Trail Blazers give qualifying offer to Greg Oden
As the league comes ever closer to an impending lockout situation and possible free agency, the Portland Trail Blazers have gone ahead and extended a qualifying offer to center Greg Oden to the amount of $8.8 million, making him a restricted free agent during the summer. This will mean that other teams interested in Oden and offer said given amount, the Blazers would have a total of seven days to match that offer and keep Oden, unless Portland would like to package him in some sort of trade for another big name, which doesn’t sound too likely.
Greg Oden could become a free agent in the summer of 2012
This move by the Blazers mean they want to keep him here in Portland for as long as possible and still see a future with the former number one pick of the 2007 Draft. Oden has been plagued by knee troubles ever since he stepped onto the Rose Garden court and has had two season ending surgeries on his knees. Oden has been in the league for four years now but has actually played in 82 games, one season length, the rest of the time he has been out healing and recovering.
Oden has been dealing with these kinds of injuries ever since the Draft and go back as far as September 2007 when he didn’t even make it to training camp as he underwent season-ending microfracture surgery on his right knee and sat out his rookie year. He returned the next season playing in 61 games but continued to suffer through countless foot strains and ankle problems that caused him to miss ten to fifteen games at a time.
His third season, Oden started to show the city of Portland and the NBA he was a force to be recking with and had some dominate games such as 24 Pts and 12 Rebs against the Chicago Bulls at home in November. It was on December 5 at home against the Houston Rockets when he suffered a ruptured left patella in his left knee, ending that season after 21 games and has never played since. Since 2009, he has been trying to fully recover from the patella surgery, but was given another microfracture surgery in 2010.
It was also annouced that the Blazers have given an $1.2 million qualifying offer to point guard Patty Mills. Just like with Oden, this deal makes Mills a restricted free agent and gives the Blazers matching rights. Players such as Luke Babbit and Elliot Williams were also given third-year options to their rookie contracts.
photo courtesy of nba.com/blazers
Nicholas Filipas