft, free agency, and through fleecing other teams in trades, it would be authored by the Portland Trail Blazers. GM of the Blazers, Kevin Pritchard, has built a young team the other 29 teams admire, I’m sure. The one constant choice people look at as a mistake was the drafting of Greg Oden over Kevin Durant. While KD will likely turn out to be the better overall player, I’m in Pritchard’s camp, people are being way too hard on Oden, way too early in to his one-year career. Pritchard joined The Fan 1080 to discuss why Oden is so important to his team, what the Blazers’ learned from their 1st round playoff loss, and the passion of his players.
For many of your players, it was their first playoff experience. What did they learn?
“That first game, you have to be prepared to play at a higher level, or at least the highest level you can get to immediately. Because if we win first that game, I think it’s a totally different series. I think we win the series to be honest with you ’cause then it becomes home-and-home right? And, that changed it – it meant we had to go down to Houston to win a game… I think if we were to run that series back again, knowing what we know right now, I think we’d be in good shape.”
What was your team like after they were eliminated?
“I remember addressing the team right after the game and I saw it in his (Steve Blake’s) eyes… He was pissed and he was not ready for this thing to be done. That’s what you wanna see out of your players. Give the guy a lot of credit, he took accountability, he felt like he could play, and all our guys did. I thought it was a collective responsibility from our team, saying ‘You know, we all could have played better.”
Has Greg Oden’s performance dropped off from what you saw when you drafted him?
“He still does those things – that’s the hard thing. We see it, we don’t see it enough. I personally feel like Greg has to make a commitment to get in the best shape of his life. I think that’s what we have to have. What I do know is this, when Greg plays 20 minutes or more, we win at a much higher level. He was top five in rebounds per minute, and when you look at him versus a Dwight Howard in their rookie years, and do a per 36-minute, it’s pretty close. I mean, Dwight did some better things, but I don’t think we should get too caught up in saying, ‘Hey listen, it’s time to move on.’ That’s the last thing we’re saying.”
Listen to Kevin Pritchard on The Fan 1080 in Portland with Isaac and Big Suke
Tags: Basketball, Houston Rockets, Kevin Pritchard, NBA, Portland Trail Blazers
