Wednesday June 20, 2007 Lots and lots of stuff from Oden's workout Lots of stuff going on at the Blazers' practice facility today. For starters, what everyone wants to know: How was Greg Oden? Well, we only got to see one short drill and watched him shoot some free throws, so it's hard to comment on his court performance. But the guy's personality is special. He had all the women in the building buzzing because he would address them with "yes, ma'am." When do you hear of a No. 1 draft pick showing that level of respect and humility? Very impressive. Also, new team president Larry Miller appears to be an extremely nice guy and brings an extensive financial background to the team -- which will obviously be welcome now that the franchise is finally straightening itself out after years of problems. More on Larry later. First, here's a lengthy transcript from this morning's interviews with Oden and the Blazers' personnel: GREG ODEN Opening statement: I'm honored to be here, flying me out, getting to meet some of the players and the whole entire staff. It's been a good day. On how his workout went: It went alright. I need to get used to being up here in the Northwest. Different air up here. I'm still catching my breath. But it went pretty decent. And I promise it can be a whole lot better. On how his wrist held up: I didn't do a lot with my wrist. They wanted me shooting left-handed a lot and just work out with a lot of running, demonstrate how I run and my footwork. On whether his wrist is still bothering him: Oh, no. I was doing one-handed pushups the other day. On how he feels physically: I feel alright, but this summer has been pretty busy and I'm not in a regular workout, everyday workout, because I've been doing a lot of traveling and stuff. Once I get into it and it stars getting better and more in shape, I'll feel good. Really good. On how it felt to have LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy greet him at the airport: I felt wanted. I mean, it's good to see those guys -- the rookie of the year and LaMarcus Aldridge, who I looked up to when I was playing AAU ball. Just being able to see those guys here and being go out and eat with those guys and get to know them better and then to see them like a regular guy, it made me feel good. On whether he feels like he'll be the No. 1 pick: I hope so. But I never know. Keving is working, he's working hard, too. And everyone else is working hard. They might throw a curveball and just draft somebody from, I don't know, Germany. On what he expects from himself: Being able to take over offensively. That's something I would love to do. You see Tim Duncan do it. I mean, work on my ball handling skills, if I could pull a Tony Parker I would in a second. I guess that wasn't funny. On what he likes most about basketball: Being able to compete and being able to come together with teammates. Those guys was telling me that once you're a rookie you've got everybody coming at you, especially being the possible No. 1 pick, it's going to be even worse. They just said everybody's out there and they're aiming for you and talking to you the whole entire game. They said it was funny. I'm ready for that, and being able to be on the team and come together and win, that's always the best part. On what he brings to the team that drafts him: I'm a good guy. When I come in I'm gonna be able to get along with the team and the coaches. I'm gonna come in and I'm gonna be ready to learn. I'm not gonna come in and try to take over or be any problem. I'm gonna come in and try to win. On how much his game has come back since the wrist injury has healed: Really at the start of the year I couldn't use my right hand to shoot. Really, I shot a hook shot just because I can fling it up there, and I really can't do that. So I mean, at the end of the season I started to get comfortable. I wore the little thing around my wrist, and I didn't need to. I just wore it because it was comfortable and just to be safe. But it's alright. I think this year I'll just be able to work on it and be able to have a full year to be able to play. On whether there was a residual benefit from the injury because he developed his left hand so much: That was it. Me being able to develop with my left hand, and it helped me out a lot. NATE MCMILLAN On the challenges of a solo workout: It's very difficult to do a workout when you're working out against yourself. All of our other workouts we've had four players, it's two-on-two, it's still hard to see what a player is capable of doing simply because he's not in that five-on-five setting. So a lot of our work has been done by our scouts through watching film. Today just seeing him run up and down the floor, you sitting there visualizing what you can do, or what situation you can put this young man in or what he can do for this team. There's a lot of things he can do. There's a lot of things he brings to the floor. On his impressions of Oden's personality: Kevin has said this twice already, and I was sitting here thinking about it: Humble. When you have a player like that with that type of ability, that type of potential, that is humble, and I really feel that his main concern is winning. ... If anything, it's not as much a surprise as it is great to sense that from a young player that he has the potential, he's a very humble player, he'll do whatever it takes, I think, to help your club win. On whether a healthy Oden showed more in the workout than could be seen on tapes of his Ohio State games: That's hard, because I can only go on film. And I'm told the same thing. I talked to his coach, Thad (Matta), and he told me the same thing, that he will be able to do a lot of things in this league. He's very