Greg Oden on NBA Draft: 'I'm Not Ready'

There may be just one person on earth who thinks Greg Oden is not ready to be the first pick in the draft and contribute to an NBA team in eight months. However, that one person is Greg Oden. Oden told Steve Hummer of Cox News Service:

"I know I'm not [NBA] ready," he said. "Take as an example Kevin Durant, a certified scorer. In the NBA nowadays, that's what they are - scorers. I know you have a Ben Wallace who is a defender, but more than 90 percent of the guys are scorers. I know I'm not that type of scorer yet. I know I'm a defender. I knew college would help me with my offensive game."

Should Oden stay at Ohio State? Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser just said on Pardon the Interruption that Oden should return to school and develop his game, even though they agreed that he's good enough to play in the NBA now.

If the question is whether Oden could get better by spending another year working on his fundamentals and becoming more of a threat as a scorer, I think it's clear that he could. But if the question is whether that development is worth the risk of injury, I think it's clear that it's not. David Stern's minimum age rule is the only reason Oden is in college this year. I can't imagine him still being in college next year.