The "Opts To Pout" was the headline in my paper this morning for this article.
Motivation for Lakers' Odom: Contract or championship?
Kevin Ding
EL SEGUNDO – Just let it go, L.O.
This is about fitting three guys around 7 feet tall into a single frontcourt, not a single sandbox. But Lamar Odom is coming into the season unable to get past the feeling that his ego and his juice box are the only ones getting dented in Lakerland these days.
It’s a juvenile selfishness that Odom needs to shrug off for the Lakers to be all they can be this season. Odom’s is a sweet soul that is far more considerate than cutthroat – one of the reasons why he isn’t better than he is, honestly – so you would think that eventually his whole heart will go into this. Yet sometimes he’s so scatter-brained that the good intentions get lost in the mess of stuff he invariably leaves strewn in front of his locker before each game.
Right now Odom is saying through a pacifier that he’s unhappy Lakers coach Phil Jackson continues to consider his June brainstorm to use Odom as a versatile sixth man rather than start him next to Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.
About that brainstorm, Odom said of Jackson: “I would take it like he bumped his (expletive) head. Nah, that’s a joke. I don’t mean that.”
Odom alluded to this being “a year when I want to be on the court, for obvious reasons.” His contract expires at season’s end, and you see just how weak Odom’s hand has become when you turn over all the cards.
It’s really this simple: Bynum and Gasol are going to get Odom’s money.
Bynum will likely receive a maximum-value contract extension this month worth nearly $90 million over five years. Gasol has nearly $50 million over three years left on his massive contract – also new money being spent by Jerry Buss when you consider the Lakers acquired Gasol for Kwame Brown’s contract that expired at the end of last season.
With the Lakers paying Bynum and Gasol that kind of coin into the future behind one Kobe Bryant, it’s just not in the budget to keep paying Odom his current wage – $14.3 million this season – or more. There were no talks over the summer about a contract extension for Odom for good reason: The Lakers can’t possibly do it.
If the Lakers win the le this season, the only way to keep the team intact figures to be Odom accepting a massive pay cut. And the only way that even becomes a realistic possibility is if Odom has a bad year – at least in the statistical sense, which fewer minutes as a sixth man might trigger.
But there’s still no way Jackson wants Odom to have a bad year. Jackson has never been a coach who gets caught up in who starts; it’s all about who finishes. And Odom actually might score more the more he plays with Jordan Farmar’s up-tempo second unit given that Jackson considers Odom one of the very best open-court players in the league.
Odom thinks Jackson might just be playing mind games with him, but the coach truly believes his team might be better with Odom’s providing flexibility off the bench and Trevor Ariza’s stellar defense setting an opening tempo each game.
Asked about Odom perhaps being motivated in training camp by having to keep his starting job, Jackson laughed and said: “I don’t know. I’ve never seen Lamar motivated before.”
That’s how fickle and flighty Odom has been. Even as he was venting Tuesday about possibly losing a marquee starting spot, Odom was revealing enthusiasm for not having a scoring burden for a change.
“I’m kind of looking forward to showing people that I can play a complete game without taking 20 shots,” he said. “A team like this, I’m going to be able to control the game taking eight shots – getting 12 rebounds and eight assists and scoring 10 points a game. It’s going to be a lot of fun playing with guys like this.”
Odom also said: “I don’t call it sacrificing when you win. You’re just playing together.”
That’s the sweetheart L.O. talking, the one who blended in so wonderfully behind Gasol late last season by quietly fighting through knee tendinitis to do a million different little things.
That’s the sweetheart L.O. whom the Lakers expect will truly be happy this season making Bynum, Gasol and Bryant look as good as their future paychecks.
Right now, though, he’s being the overly emotional L.O. who loses focus on the court way too easily. Individually, he is forgetting that he has had four years to earn more mega-money from the Lakers and hasn’t come close. Team-wise, he knows how green the grass growing under him on this side is, but he isn’t ready to fall blindly back into it.
“It’s not right for me to be selfish at this time,” he said. “I walk into the locker room, and I’m like, ‘This team is going to win a championship. I want to be a part of that.’
“Definitely conflicted emotions. I might wake up today feeling one way and then wake up tomorrow feeling another way.”
I know Phil J is experimenting having Odom run the point while DF plays the 2 and Kobe is at the 3 with Bynum and Gasol rounding out the post. Odom has been the main ball handler. So we'll see what happens. I like him off the bench coming in with Radman and Mihm.
I can't wait to dump this guy or sign him for MLE.
I don't read any of Odoms comments as pouting.
Sounds like another media puss stiring things up.
That having been said, I'm not pro Odom. Anything short of a le for The Collusionists this year and he is gone.
I for one like Odom for the simple fact that he's been a good soldier all these years. He has not pouted for minutes or complained about reduced roles.
He just wants to be a starter...most other basketball players of his talent would also want to be a starter.
