To Trade or Not to Trade Battier?

[Mr. E]

I was curious why don't you trade Battier for Odom? then you have an amazing line up lol

There is no need for Odom on this team. He is not a pure PF (Scola is); his defense is suspect (Battier's is not); and the one argument, that we need a 3rd scorer, is moot with Artest on the team.

Battier would make the Lakers better; Odom would make the Rockets worse. That's why they won't do that trade.

[DraftBoy10]

No to trading Battier, because of these reasons

1) Teams won't offer fair player for player value with Battier, cause they see we have depth there.
2) Artest is expiring, what if we don't come to agreements and he bolts? We still got Shane.
3) Injuries have come before, this is great insurance.
4) Battier is a true pro, and he doesn't have any qualms over little details like being the 6th man.
5) We have two of the best defensive wings in the NBA.

We don't need to do any more moves besides re-sign Carl & Dikembe.

Then our rotation can be:

Yao- 34mpg/Scola-14mpg
Scola-14mpg/Landry-20mpg/Artest-14mpg
Artest-24mpg/Shane-24mpg
Tracy-35mpg/Shane-8mpg/Barry-5mpg
Alston-33mpg/Barry-20mpg

We need to integrate Artest & Barry in, and get Shane accustomed to his new role. Our size, depth, talent can beat just about any team there.

[DraftBoy10]

I was curious why don't you trade Battier for Odom? then you have an amazing line up lol

There is no need for Odom on this team. He is not a pure PF (Scola is); his defense is suspect (Battier's is not); and the one argument, that we need a 3rd scorer, is moot with Artest on the team.

Battier would make the Lakers better; Odom would make the Rockets worse. That's why they won't do that trade.

I wouldn't do it for a couple of reasons one being that Odom is a FA. But Odom would not make the Rockets worse, Odom doesn't really make any team worse. And how is he not a pure PF, because he can dribble? Odom's played PF for the last few years, and would be our best rebounder. He'd actually be very well suited on this team considering he wouldn't have to take an offensive role, but a rebounding, help defensive, playmaking role. Something he can do, but I still wouldn't do the deal.