3. The return of Lamar Odom will give the West four legit power teams. Though the Los Angeles Lakers talked brashly before the season about challenging for the championship, most observers saw them as a team with one megastar (Kobe Bryant), one co-star (Odom) and a bunch of supporting actors. (It's time to pull out the Oscar metaphors.) Yet when the co-star went out with a sprained right knee, a couple of those bit players (Luke Walton in particular) began to find themselves, and the Lakers more than held their own. Now Odom is ready to return, and, since he is an utterly unselfish player, as is Walton, there should be no adjustment problems fitting him back in. His return gives Bryant a versatile frontcourt runnin' buddy -- just like Dirk Nowitzki has Josh Howard in Dallas and Steve Nash has Shawn Marion in Phoenix -- and the Lakers have to be considered a major threat. In fact, if the San Antonio Spurs don't cure what ails them, the Lakers could grab the third seed in the West behind the Mavericks and Suns. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writ...ions/index.html
