I promised I’d check with some people around the league I know who were at the USA Basketball national team mini-camp last weekend for some reaction to Oden.

What I got was pretty predictable. Everybody thinks he’s improved and that he’s moving “better” — not to say he’s moving great, but better. But I will say this, nobody — and I mean NOBODY — is seeing him as anything close to a major contributor on offense.

“I love Billy Bayno (the coach who has been working with Oden this summer),” one person said. “He’s really good. But he’s got a lot of work ahead of him with Oden. He’s still rushing. He’s still not comfortable. He’s not catching balls he should catch and at the post he just can’t slow himself down.”

Another source said he would resign himself to Oden’s fate: “He’s still got a chance to be a great defensive force. He’s a dominant rebounder. You might have to be happy with that. Make him a Bill Russell — just sort of take him out of the offense.”

And a final take: “They actually went to him in the post,” another source said. “He got the ball. But not much happened. He can still look pretty clumsy at times.”

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Kevin Durant said that Oden “looked like his old self” out there, which I presume to mean that he looked like the pre-injury Oden. I don’t think he meant just that he looked old.

This piece by Chris Mannix on SI.com mentions Oden decking Derrick Rose on his way to the basket. That’s nice.

Durant was the obvious hit of the first day at the camp and was the best player on the floor according to all accounts I found. The Blazers had a Twitter entry that included a quote from workout supervisor Jay Triano calling Oden “the surprise” of the first day, but I couldn’t find it in print anywhere.

In the ESPN story, though, there was this:

Others who caught the coaches’ eyes included Rudy Gay, Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon and JaVale McGee, and several team insiders said they were surprised how spry Greg Oden looked.

In the case of Oden, I don’t think you could find a more welcome description than “spry.”

UPDATE: Very sorry for missing this earlier. Casey Holdahl has video here of Oden running yesterday and yes, it’s a major change. He’s actually able to run now.

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