The difference is level of play. When Odom is "inconsistent," he's still pretty good. When Odom is on top of his game, he's one of the best in the league, period. The guy is only 1" shorter than most centers, has great length, and is quick off the floor and an aggressive rebounder. Combine that with pretty good defense, excellent ballhanding, good passing, and versatile offense, and we'd be crazy not to go after him even if we know LA will eventually match.
I disagree. Odom is a wild card and he has repeatedly say he wants to stay in LA and win at least one more ring. Sessions is a different matter he plays for a god awful Milwaukee team and it's in Milwaukee. I'm shocked that Toronto > Portland but that might just be the Turkish or European point of view. I've been around quite a bit and Portland is very nice for livability always ranking high on national lists. For Odom though there is no question that LA is better on virtually every front. Going after Odom hard would be a mistake and give LA another way to strike at us (stringing us along and then matching).
I'm not sure which part you're disagreeing with... As I've already said, LA will most likely match any offer for Odom. That doesn't mean he's not worth going after, though. Either we get lucky and sign him, or we make LA overpay to retain him. Win-win. I don't have the familiarity with Sessions to know if he's worth going after... His stats and reported strengths/weaknesses don't excite me much, however. We need a veteran, not a young guy with potential that is maybe a year or two more advanced than Bayless in that department. I have relatives in Toronto and can't imagine why people view it as such a desirable place to live. Endless sprawl and horrible weather pretty much any time of the year... Lovely.
The difference is our chances are about 1% with Odom to about 70% chance that Milwaukee will at least do a sign and trade since we can offer quite a pretty penny. LA can match any offer we throw Odom's way and if they sign him and it locks them over the cap they still have the MLE etc. It's not like LA really needs to improve they are definitely the favorites next year without anyone really close. I think Boston is done even with Sheed, nobody else is that close to LA. Maybe, SA if they stay healthy and integrate Jefferson well.
I don't think you understand what Milwaukee has done in order to make way to sign Sessions. They traded away Jefferson and even refused to give CV the qualifying offer, because it might have cost then money they could use to get Sessions. I don't think there's any way Milwaukee doesn't match whatever we have to offer, and they aren't going to get excited with Outlaw/Blake S/T.
It might be a better strategy, to wait for Odom to get pissed off at the Laker's "low ball offer" then bolt to the Blazers to get even. That's how we got Detlef Schrempf, though he didn't play that well for us.
They can match it but unlike LA with Odom they are not even close to contending and are owned by one of the struggling owners in the NBA. It's not a matter of can Milwaukee match but are they will to match if we offer: 5y/$40M if it's structured as 5.5M/6.0M/8.5M/9.0M/9.5M. They might match that but will they in this economy? We are talking SPAM vs. I believe some Realtor owners. Anyone know if the Bucks owner is broke? I might be getting them confused with the Pacers owner...
They also just drafted a PG with their lottery pick and they have a financially uphill battle. I don't think that they necessarily made the CV and RJ moves BECAUSE of Sessions... I think they made it because they're tired of losing tens of millions of dollars with a losing team. If my interpretation is correct, they might not match a large offer sheet. Ed O.
Well one of the owners is: (Emphasis mine) The question is will he pay 40 million over 5 years? I had heard Realty was what the owners were in to but that must be some other team (The Maloofs in SacTown?).
Kohl has a net worth of $279m. This list is old, but Kohl was the 6th-poorest owner in the NBA in 2004-05 (I lumped the Maloofs together). He doesn't have the revenue streams of Toronto and Chicago, two owners that have similar net worths. Ed O.
Wow, that makes me want to try for Sessions even more! You gotta throw an offer at him. Odom I think is fools gold and a dangerous bit at that because LA can intentionally block us. Milwaukee might do it to us but they would have less reason to then LA.
Not sure about some of your love affairs with Sessions. Not enough body of work to blow all our space for years to come. Odom is three times the player that Outlaw, Batum, and Webster. With Oden and LA, it would make us one of the best rebounding teams in the league. To me, Rebounds are one of the most important team stats. Odom also had to play with the most selfish player in the NBA and was a true team player. Was the second best player in the Finals behind Kobe. Aside from a weed issue 6 years ago, he has been a pretty model citizen. This is Brandons team. Odum is a great 2-3. Makes too much sense. Severely weakens one of our biggest rivals. Artest isn't half the player that Odom is. KP got Turkslapped. This would be a good comeuppance.
Odom's skills would help Portland. He still seems to not be the right fit. Pritchard isn't going to bring him into the locker room. Nope. Nate's not PJax. This is just my gut instinct, but I'd be concerned whether he'd be motivated to continue playing at a high level now that he's earned his ring and new long term contract.
Whoa. Never seen that list before, cool stuff. It's crazy how much richer PA is, much more of a gap then I thought. Side note: How random is it that both Bill Davidson and Dan Gilbert both got bachelor degrees at Michigan State and both got law degrees from Wayne State? Weird.
I think our space is "blown" for years to come even if we do not add ANYONE this summer as a big free agent... I would be pretty comfortable with us getting a guy who's an immediate upgrade and yet young enough to potentially get a lot better. Ed O.
Hmmm. Too bad. I guess they are concerned about the bad blood between the players and Lamar. LaMarcus must really hate him. On to Sessions and Childress/Williams then!
Yep, exactly. The only other angle is Millsap with the intent of trading either Joel for Battier + 3rd string PF (one of Hayes/Landry/Dorsey) or the pipe dream of LMA for Harris. Front court of Oden/Przybilla/Millsap or Oden/LMA/Millsap/Hayes is pretty damn solid and would own the boards.
