Lamar Odom Says Lakers Can Be NBA Contenders by Trading LeBron James

You typically can't trade your best player and get better at the same time, but that's the theory Lamar Odom is proposing for the Los Angeles Lakers.

On his podcast, The LADE Show, Odom asserted the Lakers could get collectively stronger by dealing LeBron James because the trade return would be so large:

This offseason provided a compelling counterargument, however.

When Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant requested a trade over the summer, many expected a feeding frenzy to commence. Rival franchises would surely bend over backward to land one of the best players in the NBA.

Then reality set in. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported in August that "teams did not make the kind of roster-gutting offers that was necessary to trade a player of his stature."

The calculus would be the exact same with James because his age, 37, gives you an even shorter window for contention. James has also shown over the last few years he can't single-handedly carry a team into the postseason, either.

If you were putting together a trade around LeBron, then you'd have to build the deal around valuable draft picks because you simply could not afford to trade two or three of your best players.

You'd wind up in the exact same predicament the Lakers are facing.

As much as Odom might hope for otherwise, it's difficult to see another general manager providing Los Angeles with the kind of lifeline he discussed.