Kevin Durant and Greg Oden. Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. Which way should it go? Personally, I am on the side of Kevin Durant first and Greg Oden second. Going into this season, every talking head was salivating over man-child Greg Oden. It was considered a done deal that he would be the number one choice in the upcoming NBA draft. Along came Kevin Durant, Texas' 6'9" do it all freshman baller. When you get compared to both Kevin Garnett and T-Mac, you know you can ball. With Durant in the picture, the talking heads suddenly aren't sure who will be the number one pick. Due to their incompetence, let me settle it right here.
It'll be Durant. I don't care who ends up with the first pick. Durant is 6'9", can handle it and shoot it like a guard one second and the next he's underneath picking up boards. He's got enough range to nail the trey (38% from the arc), enough power to fight for boards (11.6 rpg), and he can play D (1.5 spg and 1.7 bpg). By the way, on top of all this, he's averaging 25 points in 34 minutes. The three line isn't the only place he can drop it from. He's shooting 49% from the floor and 83% from the stripe. He's considered a SF, but in actuality, can play anywhere from the 1 to 4 spot. Also, he can guard any position on the floor, from the PG to C. In the NBA, he probably won't be able to handle most centers, but his versatility will still come in handy on defense. For opposing defenses, he creates and epic mismatch. He has the size of a PF but the quickness of a SG. NBA teams should have no problem deciding who the number one player in this upcoming draft is. It'll be Kevin Durant.
Don't misunderstand me here. Greg Oden is an absolute beast. I think he will become a great player in the NBA. But he is a center. Sure, center is a very important position to any championship team. But as Shaq proved to us, a center cannot be truly dominant without a ballhandler to work off of. Centers need someone to get them the ball in space. They need someone to kick it out to. They need someone to make defenders respect the outside game. Ballhandlers, on the other hand, can dominate with simply role players in the middle. Players like Durant and McGrady can do it anywhere on the court. They can score from the perimeter or the semi-circle. They create space and opportunities with their ballhandling for themselves and others. They can take over a game in crunch time in ways a center cannot. Greg Oden is a very talented baller, but not the dominant force that Durant is.
This debate is bound to go back and forth all season. But I'll stick to my guns. Durant is going to be the better player between Oden and him. I have no doubts about it. And now, neither should you.
Update (2/6): The day that I wrote the majority of this piece, 1/31, Durant went off on Texas Tech for 37 points and 23 boards. In a February 3 game against Big 12 contender Kansas State, Texas may have lost but Durant had arguably one of the most amusing moments in sports this year. In one 10-second span, Durant rejected three consecutive shots from K-State's Clent Stewart before finally gaining possession of the ball. That is up there with Nate Robinson stuffing Yao. I'd love to put a link to a Youtube video clip of the awesomeness here, but the brains that be decided to block Youtube on the school computers. Let me hear three hoorays for bureaucrats!
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