What's Plan B if Odom walks?

[LLcoleJ]

The offseason goals were clear:

1) Resign Odom
2) Resign Ariza

We can forgive number 2 because we got Artest. But if we are not able to resign Odom, then this offseason is a failure.

Do you watch sportcenter? The plan was for the Lakers to sign Ariza and the Rockets to sign Artest but with Yao getting hurt they decided to go young and rebuild and not sign Ron and once Ron became available the Lakers decided to go with Artest instead.

You guys overrate Ariza. Most fans overrate there own players so I can't wait to see what you say about Artest. You will probably rank him 2nd-4th best sf. I rank him 5th behind Lebron, Durant, Melo, Artest.
Ariza is a role player. Artest signs for the midlevel and he is taking less and doing a great thing showing great personaility. Ariza gets the midlevel he gets the right amount if healthy or if the docs are right about his foot (only healthy in contract year) and it's a waste of money.

lol

[Dexmor]

I know there are a lot of Bynum lovers on this forum.. if bynum is worth his salt then we shouldnt worry about LO leaving.

Bynum should deliver on his promise now that he will make 12mil , cant blame Buss for not wanting to sign LO for more than 7 million.. nobody else has the cap space and that is his value in this market..

Buss has done enough by going well over the cap to keep key pieces and bring in new ones to make the roster competitive.. Signing LO does not guarantee a championship so IMO Buss is taking a big risk with such a high payroll already without LO.

None of our trade able pieces are worth anything.. So i think Mitch is doing a good thing not going hard after LO.. if LO is ready for 7 mil great or else we stay put and hope Josh and Mbenga give us good min.. and Artest makes up for scoring difference. This will also give Adam some playing time to see if he has a place on our roster.


By trading deadline we can see where we stand and look to move the expiring contract of Adam for something better..

You cant spend your way to a championship, ask the NY knicks and Portland trailblazers...

Boston did it year before and we did it last year by keeping a good mix of young players and veteran players without going too far over the cap..

IMO that is the only way.. and we should stick to it..

I live in Raleigh so I see every Bobcats game and the fact that you said play Morrison shows you don't follow basketball that much so let me school you a litttle bit.
Of course you can buy your way into championship you just have to do it with the right players. The Knicks did not have the right players. Nothing is ever guaranteed but it doesn't matter if there in luxary because they always make money.
It doesn't matter that Bynum SHOULD be living up to that contract because he is not. We thought that one year was a fluke but it is looking like he is an injury prone player. Odom is basically our starting pf for the playoffs and half the season for the past 2 years. He is why we won.
If the other teams stood pat Artest over Ariza is an upgrade enough that it would be possible that they win again but the Magic got Vince Carter and Nelson in the backcourt now. The Cavs got Shaq. The SPurs got RJ for nothing.
We don't have a shot without Odom, none. With Odom all we have to do is stay healthy and we will win. Even if Bynum goes down again we can win a championshp with Gasol/Odom/Artest/Kobe/Brown. Odom is better then Bynum.

[Dexmor]

People act like we can take the 9 million and give it to a pg. It's Odom or nothing since we are over the cap. If we could get a pg like Kirk and Brandon Bass instead with the money but we can't. We can't do anything with it. Why the hell would a fan care if the Lakers pay the luxary tax espially to retain a guy like Odom when the team is making money with the luxary tax included. And there making alot of money. They sell tickets for thousands of dollars and the fans is a who's who of big time celebrities so the Lakers are making plenty of money.
So I ask how can somebody be so cheap or stupid (don't know which one it is) they don't want the Lakers to spend money?

[LAKESHOW]

ive never been a strong proponent of odom. but i vowed that if he brought the title here to Los Angeles, i'll get on that bandwagon. and it took some years to get it done, but hes played admirably, and weve got the title. so here it goes.

if odom walks?

we're finished.

i agree that we dodged a bullet by getting artest. an actual upgrade. but without odom, there is absolutely no one who can replace a 7footer who can dribble. rebound. get a shot. post up. help D. man-on-D with other bigs. as well as man-on-D with smaller forwards

[Enisyl]

I know there are a lot of Bynum lovers on this forum.. if bynum is worth his salt then we shouldnt worry about LO leaving.

Bynum should deliver on his promise now that he will make 12mil , cant blame Buss for not wanting to sign LO for more than 7 million.. nobody else has the cap space and that is his value in this market..

Buss has done enough by going well over the cap to keep key pieces and bring in new ones to make the roster competitive.. Signing LO does not guarantee a championship so IMO Buss is taking a big risk with such a high payroll already without LO.

None of our trade able pieces are worth anything.. So i think Mitch is doing a good thing not going hard after LO.. if LO is ready for 7 mil great or else we stay put and hope Josh and Mbenga give us good min.. and Artest makes up for scoring difference. This will also give Adam some playing time to see if he has a place on our roster.


By trading deadline we can see where we stand and look to move the expiring contract of Adam for something better..

You cant spend your way to a championship, ask the NY knicks and Portland trailblazers...

Boston did it year before and we did it last year by keeping a good mix of young players and veteran players without going too far over the cap..

IMO that is the only way.. and we should stick to it..

