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Odom might go back to the wing
Stone Cold is Bout It, Bout It:
From the day he came back as Lakers coach in June, Phil Jackson talked about playing forward Lamar Odom in the backcourt, reprising the role Scottie Pippen once played for Jackson's championship Chicago Bulls teams in the 1990s.
Jackson then took things a step further for training camp, flying Pippen to Hawaii for two weeks to serve as Odom's tutor in the triangle offense.
Yet only eight games into the season, Jackson said Wednesday he has considered moving Odom out of the backcourt and might make the change during this homestand. The Lakers sputtered on offense at the end of their recent road trip.
"If he does, I don't feel like I lost," Odom said. "I don't feel like I did a bad job or anything like that. It's just what it is.
"You've got to change your game according to your team, sacrificing for your team. If he puts me back to the wing, it makes no difference. I'll still rebound, push it out."
The question of where to play the 6-foot-10 Odom has long posed a quandary for coaches. Jackson could shift Odom to the wing, a move that would require Kobe Bryant to return to the backcourt. Bryant entered Tuesday averaging 29.9 points at the wing.
"Whatever's best for the team, that's the most important thing," Bryant said. "And if Phil and (consultant Tex Winter) feel like making a change would be better for us as a whole, that's what we will do."
Jackson also could move Odom to power forward, a position that would require him to bang with the likes of Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan nightly in the Western Conference.
What that would mean for Kwame Brown or Chris Mihm remains to be seen. The Lakers also would have to find somebody to play in the backcourt if they don't want to move Bryant from wing, possibly Laron Profit or Luke Walton.
Jackson was asked if 12 games into the season was too soon to give up on the Odom experiment. He noted Odom will have played about 20 games by then, counting exhibitions, and that he always has planned to evaluate the entire team around Thanksgiving.
"We don't want to get entrenched in that, so we may make some changes," Jackson said.
Odom is averaging 14.6 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5 assists but is shooting only 39.8 percent, with nearly a third of his shots coming from 3-point range. By moving inside, Odom would start closer to the basket and could use his passing skills from the post.
"It's so crazy because a lot of these positions in the triangle are interchangeable," Odom said. "So maybe they might want to put me to the wing or just to put the ball in the hole a little bit more. I don't know what the thought process is with it."
Injury report: Forward Slava Medvedenko will miss approximately six weeks due to a herniated disc, the team announced, which leaves the Lakers with only four healthy big men in addition to Odom. Medvedenko suffered the injury last week.
Jackson said Devean George would play some at power forward in a small lineup and teenage center Andrew Bynum also could get more minutes.
Meanwhile, Walton, who suffered a hip flexor injury while rehabbing from his torn hamstring, said he would like to play Sunday against Chicago.
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_3225443
Larry the Jew:
One time, i was driving through Richmond, which is where Master P is from, and as I was situated at a stop light, a homeles man ran up to my window screaming "hootie hoo!". I was shooken up.
Now_Im_Not_Banned:
That was actually just a suggestion Tex Winter had...It's not gunna happen now, if it ever does. Lamar prefers handeling the ball.
Stone Cold is Bout It, Bout It:
If Lamar Was any good the Lakers would have a better record.. the Lakers only avg 74 PPG the Last 3 road games :grumpy:..Lamar doesn't help kobe,that's the bottom line,he doesn't help'em out..
Larry the Jew:
excuse me, lakers run dubcc sports section, I think you missed my story, it was a comical anticdote about the city where master P hails from, I think you would be quite interested
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