T-Wolves Turndown Lakers Offer of Lamar Odom for 2nd Pick
The NBA Draft doesn’t start for another 24 hours but the drama is in full swing. We knew Jim Buss was looking to shake things up. We heard the rumors of Pau Gasol being dangled for Kevin Love and the 2nd pick. Now comes word of the Lakers offering Lamar Odom to Minnesota for the number two pick.
Broderick Turner cites a league source saying the T-Wolves rejected the Lakers’ attempts to acquire the number two overall pick in exchange for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year.
I guess we can safely assume Jim Buss loves him some Derrick Williams. However I wouldn’t go as far as to say he’s not so in love with Odom.
No word on how Lamar may have reacted to the news that he was nearly banished to the NBA’s version of Siberia. From a business standpoint this is the ideal time to try and trade Odom. His stock is never going to be higher than what is now coming off his best season as a Laker.
For Buss and GM Mitch they’re working with a thin cupboard in regards to what they’ve got to offer for potential trade partners. Thus Odom becomes a commodity on the open market by default. Nothing personal, I’m sure.
Hopefully LO will take this in stride. He’s been in this game long enough to know how these things go down. Never forget he inked a long-term deal with the Miami Heat only to be traded to L.A. one year later as part of the Shaquille O’Neal acquisition.
Safe to say his private life – now very public thanks to his wife – would have taken a drastically different course had the trade gone through.
If you’re wondering who else the Lakers might put on the block as potential trade bait I’d think it’s a safe bet Andrew Bynum isn’t up for grabs. Same for Gasol and that guy that wears #24.
Stay tuned though, it appears the Lakers are set on trying to figure out some way to get into the first round. Unless something truly unusual occurs it doesn’t seem likely they’ll land Derrick William but that doesn’t mean they don’t have other players on the board worth moving up to acquire.