Amid a bevy if impressive sequences, the most significant play of the game to me (in a big picture way) occurred in the second half when Beasley caught the ball in the post against Oden.  It drives me nuts when smaller guys are in this situation and then dribble out only to fake and jab for 5 seconds before taking a step back jumper.  You see this at least two or three times a game.  But Beasley, recognizing the mismatch, dribbled out to the wing to exploit his speed advantage (Oden followed half way) and then went right at the rim.

Oden slid his feet quickly enough to keep pace with Beasley, jumped in perfect sync with him to contest the shot, and kept his arms straight up to avoid fouling.  There was contact in the air, but it was incidental, chests and shoulders, and refs typically don’t call if you keep your arms up and as long as one guy doesn’t go flying.  Oden played it just perfectly.  But Beasley scored anyway.  He took the contact in the air, switched the ball to his right hand, and finished softly over Oden.

GREG ODEN

That Oden didn’t block the shot is irrelevant.  He’s been a shot-blocking machine this season, and that alone invalidates concerns that microfracture surgery would limit his explosiveness.  No, the only thing between Oden and true greatness is foul trouble (his other injuries don’t seem like chronic threats.)  If he can limit his fouls enough to stay on the court 35 minutes a game, he’ll be a superstar.  That a goodly number people wrote him off as a bust as soon as he had knee surgery was absurd.  But I also find fault in the plethora of apologist commentary that said we need to adjust our expectations of Oden’s ceiling, to appreciate him for what he is.  For example, consider John Hollinger’s (espn insider) profile on Oden from the pre-season:

So let’s be honest here about what Oden is and what he isn’t. What he is, certainly, is an effective, slightly awkward big man who can rebound and block shots. What he is not is a once-in-a-generation center. Oden is too awkward offensively and too foul-prone to be the kind of dominator some thought he might be coming out of Ohio State.

Wipe away those expectations and it was a solid rookie season.

I wouldn’t take umbrage with this if Hollinger had spoken in the past tense and told us what Oden was and wasn’t in his rookie year, that he wasn’t a once-in-a-generation force in his rookie year.  Of course he wasn’t.  Between injuries and going one-and-done in college, Oden has played vastly less basketball than any previous NBA great center in his rookie year.  Check out this list of all time shot-blockers; it’s made up almost exclusively of guys who played three or four years in college.  And it isn’t just the all time greats and players from previous generations.  Check out the list of active shot-blockers; only the high-school kids had less experience than Oden and only Dwight Howard caught on quicker than Oden has been.  He’s much better than the others were at 21.  Really, considering the circumstances, it’s way too early to give up on hoping that Oden can be a once-in-a-generation dominating center.  I’m not saying he will, but I think he’s got a good shot.

Regarding his supposed clumsiness, so far he’s less turnover-prone than a bunch of greats at his age, like Patrick Ewing.  How else do you judge clumsiness in basketball?  Lack of obvious grace?  Whatever; Dwight Howard is somewhat less than graceful on offense.  Oden’s already got a much better shooting touch.  And how does anyone know if Oden will remain foul-prone?  What evidence is there that it’s a question of innate ability?  Frankly, the most important data I see for Oden is his free-throw percentage.  He took 200 foul shots in college, lefty, while recovering from right-hand surgery.  And he sunk over 60% of them.  So far this season he’s over 75% with his right hand.  That he picked up shooting it lefty in so little time and shot it better than a number of highly skilled alltime great bigs…  This year’s present clip, albeit a fairly small sample size, isn’t likely a clip, given that lefty shooting in college.  It’s more likely to be a result of time, practice, repetitions.  It’s evidence of his ability to improve.

Anyway, regardless of what Bill Simmons and lesser lights believe, I think the Oden or Durant argument is far from over.  But for injury concerns for Oden, they’d be neck and neck.  Durant’s a scoring machine, but he’s not yet anywhere close to the defender Oden is.  And while Oden isn’t nearly as good an offensive player, but he’s far better on offense than Durant is on defense.  Then again yesterday Durant looked like top-form Andrei Kirilenko on defense for a few plays, so who knows.  That’s the point, who knows?

Toronto gets Evans: I find this amusing because it’s a deal to help facilitate Andrea Bargnani’s development.  I haven’t seen much of Bargnani and don’t feel like I can opine on his upside, but it does actually seem like he might become a real scorer.  However, he also must be the worst inch-for-inch rebounder in the game.  Evans, on the other hand, is as good a rebounder as anyone in the NBA.  And he can’t do anything else.  I really love mix-n-match trades.

Philly gets Kapono: This deal is entirely about Elton Brand.  I was totally in favor of the Brand signing, and though it doesn’t look good, so far, I think it could still work out.

I didn’t see a lot of the 76ers with Brand, but then, nobody else did either.  The guy played 29 games before his injury, but from all accounts he seemed like an awful fit for the team.  Bill Simmons even named him the least valuable player in the NBA (his contract being a major factor.)  Eh, I think it’s just way too early to call the move a failure.

As for the fit, it’s on the team to create a roster around the qualities of their franchise player, and to get a coach whose system compliments him.  And yet, I’m not suggesting that the roster is unsuited to compliment Brand’s talents.  29 games and a coach who has almost been fired almost every year of his coaching career?  You have to give it a chance to work.  And, well, they will, because Brand is signed for a long, long time.

One thing I’m curious about was hearing that a major conflict was that the 76ers had a lot of runners and jumpers (without jumpers) and Brand was strictly a half-court guy.  This surprised me because Brand used to be plenty capable of running and jumping.  Hell, you have to be pretty damn athletic to block so many shots at his height.  The only other guys (I can think of) his height who block so many shots are super-freaky athletes Josh Smith and Andrei Kirilenko.  But hey, Simmons has a good eye, and he’s had Clippers season tickets for a while, so maybe he’s right; maybe Brand can’t run like he used to.  Or maybe Bill’s just used to seeing him coached by Mike Dunleavy.

Anyway, I still think Brand could work out well.  New coach Eddie Jordan should help, nicely.  In DC, Jordan had a few very talented scorers who weren’t all that into passing or playing defense, and not much else.  With those pieces he eked out a winning record; now he has some serious talent, and I think he’s a solid choice to figure out how to put the pieces together.

Oh, Kapono.  He got traded, right?  He’s there to shoot, what else?  He can shoot the lights out, pass, and nothing else.  But creating space for Brand and pulling up for transition three pointers is really all he has to do to contribute.