[Buckskin86]

Obviously, our eyes will be on Oden. We've been hearing such great things about his off-season program, and progress, and this should be a good test. The challenge will probably be not to read too much into this, either way. But, we all do that, so I'm sure I'll do the same thing.

Oden is very excited to not only show how far he's come, but likely is wanting to test himself, to see what else he needs to do. Not only is he in better shape physically, but from everything we're hearing, is also in a very good place mentally. It's just part of the process. Of course, when you're the number-one pick in the draft, you normally don't get any slack in the learning-curve process, and Oden certainly didn't give himself any. Now, almost two years removed from microfracture surgery, when most players start to get back to full strength, he appears to be making leaps and bounds in his progress.

We talked many times during the TV broadcasts of the summer league games about this, but the development of Oden is by far the most important part of this off-season for the Blazers. There was a lot of attention paid to the draft, and to this free-agent period, but Oden's situation is so crucial.

Ths is a quote from Oden, taken from last weekend's Rashad Floyd Show on The Game in Portland- "I want to be ready. I want to be dominant. I want to be everything that everybody thought I was going to be when they drafted me. I didn't have the best of years, but it was my rookie year. I was coming off injury, but I am not going to use that as an excuse 'cause I should have been better. So that's what I'm working for for this coming year."

Portland Trail Blazers: Mike Barrett's Blog