LO did and admirable job while Bynum was healing. I certainly don't recall LO getting 15/15 every night during this stretch, however. Yeah, I know we tend to remember what we want to remember.

The fact remains that while Odom has skills, he doesn't thrive under pressure. Putting up nice numbers while three or four of your teammates take the heat off of you isn't as impressive as doing it when you're the man, or even the #2 man. If he could, he would have received more and/or better offers from more teams. Only Miami offered him a deal, and that was for the mid-level exception, which is the average NBA annual salary. Bad economy aside, what does that say about what other teams think about LO's game vs. his salary demands? It was extremely generous of the Lakers to offer LO above and beyond the annual mid-level salary average when he had nothing better than that on the table.

I agree with wellbilldancesays, I'd rather have Odom in the capacity the Lakers will use him than not. He's just an expensive luxury and insurance policy. If the Lakers had to count on him as a key go-to guy, well, we've already seen how that plays out. Should Artest integrate well with the Lakers offense and if Bynum has a freak injury-free season, Lamar could be rendered relatively obsolete. Sure, he'll get his minutes, but they may be more garbage-time minutes than crunch time minutes.