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I feel like Kobe and Pau's impact is emphasized, and rightly so, but since Pau's arrival, it has become commonplace for Odom to score in double figures with 15+ rebounds.

While much of this can be attributed to Pau's presence, does Odom get enough credit? Often times after a game, I read the boxscore and his numbers really jump out. How much of it is Pau and how much of it is Odom stepping up?

Thoughts?

Odom is playing great. For me he isnt underrated. He is in the perfect postion to be that 3rd option that makes him shine. He is doing excatly what he is suppose to and doing it well.

without a doubt...Laker fans have been used to winning teams and great players so theyre a bit too hard on their players. Smush, Kwane, Sasha(last season,) Luke have all been proclaimed as the worst players in the league at one point by Laker fans. So yea, he is underrated.

Definitely underrated. Everyone on the Lakers is underrated because of all the Kobe hype. You would think everyone is a stiff on that team.

No for real though, Odom has been shining because he gets to concentrate more on rebounding and being the 3rd option because of Paul's presence. But Odom has really stepped up his game this year though, even with Paul out. Phil has been using all of his players to the maximum. I think this year might be Phil's best stint of his coaching career IMO, especially if the Lakers win the title.

CB4MiamiHeat wrote:without a doubt...Laker fans have been used to winning teams and great players so theyre a bit too hard on their players. Smush, Kwane, Sasha(last season,) Luke have all been proclaimed as the worst players in the league at one point by Laker fans. So yea, he is underrated.

Actually, Many Laker fans ( inculding myself ) have always wanted Lamar to be aggressive. You cant deny that there have been stretches when he was not and was inconsistent.

I have always liked Lamar and have recognized his bright spots and faults throughout. As I said in my previous post is that he is now in a better postion to thrive and if you watched him in every game over the course of his Laker tenure you would see the difference.

Its not underrating him at all. There were times when he underperformed and was called out on it. Most of us though, knew he could be playing as well as he has been , given the right circumstances and constantlly being aggressive.

re: your other lists...

Smush ... you are really going to go there?
Kwame..... see above

Sasha- ( last season as you put) was most certainly not the player he was this year, so I dont get that comparison. He wouldnt make many rosters last year with his play. This year is a different story and as a Laker fan I couldnt be happier for the kid.

Luke- He has a good season last year and then was hurt for half of this season and it took him some time to get back into game shape. ( see Denver series) However, he was pretty bad this year and I agree that many peope gave him to hard of a time and wrote him off. However, his hard work paid off and he has deserved his praise as of late. I never wrote him off.


One of the biggest changes for the Lakers success this year has been from internal improvement. Credit the guys for making their games better. I am pretty sure if someone said Smush Parker or even Sasha is one of the worst players in the league last year you wouldnt come to their defence.

It's hard to say he's underrated.

He had his chance to be the #2 guy on a good team, and it appears he can't be that guy.

Earlier in the season it was Bynum stepping up as #2, and then it was Gasol as the #2 guy.

Odom is paid as a #1 guy but should be a $9-$10 mil 3rd fiddle.

Odom is doing very well right now because he's spending a lot of time at SF. He has so many advantages as a SF that it really makes his game shine. With the addition of Pau odom was able to move to his more natural position allowing to "step up" his game. Not to mention that he now has another guy to pull double teams away from him which makes the offense really really easy for him.

For me, Odom's recent emergence can be summed up by his finishing.

The old Odom would hesitate, take it soft to the basket, and use all of his seven foot wingspan to miss a layup

Now he is aggressive and decisively takes it to the basket and actually dunks!

see, i dont agree that Odom failed as a 2nd option...he put up monster numbers in the playoffs and was very good in the regular season. A legit 3rd option was what the Lakers were missing.

2nd Option Odom lacked the consistency of 3rd Option Odom.

Lamar Odom is the perfect 3rd option. Unfortunately, he wasn't paid to be one and that makes him overrated. He couldn't be a successful first or second option if his life depended on it. Take it from a 12-year Clippers fan.

[quote="Phil_2.0"][/quote]

i dont know why youre upset..i just posted guys that have been called worst in the league by their fans. All of those have been called the worst, thats all.

CB4MiamiHeat wrote:see, i dont agree that Odom failed as a 2nd option...he put up monster numbers in the playoffs and was very good in the regular season. A legit 3rd option was what the Lakers were missing.

If you don't agree, you have obviously no watched many Lakers games. Odom seems to be overwhelmed with being the 2nd option and thrives being a third or none pressure role; Phil 2.0 has explained the rest.

CB4MiamiHeat wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



i dont know why youre upset..i just posted guys that have been called worst in the league by their fans. All of those have been called the worst, thats all.

upset? I replied to your post. Does me disagreeing with your points mean I am upset?

By the way.. Smush Parker is and was the worst in the league.

He's definitely underrated. But he has the potential to be even better, but he'll probably never tap into that potential.

His intangibles and defense are underrated. His offensive game is overrated so I guess that compensates everything. Most fans are mad at him because he hasn't done justice to his true potential.

CB4MiamiHeat wrote:see, i dont agree that Odom failed as a 2nd option...he put up monster numbers in the playoffs and was very good in the regular season. A legit 3rd option was what the Lakers were missing.

He put up monster numbers because he was the tallest player on the floor. We played Phoenix both years and he always dominates against them. had we played Dallas, San Antonio, Utah, or Denver it would have been a different story.

Lamar benefits greatly when the game gets wild and fast against teams like Phoenix and Golden State. Against them he'd have no problem putting up 20 and 15 or 20 and 20 with regularity.

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I have to disagree with the people saying he's overpaid. Even as a third option he still makes less than Marion, Rashard Lewis, AK47, and Jamison. He's as good or better than all those tweeners and paid slightly less. IMO he's at about the going rate for a tweener of his skills.

At one point I was all for trading him for someone cheaper like Battier or Artest but I have this reoccurring dream that he somehow gets bounced around the league enough to end up on the Warriors or Suns only to BLOW UP and become a superstar. He's the kind of guy that would be so incredibly perfect for certain teams that it's better to keep him and not create a powerhouse somewhere else than to trade him and have to play him 4 times a year.

Lamar Odom's body of work greatly detracts from a thread like this. Good on him if he's having an excellent playoff series.

He's definitely not underrated; I'd say he's probably rated about right.

He doesn't have the mentality to be a reliable 2nd option and hasn't done especially well in that role, but as a 3rd option -- someone you look to for a wide spectrum of dirty work and supplemental play -- he's very good. He has a lot of the same skills as Andrei Kirilenko, and even though he's not quite as talented as AK, his consistency in his present role makes him a much more valuable player.

He's perfect for what LA needs out of him.

longfellow44 wrote:Odom is doing very well right now because he's spending a lot of time at SF. He has so many advantages as a SF that it really makes his game shine. With the addition of Pau odom was able to move to his more natural position allowing to "step up" his game. Not to mention that he now has another guy to pull double teams away from him which makes the offense really really easy for him.

He's not playing SF, Radmanovic is. Moving him to SF when Bynum gets back is the primary concer for most of the Lakers fans, since his outside shot is virtually non-existant.

He's in no way underrated. There was a good reason for all the non-loving feelings Lakers fans had towards him... he was simply not consistant enough. This has changed, and since the Gasol trade he's been one of my favourite Lakers. He's looking to be agressive and is playing some fantastic overall basketball (20/20/5/5 against GSW a month or so ago, are you kidding me?:)).

I just hope his new-found confidence and play continues to happen during these playoffs.

cheers