I think Odom is a hell of a player. Heck I would love for him to be a rocket with swift yao and mcgrady but ehhh that's not ever happening. Kobe is a brat. Just reading that part about how everyone stood late practicing free throws and running while Kobe just kicked the water bottle and walked out of the court pissed ... really made me lose more respect for him. Pathetic absolutely pathetic
It's wasn't the offenses fault Odom looked out of place, it was Odom. Don't know if it's respect or fear, but he was just mesmerized when Kobe had the ball. When Kobe went down he flourished in their offense and took control more often. It may be that he cannot do well playing with Kobe. If that's the case, he needs to be with a new team next summer.
Apostolic is right on with this comment. This team plays much better when Odom is number one and Kobe number two (when Odom is a power forward). Its not that Odom is better then Kobe its the simple fact that he is a mismatch against PFs b/c he is so mobile with ball. Odom is a lot like Nowitzki, he is 3.5, too slow to guard the traditional three, not big enough to truely guard the traditional 4. This works out so that he is quicker then most fours and can easily get around them or in Dirk's case shoot from the outside (Fours dont like to play perimeter defense). If Kobe was smart about the whole thing he'd let Odom get off b/c once that happens that means Kobe gets to play a lot of one on one single coverage basketball.(Its impossible to really double team two players in the NBA). We'll see what happens
i expect Phil to use Odom and Kobe similar to how he used 23 and 33 in the Chi. Odom doesn't do many things better than Scottie nor does Kobe do things a the same level as MJ, but barring Kwame coming on they have to utilize their best two players in a complimenting way.
