Odom offers big upside for Clippers
Multidimensional talent is great addition, as long as he accepts role of supporting player
Gerald Herbert / APAfter being traded away by the Mavericks, Lamar Odom returns to Los Angeles for his second tour of duty with the Clippers.
ASK THE NBA EXPERT
By Ira Winderman
NBCSports.com
updated 11:38 p.m. ET June 30, 2012
 | Ira Winderman |
|
You ask, we (try to) answer.
Q. Why are the Clippers going back in time with Lamar Odom? What's next, waiting for Philly to amnesty Elton Brand and bringing him back, too? Maybe Corey Maggette if the Pistons buy him out?
—Len, Santa Rosa, Calif.
A. The risk is relatively minimal for the Clippers and the payoff could be considerable if Odom can regain the form he had two seasons ago with the Lakers.
For all the strides the Clippers made last season, Odom arguably can be an upgrade on both Caron Butler and Kenyon Martin, while the loss of Mo Williams to the Jazz should be offset by the emergence of Eric Bledsoe behind Chris Paul.
The difference with this reunion tour with Odom is the Clippers are nothing like the group he previously left when he signed with the Heat as a free agent in 2003. This already is a playoff team on the rise, and it will be important for Odom to accept his role as a supporting player to Paul and Blake Griffin.
Click for related content
At his best, Odom is a multidimensional talent who should complement Paul and Griffin. At his worst, he is a one-year experiment that the Clippers can distance themselves from soon enough.
While Williams' instant offense will be missed, it's not as if he wasn't considering moving on to a team that could have offered a more favorable role, anyway.
Q. Is Deron Williams a game-changer? Did he show any of that in Utah, New Jersey? Is he better than Derrick Rose?
— Gil, Arlington, Texas.
A. Williams certainly had his playoff moments with the Jazz, and there only is so much he could have done with the cast he had alongside with the Nets.
That said, there are no guarantees that he will be as transformative a presence as Chris Paul was this past season with the Clippers, at times lacking the attack mode that Paul, or even a Derrick Rose, possess.
Is he an A-list free agent? Absolutely. Is he a LeBron-level free agent? That remains to be seen, but unlikely.
Then again, it's as if Williams appreciates his limitations, which is why his options apparently come down to trying to get Dwight Howard (or another A-list player) alongside in Brooklyn or going to the Mavericks to play alongside Dirk Nowitzki.
Q. When Perry Jones III and Jared Sullinger get going this season, are other teams going to fire the doctors who failed their physicals?
— Steve, Worcester, Mass.
A. The problem with the "red flag" thing when it comes to draft prospects is that those warning flags are raised by team physicians with long-standing ties to teams, doctors who tend to take the long view.
It's one thing to draft a player No. 1 overall and get practically nothing in return on the investment, such as Greg Oden. It's another to select a player midway through or late in the first round, when expectations are tempered with just about any selection.
If the Celtics get even a couple of quality seasons out of Sullinger and the Thunder get the same out of Jones, then they will have received more of a return on their investments than teams with similar draft positions.
To a degree, it could leave the Celtics and Thunder in a similar position to where the Spurs stood with DeJuan Blair, when some said such a selection was too risky, considering he arrived to the NBA without ACLs in his knees. The Spurs got a quality three-year return out of Blair despite concerns about those knees, and now have moved on. Ultimately, it proved to be a sound investment, red flag or no red flag.
Long-term investments are lottery investments. With everyone else, any contribution is considered a bonus.
Q. What are the Magic waiting for with Brian Shaw?
— Tim, Deland, Fla.
A. Good question. I can't fathom a better fit, nor someone as deserving of such an opportunity.
What the Lakers did a year ago in summarily casting aside everyone touched by Phil Jackson was disgraceful, seemingly not even considering Shaw's candidacy before reaching out to Mike Brown. Yet Shaw immediately injected his playoff know-how into the Pacers, as assistant head coach, helping push them to the next level under Frank Vogel.
Shaw will be a quality coach, with a concern now that some will bypass him so as not to become associated with someone from the Jackson coaching tree, particularly after Jackson's dalliance with the Magic before Rob Hennigan got the job as general manager there.
Charlotte made a mistake in bypassing Shaw (if, indeed, that's how it played out, before Shaw withdrew his name); Orlando can't afford to make that same mistake.
With a neophyte general manager, the Magic could do far worse than Shaw as the face of their franchise.
And who knows? Dwight Howard might prove to be captivated by Shaw and his engaging personality.
Q. Why are teams balking at offering Steve Nash a multiyear deal? Wasn't he one of the best point guards in the league last season?
— Liz, Scottsdale, Ariz.
A. I'm not sure anyone is balking, with plenty of interest out there, particularly from the Raptors.
If anyone is balking, it might be the Suns, who appear willing to sever the final ties from the Nash-Stoudemire-Marion era. To a degree, the Suns do have to get on with their lives, perhaps even taking another look at Aaron Brooks.
As for Nash, he has proven almost ageless. Yet he also has battled back issues for years, and once the back goes, it goes. To that extent, Bryan Colangelo could be taking a bit too much of a gamble for a Raptors team that remains very much in rebuild mode.
Ira Winderman writes regularly for NBCSports.com and covers the Heat and the NBA for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat.
© 2012 NBC Sports.com Reprints ![]()
advertisement
More newsPBT: Spurs guard Tony Parker repeatedly sliced through the Grizzlies' defense, creating 20 points and nine assists in an easy Game 1 win for San Antonio.
PBT: The Grizzlies haven't faced a team this postseason that can execute its system to the level that the Spurs can. The results were obvious in the series opener.
