Very well said. You notice that when Odom tries to be aggressive he is mostly driving which then he would either misses or causes a turnover during a shooting action because he did not read the defense right. He may not be completely mediocre at shooting but he is still not as good as he should be. The way to help that his to have someone set up a shot for him insted of him having to create his own shot while playing the point. You'll also notice that during Odom's bad games he is hesitant to score, but not because he is very unselfish but more because he does not know when to either score or to pass. Odom is not a point guard (and Hopfully Phil will realize this) - He is good at setting up people to score, but being awear of every aspect of the teams offense and the opositions defense and then acting accordingly is not a talent that he has or can learn anytime soon since that is realy more of a God given gift. Tex saw this and understood that the whole Point Forward thing with Odom should be scrapped.
What can be done
1. Move Odom to the power foward and have Walton at the Point forward.
Here Walton can controll the ball. Odom's shootong percantage and attempts will increase greatly since he now has somebody to set up shots for him consistantly.
The down side is that Odom is not strong enough to guard power forwards every night which can put him into foul trouble - putting a lot of pressure on Mihm.
2. Leave Odom where he is and put Walton at the 1 and kobe at the 2 or visa versa.
Here odom can still be at his natural position and won't have to take a beating every night. walton will most likely be controlling the offense so Odom will still get more shots.
The down side is that this is not a good defensive linup and also with this line-up, Walton at the guard spot, Phil will have to change the offense for it to work which will be hard since the the team has been learning the regualar triangle for two months now. Also we have inexperience PFs. Kwame Brown can hold his ground in the post but he is inconsistant at rebounding and has bad hands on offensive. Brian Cook can shoot and is a decent rebounder but he is not big enough to guard good PF constantly - inducing foul trouble. Andrew Bynum is a good block and has good defensive awearness but he is still raw on offense and he is still prone to make rookie mistakes which can be costly. So again unwanted pressure will be put on Mihm.
Any change that is made within the roster is still hampered by our inexperience bigs so the organization should stop hoping for the inprobable (Kwame and Odom learning the offense) and get what they need which brings me to plan 3.
3. Trade Odom (and a first round pick or scrub) for a good posting PF with decent defense or a SF that can play the PF good.
Seeing that Odom cannot run the offense or score when needed and that we have someone on the bench (Walton) who is better in both areas, Odom is practically useless. He must be traded. If they are able pull this off then our lineup will have Smush at the guard, Kobe still at the wing, Walton as the new facilitator, our new player as the forward, and Mihm at the center. The team will learn the offense better and faster because we now have to people an the court that know the triangle, also because we should now have a power forward that we never had - one that plays good D and can score in the post when we need him to. This will make the team enormously better.
The only thing that will keep them from being title contenders is the bench - which the 2007 cap room should help that(if we can resign some players)
My first idea of the offseason was to trade Odom but when they got kwame I thought that Odom will do well in the offense. That has not happen so the only other solution I see working is (Plan 3) to trade him.
