__________ verse, same as the ________

This trade talk about Lamar Odom is much ado about nothing.

Lamar's not going anywhere.

Lamar Odom = Laker for Life.

GO LAKERS!

Play it out first guys. Then decide to move LO.

I visited the Trade machine after reading this article and only one trade looked realistic to me. Odom for Wally Szerbiak. This would be a straight salary dump if the uncertainty about Odom's role this season and contract next season was proving to be a distraction. If our SF corps is healthy I'd expect us to buy Wally out afterwards.

The fact is the team can't afford to pay Odom and Bynum. Bynum has more upside and they'll back him. If we can't pay Odom, we won't be able to pay some other guy or combo of guys either. Other teams might want to lay Larry Hughes or Vince Carter on us, but we'd be cash strapped for years if we did with guys who won't help. Guys we'd want, like Turkoglu (I'm sticking with the teams labeled interested in the story) + someone else, probably aren't avaiable and would STILL put us over operating revenue (~80 mil).

So the only thing that would make sense for the bottom line would be to expedite the removal of Odom's contract from the books. And we'd only make that move if he really does seem distracted and its hurting the team. We'd get the same advantage by playing him through the year and letting him walk as by waiving Wally, but if Odom pouts or doesn't want to play on the bench, then the team has to do what it will.

I like Odom and appreciate what he's given the team. I'd hate to see it go down like this. But this seems like a very plausible outcome given everything we know. Ideally, he'd accept whatever role we need him to take. He could still excel in a 6th man role. Antawn Jamison and Manu Ginobli have. He'd get starter minutes and potential suitors next year should understand the situation while appreciating his team first mentality. That's how I'd like it to go down. But I know Odom and that he can be deeply affected even if he's trying to do the right thing. If something needs to be done, this would be the move I'd expect.

And how bout those Cavs if they did swing that??

I for one don't understand the hurry to trade Lamar. The problem the Lakers have where LO is concerned, is a good one - where and how do we play this multi-talented player to ensure that we get the best from him, in terms of winning a championship. Every other team in the L would love to have Lamar Odom on their roster, and I have to believe that the Swiss knife will find his fit as the season goes along.
That the guy's also terrific trade bait is also a "good" problem. I predict that some other team will make the Lakers an offer they won't be able to refuse between now and the trading deadline.

I'm a fan of an Odom for Marion swap.

I don't like any other options nearly as much. I like David Lee, but we don't need a power forward and I don't think he can play the 3.

I think Gerald Wallace and Josh Smith are largely locked up. Artest isn't available. Maybe Battier might become available? Igoudala? Mike Miller?

If we can get Marion, get his Bird rights in the trade, and offer him a contract that allows us to match the market, we can resign him at a reasonable price.

I like Marion's game a lot. He's a role player, but a very high profile one that can do a lot.

Personality could be an issue, but I think he might appreciate a real chance at a title rather than PHX's canard of a chance. I also trust Phil to manage his personality just fine.

I can't think of a better player likely available should we decide to part ways with Odom. I put the chance of us doing that at pretty close to 50/50 right now. Odom needs to mesh well and perform and it's pretty unclear whether he's going to be able to do that.

I'm with BK on Odom for Marion - doesn't make sense on many levels, I wouldn't do it - then again I am not the GM or the Owner. I still think rolling with the squad we have for an extended trial period is the way to go. See how the various lineups mesh. If there are issues, figure out who it makes sense to move - and I mean realistically not any of those great for the Lakers unloading Luke and Lamar or Vlad for multiple All-Stars etc. - you all know what I am talking about I hope. This is going to be a fascinating season for the Lakers. Full of a lot of hope and promise - a true title contender - not just a hope of die hard Laker fans wishing it to be so. (You know - kind of like Butler thinking the Suns are the best franchise in NBA history when they haven't won anything more than a Western Conference Title. I am sure that is a nice accomplishment, but not quite as good as winning the O'Brien Trophy.)

Cheers,
Eagleboy

Just got back from the Lakers Open Practice. Season ticket holders filled about 4 sections in the lower bowl. The requisite schwag was a Lakers coffee tumbler. Here's a rundown of what went on.

Warmups:
Players started off by getting loose and shooting. Chip Schaeffer came out and stretched the guys. Alex McKechnie ran them through some cross court movements wearing stretch bands tied between their thighs and wrists.

Drills:
PJ got them going on fast break drills. Started off 4 on 4. PJ would pick a player and throw them the ball. That person's defender had to run to the baseline before retreating back on defense, creating a 4 on 3 situation. Then they went to 3 on 3. After that they broke up into 4 groups running basic triangle rotations in each corner of the court. The premise of this drill was to get all 5 players used to the basic movements of all 5 positions. Then they broke up into three teams (purple, white and green) and ran some half court sets.

