Q: What is the latest on the health and contract status of Greg Oden?
A: First, about Oden?s health: The restricted free agent center has not been cleared to participate in scrimmages or any basketball-related activities that include contact, according to his agent, Mike Conley. He has been cleared to run, ride a bike and participate in non-contact basketball drills ? shooting, dribbling, etc. ? but there remains no time line for a possible return.
?There have not been any setbacks,? Conley said Saturday of Oden?s health. ?That?s the best way to word it. Doctors really did not give him a hard time line (for a return) ... but he?s working hard and trying his best to get back.?
Oden has played just 82 games over his first four NBA seasons because of three separate knee surgeries. The last came Nov. 19, 2010, when he underwent microfracture surgery on his left knee.
Despite this, the Blazers have expressed a desire to keep Oden with the hope that he avoids further injury and develops into the player they projected he would become when they drafted him No. 1 overall in the 2007 NBA Draft.
The Blazers tendered an $8.8 million qualifying offer before the lockout, making Oden a restricted free agent and ensuring they would be in the driver?s seat to keep him. Training camp and free agency are supposed to start simultaneously, on Dec. 9, so Oden?s status could be a thorny issue throughout camp.
Any team is permitted to tender Oden a contract offer during the free agency period, with the understanding that the Blazers would have the right to match that offer. Reportedly, the new CBA will give the Blazers three days ? instead of seven ? to match any free agent offer or let Oden walk. The Blazers also have the option of offering Oden a multiyear contract offer at the start of free agency, but it seems likely they will at first gauge his value in the free agent market.
Oden?s representatives last spoke with the Blazers in June, when they issued the qualifying offer, and the team told Conley, ?they believed in Greg and they?re proving it with the qualifying offer,? Conley said. Conley says his gut tells him Oden will remain a Blazer.
?I think he will be,? Conley said. ?I definitely think he will be.?