For an offseason exercise, CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn, Brad Botkin and Jasmyn Wimbish put together a list of 25 of the biggest “what ifs” from the last 25 years of NBA history.
In addition to discussions about LeBron James never leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers and Stephen Curry being drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Wimbish broaches a question much closer to Portland Trail Blazers fans’ hearts: What if Brandon Roy and Greg Oden were healthy?
Let’s first show appreciation for the fact that the Portland
Trail Blazers constructed a roster that should’ve been competing for multiple championships in the mid-2000s. They were savvy in their roster decisions, swindled teams on draft night — looking at you, Chicago, and trading LaMarcus Aldridge for Tyrus Thomas in 2006 — and while it is a complete failure that they decided to take Greg Oden over Kevin Durant, had Oden stayed healthy, that might not look as egregious now. In fact, had Brandon Roy stayed healthy too, the Trail Blazers probably have a championship from that era.
If Oden enters the league healthy after being taken No. 1 overall in 2007, he immediately forms an exciting trio alongside both Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. The Blazers are likely to finish with a better record than their .500 mark in the 2007-08 season, mirroring their performance the following year in Oden’s first professional season, when they won 54 games. The Trail Blazers would’ve been a consistent threat in the playoffs with Oden and Aldridge in the frontcourt, and Roy as the scoring threat in the backcourt.
Remember, Oden was taken ahead of Durant because he was seen as a can’t-miss franchise cornerstone at the center position. He was going to be the premier rim-protecting big man, capable of putting up a double-double on a nightly basis. You pair that with Aldridge, who was one of the best mid-range scoring big men of that era, and Roy, who Kobe Bryant once said was the most difficult player to guard in the Western Conference because he had no weaknesses in his game, you get a Portland team that would’ve caused problems for those Bryant-Pau Gasol Lakers teams during that time. — Wimbish
The trio of LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Greg Oden was supposed to be one of the premier groups in the NBA. Instead, it was derailed by injuries, never allowing a full look at what the three players could do together.
Oden played just 105 games in his NBA career and missed four full seasons to injury before eventually retiring in 2014. Roy was a three-time NBA All-Star in his five seasons with Portland before his injuries eventually forced him into an early retirement following the 2010-11 season. He came back to play one more season with the Timberwolves, but appeared in just five games before retiring for good.