During this time, B Shaw was answering questions from the STHs. My fellow STHs always surprise me. Fans come in all shapes and sizes and some of them are just plain weird. People were asking B Shaw what he thought about the NBA forcing players to do one year of college or what he thought Joe Crawford was going to bring to this team. Some fans were yelling at Lamar about coming off the bench. Another fan was asking how much the team practices D (and added he was asking because he's not seeing the results on the court). B Shaw said training camp has been about 80/20 more focused on D. He also revealed that PJ designated Rambis the "defensive coordinator" of the staff. The funniest question came from a fan who asked why Drew was wearing his shorts backwards (which he was).

Scrimmaging:
Purple was the starting unit (Kobe, Fish, Vlad, Drew and Pau). They pretty quickly got smoked by the Green team (Mihm, Giles, Ariza, Heath and Karl). The green team then lost to the Whites (Farmar, Crawford, Luke, Mbenga and Powell). When purple came back in, LO replaced Drew. Drew then replaced Pau when he lost his shoe. And Pau then moved to the white team. When it was all said and done, the Purple team woke up and won the final scrimmage created mainly by some great hustle defense capped off by a Kobe break-away dunk and alley-oop dunk on back-to-back posessions. They were banging pretty hard out there. Powell got popped in the head enough to have Vitti take him in the locker room. At one point, Kobe threw Jordan down on the floor while they were in transition.

At the end, the team ran their sprints (Kobe won and threw his hands up in the air again). The team only missed 4 free throws and practice ended.

Most of the beat reporters were there from the scrimmages on. Jim Hill was on hand as well.

Observations:
Certain players practice harder than others. If you wonder why Mihm's still on the team? He was probably the hardest working big out there. He hustled, played really aggresively and scored over Drew more than once. Mbenga as well. Although DJ shoots way too much. Ariza looked fantastic as did Farmar. Both were really active and "captained" their respective teams really well. Sun Yue showed really nice handles and a very smooth stroke. Both Powell and Giles were very active inside. The starters were really lax today. It was only at the very end where they played with intensity.

I can see why Drew's been criticized in practice. Mbenga, Mihm and Pau all took turns scoring over him relatively easily. One thing he does on defense which I noticed in games as well as today is, on rotations, if the ball goes to a wide open shooter, Drew will opt to find the nearest big and put a body on him rather than go out on the shooter (when he's the nearest player). When Drew does play the shooter or ballhandler, he gets burned b/c nobody rotates over to his big (helping the helper). The bottom line is, Drew needs to up his intensity big time at all times - not just save it up for games. I think they should run a rebounding drill where he has to repeatedly go up against Powell and LO for boards.

One big positive was how well the team seemed to get along. Everyone was chatting it up with everyone else. There were no lone wolves or any amount of tension whatsoever.

Lakers_sth -

Awesome report. Thanks for taking the time to write that.

lakers_sth,

Awesome write up. Thanks.

GO LAKERS!

thanks for the breakdown, lakers_sth! any pics?

Jon K,

>>>Lamar's not going anywhere.
>>>
>>>Lamar Odom = Laker for Life.

Okay, so let's consider how that could be possible. Which of
the following do you think will be the thing that happens that
allows Lamar to stay with the Lakers...

a. Kobe opts out and takes a contract for 8 or 9 million less per season

b. Buss agrees for the team to lose money for several years

c. Lamar agrees to accept an MLE level contract to stay

d. Mitch manages to dump off Luke and Rad and get back
players that play as well as those two, but for 1-2 million
per year.

e. Bynum agrees to sign for more like 7 or 8 million per instead of a max deal to help out his buddy Lamar.

f. Kobe opts out and accepts the deal in Greece, so the Lakers
have some money to throw at Lamar.

Those are the sort of things that would need to happen to
keep Lamar with the team beyond this season.

I hate to say it Jon K, but if you think the Lakers are going
to keep Kobe, Gasol, and Bynum, then I seriously doubt
Lamar is a Laker for Life.

Kiwi,

>>>2) Do that and what happens with these guys - you
>>>have basically blown up the team...welll not blown
>>>upbut changed round significantly

Look at the teams surrounding Kobe & Shaq. The other players
on the team changed significantly from year to year, and
not one of them was an all-star (a few aging past all-stars).

When Lamar was the second best player on the team, it
was critical to keep him. Now that he's the 4th best player
on the team, it's not nearly as critical. Kobe + Pau + Drew
plus any good set of role players gives you a pretty good
shot at a championship every year.

Long Time Laker Fan,

I think Lamar is going to take less money and a recent article in the Orange County Register on Lamar Odom seemed to imply that was a real possiblity of occuring. Lamar said something to the effect of "my agent is going to be really angry with me, but that's okay."

