Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden will miss his first NBA campaign with season-ending knee surgery. What was originally supposed to be an exploratory procedure on his right knee turned into microfracture surgery. A full recovery is expected for Oden, however, but will likely take six to twelve months.

Fantasy Lowdown:

LaMarcus Aldridge should be the biggest fantasy winner with Oden out for the season. Aldridge will get the majority of touches in the post and should easily better last year numbers. Last season, Aldridge’s year ended prematurely when he sat out the last nine games due to a rapid heartbeat caused by Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome. All indications are that Aldridge has this ailment under control and will be ready for this season.

Time to dust off your Joel Przybilla’s jersey because he will still have some fantasy relevance this year. Pryzbilla should start at center this year and will offer fantasy owners rebounds and blocks. But that’s about it.  Channing Frye will get some burn as the first big man off the bench and may get the occasional start depending on match-ups. Frye has a decent mid-range game and will be a nice compliment to Aldridge’s post game. Move LaMarcus Aldridge way up and bump up Joel Przybilla and Channing Frye on your draft lists as well because all is not lost in fantasyland for the Blazers!