Upper Deck 2007-2008 NBA Rookie Set

WOOOOOO!!!! Finals are FINALLY over. It could not have come any sooner. Well now that's over with, I dropped by the hobby store and got the UD 07-08 rookie box set. It's a "30 card set of the top 2007 NBA rookies." Doesn't look bad, I mean for 8 bucks it definetely isn't too shabby. I was really looking forward to seeing Yi Jianlian or Marco Bellelini. But low and behold they had no international players. It was the top 30 American picks. Good thing Greg Oden and Kevin Durant are both American born.


Huh????? I thought Bill Russell retired more than three decades ago. He can't come out of retirement and expect to bang with Dwight Howard. Who does he think he is, Michael Jordan? Oh wait nevermind, that's not Bill Russell. That's Greg Oden!! Too bad his season ended before it started due to him undergoing microfracture surgery. But he should be fine due to his supposedly young age. Once he gets into the league, he should at the very least be a top 10 maybe top 5 center his first year. In 2-3 years he should at least be top 3. The center position is less than mediocre in the NBA these days so Oden should have no problem being a top center. His defense is his best asset but he must stay clear of getting into foul trouble. He offense needs some refining that's for sure. During his Ohio State days I did not a whole lot of post moves in his repotoire. Whether or not he'll live up to the hype who knows. But there's no doubt in my mind he'll be a good player.


Kevin Durant. This dude is hella skinny. And his arms are freakishly long. He's got a lot of talent. His ability to create his own shots and actually hit them is definetely on the elite level. He needs to learn to take good shots though instead of throwing everything towards the basket. This season so far Durant has been rather inconsistent which is typical for most rookies. People have been jumping on and off and on the Kevin Durant bandwagon. But remember he does not have the luxury of sitting back and learn from veteran players on his team. Durant was thrown into the fire immediately since he is the first option. He should, unlike some other draft picks(cough Joakim cough Noah) do well in the NBA.


Al Horford is a rebounding machine. Everytime I check the box score for any Hawks game I see Al Horford: 13 rebs or Al Horford: 15 rebs. He can also consistently score in double digits. So I guess I should have called him a double double machine. But unfortunately for Horford, he has made a name for himself recently due to his accidentaly hit of TJ Ford. Horford got his one game suspension and that's that. People who are calling for his head are just trying to stir up controversy.


Javaris Crittenton can straight up ball. If it wasn't for Derek Fisher's arrival to the Lakers and Jordan Farmar's stellar play, the Critter would be starting. Critt is probably the most talented and athletic point guard the Lakers have had since Nick Van Exel. In fact Critt has the potential to be the best Lakers pg since Magic in my opinion. Critt is a big guard as 6-5 who can get to the hoop at will with his speed. His court vision is pretty good and most importantly he is not turnover prone. He has a bright future ahead of him.

These cards probably won't be worth much because there are tons of them available. But as a collector it's nice to have some rookie cards.