Surprisingly, Artest for Odom Makes Perfect Sense

When last seen, the Los Angeles Lakers were getting humiliated on Boston’s parquet floor in Game 6 of the NBA Finals this past June. Since the embarrassing defeat at the hands of the rival Celtics, there hasn’t been much buzz surrounding LA’s glamour team, the Lakers. Instead, LA’s other team, the Clippers, have been the ones making the news recently with their selection of Indiana’s Eric Gordon in the NBA Draft, signing of Los Angeles native Baron Davis, and failure to bring back Elton Brand, who promised to stay with Donald Sterling’s rag-tag bunch.

Even with the recent nonstop coverage of the Clippers, it’s safe to say that the Lakers are eventually going to do something really big that will help them to regain some of the Hollywood spotlight once again.

That big move might just be to acquire the Kings discontented forward Ron Artest, who stated a few weeks ago that he regretted not opting out of his contract with Sacramento.

Last week the Sacramento Bee, reported that the Lakers are actively pursuing the disgruntled Artest in a trade for forward Lamar Odom. However, this deal would require some additional players to make the salaries match up, as Odom is due $14.1 million next season and Artest will only make $7.4 million.

At this point, many Laker fans are wondering why the Lakers should take on a bad contract in Kenny Thomas and trade Odom for the controversial Artest, who would certainly carry a lot of baggage to Los Angeles. While they’re concerns may be warranted (see: Artest’s troubled past), there is no question that an Artest for Odom trade would be quite beneficial for the Lakers’ championship hopes.

With the return of Andrew Bynum next season, the Lakers will have two quality big men in Bynum and Pau Gasol, who can both dominate the paint offensively. What the Lakers lack is a defensive presence, which starkly contrasts the type of players they already have in Vladimir Radmanovic, Luke Walton, and Odom. Despite the positives he brings, Odom simply does not provide enough of a defensive presence to impact games in the way that other players do.

On the other hand, Artest is a defensive force, who is one of a handful of players that can actually stop some of the NBA’s top scorers and guard any of the five positions. In 2004, he was named Defensive Player of the Year, as he held his offensive targets, including some of the league’s top players, to 8.1 points per game on 9.3 shots per game and 42.6 percent shooting. It really doesn’t get any better than that. While Artest is known for his defensive abilities, the fact that he’s also a 20-point scorer makes it easy to understand why the Lakers would be interested in working out a trade.

While Artest’s troubled past and larger than life-sized ego may warrant some red flags, Phil Jackson has had some experience in dealing with troubled players such as the infamous Dennis Rodman. It’s clear that an Artest for Odom trade would make the Lakers a better team and if they are ever going to win an NBA title than it’s pertinent that they take some sort of risk to raise that 15th championship banner.