OK, who spiked the NBA punch with LSD? That's the only explanation for what's going on here. Two days after David Stern nixed the Lakers' trade for Chris Paul, the Lakers have traded Lamar Odom, one of their key chips in that deal, to Dallas for the Mavs' 2012 first round draft choice. Let's repeat that: the Lakers have traded Lamar Odom, the reigning Sixth Man of the Year, to a conference rival (the conference rival who bounced them from the playoffs, no less) for a draft pick (a draft pick that, given the Mavs' projected performance this year, won't be very high at all).
Salary dump? A play for cap flexibility? The Lakers do get a traded-player exception out of the trade, which would allow them to acquire a player making the equivalent of Odom's salary ($9 million) or less for merely a draft pick of their own. But this is still a difficult deal to sell to Lakers fans: In the span of 72 hours, they've gone from trading Odom and Pau Gasol for Chris Paul, to trading Odom for a very low first round pick in next year's draft. And this from a team with an aging superstar? Stay tuned, there must be another shoe dropping at some point.
[via LA Times]
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