Trailblazers GM Rich Cho was non-comittal about Greg Oden being a-ready-steady-go for the start of the season. I know knee injuries like Oden’s are bad – real bad – but dude popped that cap out of its socket nine months ago and all he’s doing is defensive slide drills? Wha’happened? Cho said he just doesn’t want to put a lot of pressure on Greg. You know things aren’t going well when the team is afraid to put even emotional pressure on Oden’s knee. How’s he going to deal with the pressure of not losing his starting job to Marcus Camby? Or the pressure of not becoming jealous of the special bond Nevada boys Luke Babbit and Armon Johnson have. Or, oh yeah, of playing more than 50 games this season.
Now here’s what’s going on in your neck of the woods. Due to trademark infringement and an oddly horrifying Twitter threat from Al Roker, I’ll just say that there’s some more fantasy basketball notes below.
Andrew Bogut – Elbow fluid building, season approaching, draft rank falling. Mbah A Moute starting? Sighing.
Joel Anthony – Joe-el, who I believe sent Superman to Earth in that nifty glowing crystal baby pod, will be the starting center for the Heat. If Miami has a kryptonite-like weakness, Anthony starting games for this team is probably it. Anthony makes as much sense for you to draft as the fact that Superman’s only weakness was a material that his entire home planet was made from. That’s like your only weakness being water or dirt.
Chris Andersen – First Kenyon Martin has a leg thingy that might keep him out to start the season and now it appears Birdman might miss the same amount of time after finger and knee surgery. Man, Denver’s frontcourt is quickly falling apart. Or is it falling apart slowly? If it was falling apart quickly, they’d be better already. Either way, Al Harrington and Nene Hilario look better and better come draft day.
Stephen Curry – Participated in non-contact drills on Friday. He’s still dealing with his sprained ankle gingerly. Which is to say, he’s treating his ankle like he treats red headed people: like a pain in an appendage.
Delonte West – Will miss the first 10 games of the season after pleading guilty for ridin’ dirty with a couple of guns and a Bowie knife, thus making the free agent about as attractive to franchises as a hitchhiker strapped with … well, you know.
Darren Collison – Out 3-4 weeks with a fractured digit. Or, since we’re doing fractions, he’s currently using 4/5 of a fist.
Elton Brand – Elton Brand dropped some weight y’all. He’s serious about being “Elton Brand” again. You guys he’s, like, super skinny. He went from 265 lbs. to 255 and he’s not done yet. Someone should talk to him. Not Tyra Banks, she’ll just tell him to keep going. But, you know, someone else.