I live in Raleigh so I see every Bobcats game and the fact that you said play Morrison shows you don't follow basketball that much so let me school you a litttle bit.
Of course you can buy your way into championship you just have to do it with the right players. The Knicks did not have the right players. Nothing is ever guaranteed but it doesn't matter if there in luxary because they always make money.
It doesn't matter that Bynum SHOULD be living up to that contract because he is not. We thought that one year was a fluke but it is looking like he is an injury prone player. Odom is basically our starting pf for the playoffs and half the season for the past 2 years. He is why we won.
If the other teams stood pat Artest over Ariza is an upgrade enough that it would be possible that they win again but the Magic got Vince Carter and Nelson in the backcourt now. The Cavs got Shaq. The SPurs got RJ for nothing.
We don't have a shot without Odom, none. With Odom all we have to do is stay healthy and we will win. Even if Bynum goes down again we can win a championshp with Gasol/Odom/Artest/Kobe/Brown. Odom is better then Bynum.

Star/Dexmor, It's great that you live in Raleigh but I think you missed the point of what Kevin was saying in his post. I think all your posts about Odom are pretty similar to one another. I get that you want Odom to stay and that he played well over the course of the playoffs and has always had the potential to be a terrific player, but is he worth 10 million? That is what Kevin is positing with his post, if i am not incorrect.

What is more important are the few things you didn't answer:
1. Odom as a player off the bench is not worth 10 million a year on a multiple year contract in this market. If he were worth that much money I'm sure the trigger would have been pulled and Mitch would have signed him already. The fact is he is playing a role for us off the bench which is great but is it really worth 10 million a year.

2. Let's also use your logic for a second and say LO is worth the money you are saying he is worth...LO did not actually step up and play better until someone like Pau came in and made it easier for LO to play his inconsistent ball and have it not be as much of a liability. The problem is that if you are going to pay a player 10 million to come off the bench, or at all, he better be consistent with how he plays the game for us.

3. You say we can buy our way to a championship...maybe, but then I ask, if you can buy your way into a championship, is LO the only person we can pay that will get us that championship?

4. On the Morrison point, he may suck at basketball or may not, we won't know how well he does within our system until we see him play in a summer league or watch him play in camp. He may still suck at that point, but I think Kevin said we could wait to use him, or not, later to make a trade if needed.

There are other factors which I am sure we are not privy to at this point that go along with what we as fans do know that play into whether we actually sign Odom. Case and point is how we had Artest available which made it easy to let Ariza walk.

[milesfides]

Well we can't let Odom walk. At worst, we try to work a sign-and-trade with him. He's too valuable a player to just let walk without getting anything in return.

The numbers being thrown out there show a difference of 2 million a year (4m with luxury). I really hope not, for the Lakers' sake. Playing hardball, or taking it slow with Odom will just force his hand to sign with another team before teams lose their cap space.

But if those reports are false, and Odom wants more money, we could accommodate him by sign-and-trading him to another team. If we get expirings back or unload some of our bad contracts, we'd be saving money while getting some assets back.

What would be key is to keep things civil and communicate constantly. Don't let Odom just walk. If he wants more money, try to accommodate him by increasing the number of teams that can court him. If other teams know that the Lakers are willing to sign-and-trade him, he'd have many more destinations.

Part 2: I don't think Odom is irreplaceable if Bynum steps up, stays healthy, and is reliable.

If Bynum could play 30+ quality minutes a game, I think we can get by with lesser players than Odom.

Put it this way. Bynum's play was mediocre, Odom's play with solid and we won the championship. Switch that around, and we would have dominated.

So, Plan B?

1. sign-and-trade Odom. Do NOT let him walk for nothing.

2. Pressure on Bynum to deliver.

[Enisyl]

Miles, I think Odom is important but if he asks for 10 million over say 3 years, would you pay him that money?

I agree with you that a sign and trade would be the more beneficial and viable option for us. Taking a step back and looking at what he wants, would you accommodate him on a long term contract, for what he is asking in terms of money?

[daddyfivestar]

Good news / Bad news

The cap at 57.7 means Portland barely has 8 mil to offer LO, but the bad news for LA is the lower tax threshold means more $ to the tax no matter what he signs for which may make Buss/Mitch more hesitant.

[LakeShowKobe24]

We better be offering at least 8 million. After what lamar has shown to this team and how he handled everything, if Mitch is offering him MLE money I will hunt him down and strangle him.

[JustBlaze]

We better be offering at least 8 million. After what lamar has shown to this team and how he handled everything, if Mitch is offering him MLE money I will hunt him down and strangle him.

I agree. The difference in money that the Lakers would be paying between a MLE type deal and an 8-9 million per deal is peanuts to the Lakers. I would be pissed if they were being that cheap. But I don't think that is the case.

[Mindflayer]

David Lee's agent wants 12 million a year and the knicks would like to sign David Lee for 7-8 million. I would sign and trade Lamar this instant for Lee. If a young better palyer in Lee has a hard time getting paid this year how does Lamar expect anything close to 10 million?

[kevin_405]

Paying 15$ million dollars lux tax cannot be cheap.. with odom it will be close to 25 miilion $...

I wish i could have 1 million.. everybody is affected by this economy, some have taken a pay cut others have lost their bonus , others have lost their jobs..

Nba players need to adjust to the new reality..

We better be offering at least 8 million. After what lamar has shown to this team and how he handled everything, if Mitch is offering him MLE money I will hunt him down and strangle him.

I agree. The difference in money that the Lakers would be paying between a MLE type deal and an 8-9 million per deal is peanuts to the Lakers. I would be pissed if they were being that cheap. But I don't think that is the case.

[Gus McCrae]

I really really hope we keep Odom. That being said, $20 million or $24 million whatever the payroll increases with the tax is a big chunk of change, even for the Lakers. I think he deserves $8.5- $9 million and any team that can grab him for that has improved big time.

[realfung]

You guys need someone who can shoot the ball really well to open space for inside bigs.