Mavericks vs. Lakers: 5 Reasons Why LA Clearly Won Lamar Odom Trade

When the Lakers first traded Lamar Odom to the Mavericks for a first round draft pick it seemed the whole world believed they "gave him away." I count myself in that company as I called it the "Oh, dumb!" trade, because that's what you thought when you saw it. 

The Lakers gave an essential piece of their franchise for the first round pick of the defending champions? What could possibly be dumber than that? Well apparently this falls into the "crazy like a fox" camp of stupid. 

Tonight the Lakers and Mavericks square off in Dallas and at this point the Odom trade was the "oh smart" trade. At this point the clear winner has to go to the Lakers and here are five reasons why.  

They Traded High

When the Lakers traded Odom away, he was at his highest point in years, if not ever. He was the vastly under appreciated piece to the team that had won two titles. He was the player who could do everything on the court well. He was the reigning Sixth Man of the Year and deservedly so. 

The thing is, if you sell anything at the perfect time it's going to seem stupid. The day the housing bubble started to burst, someone sold their house at the highest value it has ever gone for and may ever go for and his friend called him a moron. 

Now his friend calls him a genius. 

That's what happened with Mitch Kupcheck and the Lakers. Odom's value has taken an absolute dive. He's untradable for anything now, much less a first round pick. 

This trade was a robbery, but our thought on who the robber and who the victim is have turned around. 

They Gained Interest on Their Investment

The Lakers packaged that pick together with Derek Fisher to get back the young Jordan Hill who has quietly having a much improved season. Hill has been averaging 12 points and 12 boards per 36 minutes for the Rockets at just 24 years of age. 

At this point Hill is a better player than Odom. His Player Efficiency Rating is 15.3 to Odom's 9.2. He's getting worse and Hill is getting better. It's unlikely that the Lakers would have been able to get a player of Hill's caliber with the Mavs heavily protected pick anyway. 

On top of that though when you look at it combination with the Sessions trade it's sheer genius. I mean think about. The Lakers managed to turn Derek Fisher, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom and a bottom end first round pick into Ramon Sessions, Christian Eyenga, Hill. 

Thy got better and younger spending less money. When you look at what they got with what they got for Odom, it's even more genius. 

They Saved Money

What's even more amazing is that when you factor in the Dallas and Houston trades, they saved over $10 million. If you include the Cleveland trade they saved over $11 million. 

The Lakers got younger, and better for a whole lot cheaper. Getting rid of Odom's and Walton's contracts were huge. They now have the realistic chance to keep Bynum for next year, as well as Sessions and the other newly acquired players while staying under $80 million. 

While that's still going to have them paying some some luxury tax, it's out of the colossal tax range they were in. They saved somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million when you consider the taxes they are saving. 

They got better and younger for cheaper. 

They Are Better Set for the Future

Ramon Sessions is a valid starting point guard in the NBA and Jordan Hill has the full potential to be a starting power forward, if not at least a key rotation player. Christian Eyenga is an incredibly athletic, incredibly raw small forward who has a very high upside. 

If Ron Artest (not Metta World Peace! I mean the one that plays defense!) can mentor Eyenga defensively he could turn him into a LeBron-stopping nightmare. Eyenga's (nicknamed "Skyenga" for a reason) athleticism is out of this world. He just needs to develop his game. 

With Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum locking up the star roles on this team what they needed was serious upgrades in the bench department and that's what they got.

Each of these players is a building block for the future. 

They Are Better Set for the Present

Are the Los Angeles Lakers perfect after their deadline moves? No. But they are a lot better and a very legitimate contender for this year's NBA title. 

They have a better, deeper rotation. They have a point guard who can distribute the ball and enable Bynum and Gasol to flourish. They also have this guy named Kobe Bryant who has been known to show up in a postseason or two. 

The Lakers might not be the favorites for the title but they went from pretender to contender this year. 

Maybe it's not so dumb after all. I don't know of a trade that went from "Why the heck did they do that?" to "How the heck did they do that?" so fast in recent history.