It's July 1st, which means the free-agent season has officially begun in the NBA. While some teams have made legitimate and official contact with players, there are some others where rumors and speculation continue to be all we have in trying to figure out what may be on their minds.Not every rumor deserves our attention, but a couple that popped up Wednesday regarding the Lakers' Lamar Odom seem to make so little sense, that they need to be, at the very least, touched upon.
Buried deep in an L.A. Times article about Kobe Bryant's upcoming contract extension is a blurb about the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs being "interested" in signing Odom.
San Antonio and Phoenix are interested in trying to sign Odom. Both teams are trying to clear salary-cap space to see if they can get a deal done with Odom, who is looking for at least a four-year deal worth an average of $10 million a year.There are a couple of issues here, and they're pretty big ones.
One, neither team has anywhere close to the cap space necessary to acquire Odom at that asking price, which means that they would need to work some sort of a sign-and-trade to get him, or dump a ridiculous amount of salary to make that kind of an offer. Unrealistic is putting this mildly.
Two, and perhaps most importantly, is the fact that since neither team has the financial ability to offer Odom a deal, they in all likelihood haven't discussed it with him (or his agent) in the less than 24 hours that the negotiating period has been open. So, where did the Times get this information?
Several have speculated (and it's only speculation) that the rumors of the Suns' and Spurs' interest may have been leaked to the paper by Odom's agent. Which also means, that while the teams might be interested, there's nothing imminent coming from either of them in terms of an actual contract offer.
There's nothing wrong with Odom's agent trying to create leverage for his client by letting some "news" appear that some other teams have expressed interest, and there's nothing wrong with the paper printing it, especially in the middle of a lengthy piece on the Lakers' overall free agent situation. But given the respective financial situations of the teams that were mentioned, a quick glance at these rumors tell us that they are, in all likelihood, completely bogus.
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Actually Suns can make cap space to sign Odom now. They can waive Pavlovic and buyout Wallace and their salary can fall to around $52-54 million. They also could do a sign and trade with the Lakers with Wallace's contract and Lakers might do that because it gives them salary relief and they are going to lose Odom anyway.
Lamar will remain a Laker. Lamar has made a lot of money, likes living in LA and loves finally playing for a winner. He has even said repeatedly he's willing to take a pay cut to stay. Trevor Ariza, now that's another story. He wants big bucks and I think will be harder to sign. Also, he has his championship so he's probably not as hungry to play with a winner. The thing is, if he has to leave, that opens the door to pursue somebody like Artest or Rasheed Wallace who wants to play for a winner at the veterans exception.
MOST importantly neither San Antonio nor Phoenix has a beach.
Doubtful L.O. wants to stick his toes in the Riverwalk or a Phoenix area golf course sand trap after a long road trip.
Funny neither does LA, they have a dumping ground for the storm drains and we all know what kind og trash ends up in the la storm drains dumping right into the beachs. dark dirty water, trash everywhere, tagging everywhere,please you have to leave LA to get to a beach that wont kill yea or give you cancer!