NBA Weekly

Greg Oden: In case you missed it, Greg Oden got hurt again the other night, this time he sprained his foot and is out 2-4 weeks with a foot sprain. Now this injury is not too serious, but damn is this guy injury prone or what? First he hurts his wrist his freshman year at Ohio State, then he misses the whole NBA season last year, and now he's hurting his foot in the first official game he plays in the NBA. Clearly Oden is headed down the wrong path when it comes to staying healthy and that is not good news for a Portland team who is counting on him to anchor the middle for the next 10-15 years. I don't think Oden is ever going to be a dominant center offensively and his injury problems definitely aren't changing my mind in that department. I have a hard time coming up with a good comparison to another player for Oden. I don't think his offensive game is ever going to reach the levels of Olajuwon, Ewing, or David Robinson, because they all could shoot the basketball a lot better than he ever will. He has an offensive game more similar to Shaq because most of his points are going to come close to the basket, but I don't think he will ever be that dominant or well polished as Shaq was. If Oden ever averages more than 15-18 points a game on a consistent year to year basis I would be surprised, so I guess you can say he is like a poor man's Shaq in my eyes.

Cleveland Caveliers: You know I've been thinking about the Cavs lately and how there are a lot of people who think they are greatly improved because they signed Mo Williams in the offseason. Some people are even picking them to win the Eastern Conference and in some cases picking them to win the NBA Finals. Now Mo Williams is a solid player, but does he really make the Cavs that much better? I really don't think so and I can't see how this team could win the NBA Finals. Now maybe they'll get lucky and make it out of the East, but I would be shocked if they won the NBA Championship this year.

Think about it, even Michael Jordan needed Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, Dennis Rodman, etc. to win championships and I don't see any 0f Lebron's teammates on this Cavs team being as good as those guys. Mo Williams is a nice player, but in all actuality he probably isn't much better than B. J. Armstrong and he for damn sure isn't any Scottie Pippen. Fact of the matter is in today's NBA, you need at least 2 star players to win a championship or now maybe even 3 and then you still need to surround those 2 or 3 players with quality role players. The Celtics last year are not the only example with Garnett, Pierce, and Allen. The Spurs had Duncan, Ginobili, and Parker for their title runs and even David Robinson for the first one. The Miami Heat had Shaq and Wade surrounded by players like Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, James Posey, etc. The Lakers had Shaq and Kobe once again surrounded by quality role players. I already talked about the Bulls and even the Houston Rockets had Olajuwon and Drexler for one of their titles and might I add that the absence of Jordan probably played a major part in them winning their first title without Drexler.

The only team that has won the NBA title in the past 25 years without 2 clear cut bonafide superstars is the Detroit Pistons in 2004 and even then you could make a strong case for Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups along with Rip Hamilton, Tashuan Prince, and Ben Wallace. Since 2004, the NBA has also gotten much better talent wise. The only players the NBA truly lost were guys like Gary Payton and Karl Malone, but the league has seen players like Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, and Lebron James, all enter their primes in the past 2 years and this has made the NBA much more talented then it was in 2004 and a tougher league overall. That doesn't even take into account players like Caron Butler, David West, Josh Smith, Rajon Rondo, Joe Johnson, Brandon Roy, Monta Ellis, who along with the players I previously mentioned either weren't in the league at all or have become much better players than they were when Detroit won the championship back in 2004. Basically, you have the same top core of talent for the most part with Kobe, Nash, Garnett, Duncan, Pierce, Yao, McGrady, Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, etc. and then you added all these talented players to that group and really didn't lose that many great players in the process and what you get is an NBA that is so talented that you absolutely need at least two top tier players in order to win a championship.

This is why you saw the Lakers trade for Gasol last year to go with Kobe and Odom, the reason why you see Houston trading for Artest to go with T-Mac and Yao, the reason why New Orleans has a chance with Chris Paul, David West, and Tyson Chandler, but who does Lebron have? Mo Williams and not much else. I don't see how the Cavs will even make it out of the East with their current roster and wouldn't be surprised if Philadelphia, Orlando, or even Toronto was able to knock them out of the playoffs. Michael Jordan never won on his own, Kobe Bryant never won on his own, hell even Magic Johnson and Larry Bird never won on their own, and you know what? Lebron James ain't gonna win on his own either. You heard it here first and I'm sticking to that statement for better or worse.

Other NBA News:

- In New York Knicks land, Allan Houston ended his comeback attempt and they also cut Patrick Ewing, Jr., which was an extremely unpopular move with Knicks fans. At least Ewing, Jr. was able to throw down this monster dunk over Brook Lopez before he got cut.

- Rockets guard Aaron Brooks is out 1-3 weeks with an ankle bruise. Brooks had a nice dunk over Russell Westbrook in the preseason.

- I believe that J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets is going to keep things together and have a breakout season. He started off on the right foot scoring 17 points, with 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal, while shooting 50% from the floor in Denver's opening game against Utah. The Nuggets need to stop messing around with Linas Klieza when Carmelo Anthony returns from his suspension and make sure Smith gets enough minutes.

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