Basketball is a business after all, being his contract year, he has to ensure he keeps up his market value.
He ain't worth $14 million on the Lakers, I'd say $8-10 million. Going elsewhere, he'll probably get paid more.
If I were a betting man, Lamar will do whatever PJ tells him to do. He'll most likely be a starter. PJ is certainly trying to motivate him with those remarks as he has a history of playing those head games with his players.
Odom will finish the year as a Laker and then he'll get re-upped to the $10 million or less range.
I believe losing/trading Odom will be very detrimental for the Lakers...Odom has star tralent but is willing to shut up and do the dirty work. He's one of the few talents that can co-exist with Kobe.
Last edited by Allanon; 10-02-2008 at 02:16 PM.
Not really.
Luke Walton, Trevor Ariza, Sun Yue?
A back-up combo forward, an athletic but third string caliber back-up, and a guy that might be good down the road?
Some potential with Sun but not that much talent, even if you include Radman as a combo forward who will play some minutes at the three.
Lamar should opt to learn how to shoot consistently 35% or better from three point range and maybe he'd be close to earning how much he makes.
Phil Jackson and the Lakers seem to believe Trevor is starting material. And if you don't think Ariza has potential, then you need to watch him more. Of course, thats assuming his body holds up.
But with a core of Kobe/Gasol/Bynum all they need from the SF is someone who can keep the defenses honest and can play good perimeter defense. Trevor does the latter splendidly and has the potential to turn into the former. Other than that, he is a fantastic slasher/finisher and rarely makes stupid decisions with the basketball.
Odom is a Bum
I feel sorry for whatever team that overpays this bum next off-season. I guarantee you it won't be the Lakers. 4 years of dealing with this same exact will make sure of that.Phil Jackson was matter-of-fact rather than angry as he said after the morning practice about Lamar Odom: “He’s not in shape. Lamar’s not ready to play.”
Odom has been seen dragging with the stragglers in practice-ending wind sprints, and Jackson said Odom’s take-it-easy summer has led to a somewhat slow start for him in trying to play more of a quarterback role in the early triangle-offense practices of camp. He said Odom, despite getting fatigued, has done “OK.
Odom said he chose to rest over the summer to ease the tendinitis that bothered him basically all last season. Odom especially had problems with his right knee that he sprained two seasons ago, costing him 21 games in 2006-07.
Jackson expressed some disappointment that Odom didn’t do more with his offseason given that he wasn’t having surgery, as he has so often before.
Jackson said it remains to be seen if Odom hurt himself — before he becomes a free agent at season’s end — by not working hard enough over the summer.
“He has to find that out for himself,” Jackson said. “That’s something you experiment with. But in our exit meetings (in June) with Lamar, we talked about the fact that he hasn’t had the opportunity to work on his body in the offseason for the past three or four years, actually. So this was really an opportunity to strengthen his shoulder and do some things that were going to help him in a pivotal year for him – not only for him, but for us.”
The only reason Jackson views Ariza as "starter material" is because he wants a garbage guy in there who will hustle and play defense and not demand touches on offense. There are no touches to be had with Kobe, Gasol, and Bynum in the starting unit. Ariza wouldn't start on any good teams except for a situation exactly like this. And, I watched Ariza plenty. Potential? He has the potential to be an energy guy in the league. There's no potential to be a star or even a quality starter. His potential is similar to a James White or if he's lucky like Jamario Moon.
And, you're fairly accurate, as I just suggested, the small forward just needs to play good defense, but the original point was that the Lakers have enough talent at small forward already without Odom. That's debatable at best.
Doubt he'll get overpaid next summer. He's at that age where teams will be cautious to give him a crazy contract. And, by NBA standards, the guy is worth around $9-12 million a year, which he could foreseeably get from a team with cap space and the right need.
He'd be a nice fit with Atlanta, sharing combo forward duties with Josh Smith. And, the Hawks will have Bibby's contract coming off the books.
Maybe not a star, but you're pretty much out of touch with reality if you think he doesn't have potential to be a quality starter. When healthy, his man defense is lockdown-esque. If the rumours about his jumpshot being heavily improved he's already quality starter material with the potential to be a quality starter on a multiple championship team.
Exactly, we shall see. Notice how I'm not arguing for Luke/Vlad though. However, you are completely underrating Ariza, it's almost comical. You're comparing him to a James White who is basically out of the league.
Yup, he'll fit right in on a franchise that loves stock piling wingmen and doesn't care about winning. It's like Lamar Odom's wetdream.
If you're talking about a garbage guy who's main job is to play solid defense and not score double digits as a starter being a "quality starter," then fine. He's athletic and long. Do you know how many athletic, long 6-foot-7 guys there are out there? A load. Unless he all of a sudden becomes a 40% three point shooter as you suggest his jumper has improved, which I guess could happen, he's not a quality starter in this league. He'd be a starter out of necessity for the small forward position considering the make-up of the rest of the Lakers team. He'd be a quality starter the way Devean George was a quality starter on a championship team, i.e. not a quality starter but they win anyway.
