I wasn't trying to compare Oden and Bargnani's game. They're too radically different players. The point I was trying to make is that you guys get upset when uninformed outside commentators bash Oden without knowing the extenuating circumstances of his career. And you're right to be annoyed with that. I feel like Bargnani consistently gets the same treatment though. Nobody really considers how difficult it was for him to produce when his coach wouldn't give him a defined role and didn't know how to develop his skills. Or that he played the '07-'08 season with a deviated septum that restricted his breathing ability and affected his endurance. The facts speak for themselves. When he was given a clearly defined spot on the starting lineup and a new coach, he flourished.
I suppose it's somewhat natural to just glance at the averages and assume he's a bust, when he was drafted before players that have contributed straight out of college. But he was alway more of a long-term project than the players he was drafted ahead of. And I feel like the way he showed up to camp 15 lbs. stronger last summer, won the starting center job over Jermaine O'Neal, and improved the non-offensive aspects of his game (I'll have to look more closely at those statistics, because I felt he was a pretty good defender and shotblocker this year) all warrant more attention than they get. He absolutely has to improve his rebounding and his help defense, but I don't think he's nearly as one-dimensional as people try to portray him as. Right now he's a versatile/unorthodox center that presents a mismatch to any other center and can defend his position on the other end. We've seen lots of the former, but very few players who also have the latter.