Lamar Odom = Laker for Life

GO LAKERS!

So BUTLER,

Did you notice that Shaq has already started ripping his
Phoenix teammates and he hasn't even left the team yet...

http://tinyurl.com/3ed7mq

Thanks everyone. Did my best trying to put together that recap. Sorry I don't have any pics. They were pretty strict about cameras.

One thing I forgot to mention was how crowded the floor looked. I sat in the third row and what you notice immediately is that the players look really similar in height and the floor feels really congested, almost like they have no room to move around. It looks a lot different than the perspective from tv.

I have two big hopes after today. That Andrew gets some intensity about him. I know PJ is zen. Kareem and Pau are both mellow. Kobe turns it on when he wants to. The kid is going to have to turn the fire on himself. Last year, it came about as a result of the success he was having on the court. He needs to exceed that this year. He can't just be named The Beast, he has to embody it and right now he isn't.

My other big hope is that the coaches really do get their act together on improving the defense of the team. B Shaw and Hodges hang out with the players and would probably rather still be playing. Rambis is fairly mellow and I wonder how he'll take to being the "defensive coordinator". Cleamons is a drill sargeant but only at certain moments. Hamblen is old. Looking at the staff, it makes sense why the team acts a little more "relaxed" than people would like.

Laker_sth,

Nice observations. One thing that does concern with AB. He's the guy whose best defense is most likely around the post where he can use one hand to handcheck. Otherwise on the outside he can't use his hands and against screen and rolls he got into foul trouble.

Long Time Laker Fan,

Out of all the options the best option is if Lamar accepts the Mid level exception and he has hinted he could take a lower salary to stay in LA. That being said all the other examples are either unlikely (Buss losing money for a few years) or not good (Kobe going to Greece).

-blitz

Laker_sth--

Thanks for the report. I felt like I was there.

Since were trading for Wally S, why don't we complete the line up for Big Bird, Bert, Ernie and the Cookie Monster?

I'm not sure the lakers will want to face teams like the Hawks or Clips this season.

Fast, athletic teams will have gasal and byenumb running ragged trying to keep up. Today's NBA doesn't really favor height at the expense of speed.

"The reason for Parker's freedom to drive was that Grant Hill had his hernia strained from an appendectomy, and couldn't play the spurs series. That killed the SUNS' perimeter D, as Grant had previously guarded Parker quite well in the reg season."

Actually, Grant Hill had a Yeast Infection complicated by Urinary Tract Infection. His Gyno recommended he not play so hard that series.

THE SPURS OWN THE SUNS!!! You don't need to make any excuses!! Thank GOD you drafted Robin Lopez, AKA Soft Anderson Verajao, the answer to Tim Duncan!!! hahahahaha, what a clown!!

SBPimp

Get over your man crush on Fish

The debate is whether Fish is a great ball handler not if he started for the Lakers when Shaq was dominating.

Never and I mean never have I heard or read a reputable analyst paint fish as a great ball handler and I doubt you could find evidence to the contrary.

And by the way, WHO did Fish replace when he came back?????? Exactly. Of course the Lakers got better.

What a maroon

YOU EVER NOTICE

I was strongly opposed to trading Bynum for pretty much anyone, especially Jason Kidd. However, I am strongly FOR trading Lamar Odom while we can get something of value for him. Since we really don't have any slots open, one of the best, cheapest alternatives is trying to get a high draft pick for him and maybe somebody's bad contract which would expire after this season. Then, next year, Farmar gets a raise, Bynum gets more money, Kobe gets more money and we keep this core of Kobe, Gasol and Bynum together for another 3 years or so and see what happens.

If Odom stays, somebody else will have to go, there's just not enough money to pay all these guys, even if Odom comes down to $7m/year.

BUTLER,

In case you hadn't noticed we don't care about your prognostications.

I mean you keep harping on about how we don't have big man depth when there is a good chance LO will be coming off the bench this season. How is that not depth?

And you're saying we're going to have problems getting back in transition when your starting center is one of the slowest players in the NBA.

"A lineup of Devin Harris, Vince Carter, Lamar, Brook Lopez,
and a hole at SF looks made for LeBron."

So you want to create another powerhouse in the East?

That's just what we need!

I like your Bull's senario better thank you very much...

mrbarneydangles,

'Hear me out. This team hasn't failed yet. "
---------------------------------------------------------

Then what do you call last years' Finals? If we had won the Championship last year NOBODY would be traded or be considered for a trade Period.

By failing last season, the Lakers players' waived those rights!

And don't even bring up the "No Andrew in the Finals" as an excuse. There was nothing that Andrew could have done to stop that bum-rush.