James White is probably more athletic than Trevor Ariza and has better guard skills. It wasn't intended to be an insult, so much as it is a sincere evaluation of what Ariza is. He's a very athletic player who is on the right team at the right time where they could use athleticism and defense at the small forward position. The Magic were ready to waive him had they not traded him to the Lakers.Exactly, we shall see. Notice how I'm not arguing for Luke/Vlad though. However, you are completely underrating Ariza, it's almost comical. You're comparing him to a James White who is basically out of the league.
Because of his rebounding ability, Odom fits nicely at power forward. He just so happens to have perimeter skills to allow him to play multiple positions. Hawks appear to care more about winning than the Lakers since they put up a better fight against the Boston Celtics.
Not a load that play good perimeter defense like Ariza does and have a high BB IQ (like Ariza does). It just goes to show you didn't watch Ariza play last year on the Lakers while he was healthy.
Ah, first James White now Devan George, nice. Ariza plays better defense than George and isn't nearly as stupid. Injuries are really the concern at this point. But we'll see this season, if his jumpshot really did improve like everybody has been saying he's easily already a quality starter. His upside is more a better rebounding/slashing, quicker and skinnier version of Rick Fox than a D.George.
No the Magic weren't ready to waive him, they just didn't want to pay him, especially when Otis was building a team of shooters around Dwight.
Again, comparing him James White is laughable. They are similar physically and thats about it. Ariza's BBIQ is perfect for the triangle whereas James White is so dumb no one in league could give a about the fact that he can dunk from the freethrow line. Not to mention, his defense is atrocious when compared to Ariza.
Keep telling yourself that. Odom is the perfect signing for Atlanta because it fits their mediocre standard.
He'll fit nicely in a open court system where he doesn't have to try or play defense. Still won't be worth what they will pay him (and what Odom will demand and get on the open market). They would have been better off keeping a guy like Childress for half the price. The thought of a Odom/Josh Smith combo on the court during the crunch time is hilarious.
You're seriously conning yourself over the hype. Phil Jackson is using Ariza as a pawn to motivate Odom. Phil Jackson was also pretty set at using Ariza last year in the Spurs series to help guard Ginobili and ended up playing him 10 minutes in three games.
And, I'm not sure where you get this "Ariza has such a great basketball IQ" from when he's not asked to make any decisions on the court. They tell him to defend and to slash and to hustle after loose balls. There's no decision-making to be made so how do you evaluate his basketball IQ?
No, I didn't watch most of his handful of games with the Lakers last year when he played. But, you're seriously buying way into the hype that is Trevor Ariza.
Huh? Ariza was coming off his foot injury. His status was completely up in the air for the playoffs and Phil used him sparringly because he missed 5 months of the season. Jackson isn't 'hyping' him and I'm going by what I've seen Ariza do on the floor. Before he went down he was stealing Vlad/Luke's minutes but he was clearly not in basketball shape after a 5 month layoff.
Not taking stupid shots, ball movement, decision making in general/clutch situtions, smart defense, etc.
Exactly, it's pretty obvious you don't even know what you're talking about that this point. Please go back and compare to him to James White again dude.
ariza is a nice young piece for the lakers but he IS overhyped especially here in socal. I think he he resembles Quintin Ross alot. Hes a bit taller and a better slasher but ariza has no jumpshot and thats what he needs to improve on. If he develops a jumper, he can be uber valuable but i dont expect any more than 20 minutes 6 points 5 boards and 1-2 steals a game from him if he starts.
Phil is definately trying to motivate Odom by stirring up talks about benching him but it does make sense. Odom against the backup PF and SF's of the league? he would dominate. Odom is a up and down player and the 2nd unit with farmar sasha and radmanovic might be the perfect complimentary players for odom. Of course even if he is the 6th man im sure Phillip will use him in crunch time in place of Ariza just like how pop uses manu.
Thank you, sane, non-delusional Laker fan.
but we are still better than the pistons =D
Odom to detriot for amir johnson/maxiell and Tayshaun prince.
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2008/05/21/w...oes-it-matter/
May 21, 2008
10 minutes in three games."Phil Jackson told reporters, including the Riverside Press-Enterprise's Broderick Turner, Tuesday Ariza will likely play in the series after missing about four months with a broken foot."
And only 3 minutes at the very end of the game in a 20 point deficit in game 3 where Manu Ginobili put up 30 points on 9-for-15 field goal shooting.
Agreed.
Off-topic.
Would consider Prince/Maxiell. But, it's a lateral move for both teams really. Maybe slightly better for the Lakers, but not much.
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