Greg Oden, God of War, King of Ass-trades

[Tyler]

Greg Oden, God of War, King of Ass-trades

Greg Oden has had an illustrious career. He was selected #2 in the 2007 draft by Avu, Former GM of the Detroit Pistons. He was packed with potential, got up to A- inside, A- defense and A rebounding. In his 10-year prime, Oden was consistently atop the leaderboards in rebounds and blocks. He also had some efficient scoring seasons, thanks to the A- inside. He turned into the two-way wrecking force he was intended to be and led the Jazz to a title alongside Starvin’ Marvin and Al Hefty. He is Tim Duncan with less turnovers and a ring. Jesse (expert of all things ass) has called him the best big butt of all time. So, this begs the question, why has every GM that has traded him shipped him out for peanuts? He has been traded 4 times and each trade never really received the return such a God commands. Let’s take a look:


- Sonics send:
o Dirk Nowitzki
o Lasagna Diop
o 2018 SEA SRP
o 333 RP

- Pistons send:
o Greg Oden
o Brandon Roy
o Carlos Arroyo
o Orlando 2012 FRP
o Detroit 2017 FRP

Greg Oden was just entering his prime and his rookie max deal. He got shipped out for the corpses of Dirk (alas) Nowitzki and Lasagna Plop but for the pistons to add the two firsts into this is a gross overpay for two former champions well over the hump. Greg Oden had not yet reached final form, so it’s a bit more understandable and RB wanted to capitalize on a young Kyrie Irving to go for a championship. I will never shit on anyone too hard for taking a swing but you gotta think Kyrie and Oden could’ve ran the Central for years.

So Greg Oden spent his time in Seattle and became an anchor of Sonicks front court, right? WRONG.

- Phoenix trades:
o Renaldo Balkman
o Dejuan Blair
o Zach Randolph
o John Jenkins
o Sonics 15 FRP
o Sonics 16 FRP
o Sonics 17 FRP
o Sonics 18 FRP
o Sonic 19 FRP
o Atlanta 16 FRP
o Spurs 17 FRP

- Sonics trade:
o Greg Oden
o Mike Conley
o Hedo Turkeyglue

In a vacuum, this might look like the fairest value Oden deal of the 4. However, it makes it worse optically that the year prior Nick traded me all those sonics picks for Conley himself. So I netted out prime Greg Oden for Atlanta 16 FRP and Spurs 17 FRP, neither of these ended up in the top 10 and in a juicy prospect. So 2 net picks for one of the biggest butts in league history is clean work (despite a few people saying I overpaid) in my opinion. Greg Oden was set to anchor our front court next to Nikola Jokic for the next decade with Mike Conley managing the game and feeding the big fellas in the paint. So what happened? Why did Greg Oden only play one season in the desert?

I’ll tell ya what happened!!! TRADE FRENZY!!! When I hear trade frenzy, it reminds me of The Situation running around the jersey shore house at 3am with a vuvuzela screaming “GRENADE WHISTLE!!!” It just makes me tingly in my plums and I can’t help but spread my cheeks wide for my trading counterpart. I had 3 out of 5 trades down the hatch when ‘Ole Grundlesauce smelled blood (or poop) and came a knockin’ on my door.

" I will give you 30 year old Darko and 2 jazz futures for 27 year old Oden."

I instantly turned it down. A few hours later, I had yet to post my 4th trade. Ralph, being the smart GM he is, reached out again and was so generous enough to add a third Jazz future! Desperate to get Joker his +10, I accepted. Breaking him up from his running mate after just one season together.

- Jazz trade:
o Darko Milicic
o Utah 18 FRP
o Utah 19 FRP
o Utah 20 FRP

- Suns trade:
o Greg Oden
o Josh Smith

This was a really, really bad trade. Str8 Pain in hindsight. Not only did it hurt my team’s rebuilding effort, it extended the Jazz window and helped launch the second phase of a Jazz dynasty in the West that I would be competing against while in my own competitive window. The picks ended up being traded for Justice Winslow while Nick was drunk at his wedding so who is the real loser here?

Oden, God of War, would have his best days in Utah. Leading the Jazz to a title and multiple conference finals appearances. So Grundle probably valued him quite a bit right? WRONG! He values a 36-year-old Marvin Williams more! In what I thought was a chance for the Jazz to get younger and ship Oden out for a nice pick or prospect package to retool without his picks, Grundle decided to zag and trade Oden for an older player.

Trade 1:
- Pacers send
o Julian Wright (luv u)
o Leon Powe
o Danuel House
o 100 RP

- Nets send:
o Rudy Gay

Trade 2:
- Pacers send:
o Jahlil Okafor
o Marvin Williams

- Jazz send:
o Greg Oden

Trade 3:
- Jazz send:
o 500 RP

- Nets send:
o Warm hug

It has broken my brain trying to understand why the Nets are involved in this deal but sometimes ignorance is bliss. Perhaps Ralph just needed a warm hug for trading Oden and 500 RP for Marvin and Jah Okafor. Marvin was 36 and still decent at offense and Jah had some decent rebounding statistics but the Jazz have pretty clearly taken a step back since this God of War, King of Ass-trades.

Lucky for Tonger and the Pacers, Greg Oden was magically unretired this offseason thanks to the “good job, good effort” tag so perhaps there is one more ass trade involving the big fella.

***Hoping no one takes offense to this as I am arguably the one who made the worst deal!***

Thanks for making it this far.

[jwoo]

good article, would love more of these retrospectives on players/their trades

[Joe]

Lmao this is pretty wild

[quady]

Forgot about the Conley flip flop

[quady]

A real Alas, Nowitzki situation

[heimer]

WRONG !!

[Matt]

Can take full responsibility for the first trade, RB was new and I was "helping" him...I thought Oden's offense was going to be a fatal flaw his entire career. Was wrong

[mantypas/CavsCzar]

one of your historians approves of this fun history lesson, awesome stuff

[Tyler]

Use this for first article, thanks!

[Joe]

Grade: 400RP