When Oden walks through the door, he fills the door frame, briefly blocking out the light from the outside world. He is enormous. [...] Oden measures 6-foot-11½ in socks and 7-1 in shoes, and he weighs around 260. His wingspan is an impressive 7-5, and his standing reach nearly 9-3.
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Oden's agility, flexibility, balance and explosiveness are remarkable for a player his size. He's a 2 guard in a center's body. Clearly Oden is more than a big stiff who's learned how to play basketball. He's an athlete who happens to be 7 feet tall. In the span of an hour, there wasn't a drill point guard Mike Conley could do that Oden couldn't do. In the strength department, we'd expect that and more. But in terms of athleticism and agility, you have to see it to believe it.
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Five weeks ago when he started workouts, Oden measured a 38-inch vertical jump with three steps. That's a number just below what guys like Tyrus Thomas and Rudy Gay produced last year. Since then, he's been working on his explosiveness every day, so that number might even improve by the time he's tested in Orlando. Combine Oden's height, reach and jumping ability, and you have a guy who can touch the 12-3 mark on the backboard -- 2 feet, 3 inches above the rim.
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Schilling spends the first half of the workout doing dribbling drills involving two basketballs. [...] Conley looks amazing, with excellent speed and control as he moves through a series of drills that test both his left and right hands. Oden nearly matches him, though. He doesn't have the speed of Conley, but he has impressive control of the basketball. Right hand. Left hand. Behind the back. Between the legs. Oden handles the ball with amazing dexterity for a big guy.
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As the workout continues, Oden plants down low alongside Purdue's Carl Landry and works on a number of post moves around the basket. His hands are soft. His hook shot is smooth. And most everything Oden lobs up finds its way in the basket. While he's been working on a midrange jumper to increase his arsenal, it's his work down on the post that is most impressive. "He really has great footwork," Schilling said. "I know people say he's raw, but his footwork is pretty advanced for a big guy. He has great balance and quickness and he knows where he is. He still needs work, but I think too many people jumped to conclusions about his basketball skill. Defense may be his main staple in the NBA, but he's pretty impressive offensively too."
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Does Greg Oden care about basketball? The workouts suggest that he does. [...] he's here every day, four to five days a week, working like crazy on his game. [...] he's a dedicated worker, someone who goes nonstop. He carries six basketballs with him wherever he goes.
Sunday night, after I described Oden's workout to a respected NBA general manager who stands a pretty good chance at getting the No. 1 pick in Tuesday's lottery, the GM had four words for me: "I told you so." [...] "We haven't seen the real Greg Oden yet. What we've seen is 50 percent. That's enough to make him the No. 1 pick. If we saw it all, we'd laugh about the Durant comparisons."
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The Durant-Oden debate usually supposes that Durant has the bigger "upside" and Oden is the "safer" pick. But after watching Oden on Sunday, I have to say that his upside may be bigger than that of anyone else in the draft.