Do the Lakers Still Want to Win?

After the loss of the round 2 superstar Trevor Ariza and the Los Angeles Times reporting that the Lakers and Lamar Odom are still “far apart in negotiations,” does it seem like the Lakers are still on the warpath? Yes and No, I said in the very beginning that if you have to keep either Lamar Odom or Trevor Ariza, you’ve got to do all you can to keep Ariza. Trevor had never been a lifeline offensively, but as we saw during the Rockets series, he certainly was an X-factor for the Lakers. Maybe it was the fact that he was in a contract year, but what he brought to the table was extreme hustle, and 3.29 steals per-48 minutes played, the second highest in the league last year. After officially signing Ron Artest this last Wednesday, the hole Trevor Ariza left was filled… temporarily. A kooky Lakers haircut on a 29 year old firecracker will only last you so long. The Lakers didn’t let Ariza go, he left. There wasn’t a whole much (short of throwing him a bunch of early money) that would’ve kept him here. Artest is a more talented player than Ariza right now, especially from an offensive standpoint, but it is surprising that a local boy with that much potential and heart wouldn’t stay. In retrospect, it certainly would have been nice for Laker fans to look at a line-up starring Trevor Ariza AND Ron Artest.

So we turn our attention to Lamar Odom, the inconsistent 6th man who’s really the 3rd best player on the team. Low salary caps and luxury tax makes it look like higher end negotiations may not take place. Odom is looking for $10 million a year and the Lakers have offered him something closer to the NBA player average of 5.85 for an unspecified length. It’s not outrageous that they settle on something around 8/year, but remember, for every dollar the Lakers go over the salary cap they match with a dollar out of their own pocket sent to the luxury tax. The Lakers are already $12.26 million over the cap, not including a potential contract with Lamar. Essentially, what ever the front office decided to pay Odom, they’ll have to take out of their own pockets, add to the $12.26 million and send off the luxury penalty office. If the Lakers decide to keep him, every Laker fan needs to send a thank you card to Jerry Buss, because the bench stinks without Odom. The other problem that needs to be mentioned is where will Lamar be if he's not with the Lakers. Portland, the Lakers' 2nd biggest threat in the west, is sitting on $10 million cap space and are looking for a forward as well as someone else to handle the ball besides Brandon Roy. Lamar plays all 5 positions. The one-man swing could mean serious problems for the Lakers who continue to struggle against the young Trail Blazer team in the regular season.

Can they win without Ariza or Odom? Yes, but it will be difficult without one of them, and even more difficult without them both. Artest is a good addition, until he blows up and punches a fan in the face (hopefully this will never happen… again), and the securing of Shannon Brown is a good showing for Mitch Kupchak. It definitely shows that Kupchak’s team is trying to address and redefine the effort and heart factor that seemed so inconsistent with this year’s champions. However, the song remains the same: the best team in world is now the top target for everyone else, including the media and amateur blog writers.