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Ouch, that knee scope went downhill fast. You'd think in pre-draft physicals they would have seen something to indicate he had some knee damage. Any time you see the words "micro-fracture surgery" in an article that's clearly not good.

They going to take an awful lot of spiff for not taking Durant now, and if they didn't see anything back in May/June or ignored it they probably deserve it.

That'd really suck for Portland if this seriously derails his career. The kid is clearly a gifted athlete that has the ability to dominate. It doesn't sound like they expect it to be a major issue, but then again this was a routine scope a few days a go, and it sounds an awful lot like the crap the Cubs used to spew about Wood and Prior.

Portland fans are going to be awfully sad everytime they see Durant on sports center.

I am surprised that this has happened all though not shocked by it. Wonder if it was something left over or something that happenend during the rookie summer league. Either way this is a major blow to Portland and it appears that he will be out for a minimum of twelve months. Hope that he is able to come back from this and will be able to help Portland next year.

Damn. I was looking forward to seeing that team play sans the human perp-walk, and all of that young talent.

That sucks for Portland, I think they would have made the playoffs with Oden's defense. They still have lots of young talent and now I bet they're glad they have Frye in hopes that he can return to atleast his rookie form and a little better to carry the bulk of the points inside. I wish he were fine but now it looks like Durant is going to be ROY. Its almost like a curse for Portland haha

Durant was basically a ROY lock anyways, there's virtually no way he doesn't score around 20 points a game with that lineup in Seattle.

The scary thing is they could be destined for another top-5 pick, they could add Derrick Rose or Michael Beasley to that core, then possibly add a healthy Greg Oden.

Zoom, I'll do a fun little sig bet about Durant winning ROY if you wish.

Who you got? I personally don't see any way he doesn't win it. He's by far the best talent with Oden out, and he's playing on an awful team where he's the #1 scoring option.

I feel bad for Oden but I thought I'd just take this time to remember the Mock Draft and how I traded the 1st for Durant and the players mentioned below. Seems like Portland would be in much better shape had they done what I proposed below.

The 1st overall pick
Zach Randolph
&
Fred Jones

for

The 2nd pick
Chris Wilcox
Luke Ridnour
Johan Petro
Saer Sene


Portland woud have this lineup
Aldridge/Sene/Petro/Pryzbilla
Wilcox/Lafrentz
Durant/Outlaw
Roy/Webster
Jack/Ridnour/Rodriguez

instead of

Oden/Pryzbilla
Aldridge/Frye/Lafrentz
Outlaw/Jones
Roy/Webster
Jack/Blake (although they wouldn't need Blake w/ Ridnour)/Rodriguez

(Pretty weak at SF) unless Martell Webster is ready to play big time minutes. Webster is more of a SG but could play SF.

Durant will be the better NBA player. Durant will be rookie of the year. And Durant will average over 20 ppg this year. He'll make Portland remember Sam Bowie all over again.

Let me get back to you on that. I honestly just believe Durant is going to get knocked around a bit this season. I do think in time he's going to be a very good player but I think it's going to take at least a season and I don't believe he's going to have that great of a year, this season.

So out of curiousity, does this still count as Oden's rookie year? If he plays next year, could he still with the Rookie of the Year award (assuming he is indeed out for all of this season)?

If you don't play any games, I can't imagine that it would count.

Well, I don't think he's going to dominate from day one, but he should still easily be good enough to win it. He's going to score a lot just because he'll have to, though he could have a low shooting percentage and a high turnover rate as well as questionable defense, which means he won't have much of an impact on their overall record. It'd be pretty hard for him to average less than about 17 and 6 though, with the potential for more.

i say conley jr