coachable, and I think that's a big key -- the fact that he is coachable. The fact that he's a winner, he's used to winning, I think he expects to win. And being a 19-year-old kid and being able to reach the finals in college in his first year and to come to the NBA where he's going to be challenged, I think he will be forced to get better and improve simply because I think he wants to do well and he's going up against the best. So he will be better. He will have, I think, show a lot more than he has shown in college. On how Oden developed his left hand while he was injured: That's something that Kevin talks about is, you know, his ability to use the left. And I don't know, I haven't heard anybody talk about what his left looked like before the injury, but you now know that he can go to his left, and he can also go to his right. And that's pretty good. Sometimes if you work when you have injuries like that you normally develop and become better. I think that just shows that even in times when he was injured, he was able to improve himself. On how Oden's mid-range jump shot tested: I think that's something that will come. It didn't look bad. The form looked pretty good. His college coach felt that he could shoot that shot. His footwork, you know, we ran him in some pick-and-rolls, and his footwork looked pretty good. And I think that's the big key when bigs are stepping out and facing up, do they have their feet right. And he looks pretty smooth. On Oden's balance: That's one of the areas that they all felt he needs to get stronger. Just lower strength, abs, that kind of thing. Because he's always been, probably, the biggest guy on the court and dominated his position, where as now he's going to have some bigs that can probably knock him off the block. And you know that he's going to need to get stronger. But it's very similar to LaMarcus. It'll come, and the fact that he went through a year of college and couldn't lift weights because of his injury, all of that we think will come. KEVIN PRITCHARD On whether Oden set the bar high for Durant's workout: I think he did. But I expect Kevin Durant to come in here and be an assassin. I think he's going to come in here, he's gonna show everybody what he can do. And he's going to prove, or try to prove to us, that he's the No. 1 pick. If he would expect fans to be shocked if Oden is not picked by Portland: I've been holed up in this building. I have no idea what's going on outside this building. Maybe I know a little bit. What's funny is, we have our billboards out -- honk once for Oden, honk twice for Durant -- and I'm just getting these, a litany of these emails and it's just 'honk.' And that's all it is, just, 'honk, honk.' It's from random people, I don't know who they are. But part of the fun of this is debating it out. We don't have consensus. There's not a consensus in there. We're keeping an open mind. I don't think anybody up here will look at this as anything but, 'Let's figure out who's the best for our team. And if it is a shock to the rest of the world, so be it. On whether a healthy Oden has a deeper game than he showed at Ohio State: He's 19-years-old and will be playing his best basketball when he's 28. So you're not even close to seeing his best basketball. Not even close. Nate will develop either one of these guys into big, big-time players. They've got to be able to work, and they are. They're both workers. On Oden's basketball IQ: He's a very intelligent basketball player. He's got all the potential in the world to be a superstar, and only he'll determine what is his ceiling. Everybody has a ceiling. I've not yet figured out what his ceiling is. And that's my job, to know. PAUL ALLEN On what having the No. 1 pick has done for the franchise: It's unusual to have the ability to pick between two such amazing talents. So that's a great opportunity for our franchise and I think it's gotten the fans excited. We've tried to do some things to highlight these two players that we're focusing on with the No. 1 pick. And I think all that excitement just puts us, as Kevin pointed out, is building. ... There's nothing better than imagining, now that we've got the Rose Garden back, to have the No. 1 pick in the draft. On opening night, that's going to be an exciting night. I think everyone is feeling that energy. ZACH RANDOLPH On his impressions off Oden: He's the real deal. Just two words: Real deal. Legit. The way he runs the court, he's agile. He's a defensive stopper. Man. Words can't describe him. He's gonna end up being one of the best big men that ever plays the game. On what Oden does for the Blazers if they add him to the current roster: Playoffs. You don't want to put too much pressure on him, but I mean the guy, he's got an unbelievable body, and he's still got room to grow, you know? LAMARCUS ALDRIDGE On what he imagines a frontcourt combination of he and Oden could be like: This is a bold thing to say, but I see it kind of like a Tim Duncan-David Robinson type thing. I see it like that. When it's all said and done, as I get better, as he gets better and we both learn the game and develop we can be like David Robinson and Tim Duncan where we can win championships and be dominant down low. On the effect adding Oden to the Roster could do for the Blazers: I think that takes us a step further next year. If we add him and the guys that's here now work hard and we get better and we work on our game, I think if everybody comes back better next year and we add him, that puts us one step closer, if not in the playoffs. I don't want to be like, 'If we get him we're in the playoffs.' I think it puts us in a better position. http://tinyurl.com/2tay4s --

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