Here's what Mitch said to defend the trade at the time:
Lamar was sent to Dallas because he requested to be traded," said Kupchak, who referenced Odom's frustration with being involved in the blocked Paul trade. "In this case, he couldn't get over the fact that something like that could took place. I was hoping that things would change in a day or two but his representative called me on Saturday and said that's not going to change."
The Lakers moved surprisingly quickly to trade Odom. Kobe Bryant made a trade demand in May 2007. He's still here.
"I wouldn't lump Kobe and Lamar into the same category when talking about those same two situations," Kupchak said. "Yeah, we could have said, 'Lamar, we're not going to trade you,' and waited to see what was going to happen in the next week or two, but we chose not to do that.
"The window to make a deal in this environment where you really can get back flexibility, it goes away in the snap of the fingers. So to have waited two or three weeks would have just prolonged an environment with Lamar when he's not at practice and would have sucked energy away from the team. We might not have had a better opportunity."
Here's what LO has done this season after the vetoed Cp3 trade:
7.7 ppg, 35.7 fg%, 4.5 rpg, 25.9 3p%, 9.8 PER
he's basically having a career low in every single statistical category and its not even close in most cases. it appears that he just has not even able to get over the failed trade and it really appears that mitch and the FO did the right thing regardless of what they are able to do with the TPE and DAL 1st.
LO was lost as soon as that trade went public and it was a great decision to move him asap.
add the fact that Mavs fans were really high on this deal since they are getting the reigning SMOY and he can't deliver and live up to the expectations.
