As L.O.'s World Turns

We haven't heard much on the Lamar Odom drama in a few days, but there's an interesting rumor floating around the internet.

Last week, we learned that Odom reached out to Laker owner Jerry Buss in hopes of fixing the mess Odom created by rejecting the Laker offers. One source claimed the two met last night. Yesterday we also heard Kobe say he's confident that Odom will return to the Lakers. Now today, Black Sports Online is reporting that their sources say the Lakers and Odom have reached an agreement.

However, John Ireland says in his blog that after talking with his sources within the organization, no such deal has been reached. He also says that Odom will have to take a lesser offer than the ones he turned down if he's to re-sign with the Lakers. The Lakers will not put either of the offers (the 3- or 4-year deals) back on the table, and no offer is currently on the table. Finally, Ireland also says it was Odom who turned down the Lakers, not his agent, Jeff Schwartz.

This all sounds like something you might find on the Soap Opera cable network at 3am.

Lakers Pull Offers for Odom

The Lamar Odom saga has taken a new twist. The Lakers yesterday pulled their two offers on the table for Odom, saying that they were growing frustrated with him and his agent, Jeff Schwartz. The two offers are reported to be around $9MM per year for four years, and around $10MM per year for three.

According to a report today in the L.A. Times, people within the Lakers organization, and people close to Odom, however, believe that Odom wants to re-sign with the Lakers and accept one of the offers. However, his agent isn't convinced of that. Well, last time I checked, the agent works for the player, not the other way around. If a player says he wants to sign one of the contracts, it's the agent's responsibility to make sure that happens. The agent is an adviser and a negotiator, nothing more. The agent isn't the decision-maker, the player is.

Last weekend Mitch Kupchak admitted he was growing frustrated with Odom and his agent, and at the time didn't like his chances of being able to re-sign Odom, although he had hoped for a resolution 'in a couple of days.' Well those couple of days have come and gone, and no resolution has been reached, unless you count the retraction of the two offers the Lakers way of saying, ' we have reached a resolution.'

The Lakers say they will be more than willing to re-open negotiations, but Odom and his agent will have to come to them, and the two offers pulled yesterday are no longer on the table. Any new offers made by the Lakers could very well be for less than those retracted yesterday.

This all has an eerie similarity to the Dodgers situation with Manny Ramirez this past spring, doesn't it? I would guess the Lakers have grown tired of the lack of communication from the Odom Camp, and are ready to move on. It also appears obvious the Lakers have no intention what-so-ever of getting into a bidding war with themselves, as there are no other known offers from any other team for Odom. There does appear to be some lukewarm interest from at least four other teams (Dallas, Miami, Utah and Portland), but no serious talks have apparently taken place, and no offers have been made.

My advice to the Lakers is this: if re-signing Odom is going to hinder their chances of re-signing Pau Gasol when his contract is up in two years, I pass on Odom. Odom's a nice role player to have coming off the bench, and when he's on top of his game, and focused on the task at hand, he's one of the best players in the game. But his inconsistencies make him a liability. Gasol, to me, is a much more important piece of the puzzle for the future beyond the next two years. Let Odom walk, I say.

Stay tuned as this may get even stickier before it all irons out.