Lakers Re-Load With Artest, Increase Chances Of a Repeat With Odom

The off-season began for Lakers fans with a celebration of a NBA title, but after the celebration was over, nervous Lakers fans walked the streets wondering if the Lakers front office would re-sign Odom or Ariza, both or neither.

First move that occurred was Ron Artest signing a contract with the Lakers, thus creating a lot of concerns for some that he is going to be a cancer in that locker room, in my opinion I don't think that'll be the case, but it certainly suggested Ariza played his last game in a Lakers uniform.

Shortly after Ron Artest signed as a Laker, Trevor Ariza turned down signing with the Cavs and signed with a team that will most likely miss the playoffs this year in the Houston Rockets. Pretty good trade if you ask me, sure Ariza is younger but Artest is a better defender, a veteran, and puts up way better numbers.

So then another off-season question mark started. Where would Lamar Odom go? It started out with rumors to Portland, but came down to Miami and Los Angeles.

Beach, girls and maybe going a round or two in the playoffs? Or beach, girls, and most likely repeating?

Today Lamar Odom chose the second option, and the smart option, despite all the work Dwayne Wade did to try to bring Odom back to the state of Florida. Now who knows what's going to happen to Wade, especially if they don't sign Boozer, but that's not our problem.

So with the Lakers great team of the 2008-09 season getting better, their definitely in my books the heavy favorite in 2009-10. They have the best player in the world, best coach of all-time, and now the 2004 Defensive Player of the Year in Ron Artest.

It's amazing to see how far this team has come from just a few years ago, when Smush Parker was our starting point guard, Kwame Brown was our center, and Kobe Bryant wanted to play on Pluto.

Now look, we traded Brian Cook and Mo Evans for Trevor Ariza, which now basically is for Ron Artest, nice trade! Traded Kwame Brown and fillers for Pau Gasol, nice trade! Kept the versatile Lamar Odom from the Shaq trade in 2004.

A+ Mr. Kupchak, you did what Lakers fans wanted, and it payed off with two NBA Finals appearances in the past two seasons, and a championship.

The way this off-season went, with us building the best perimeter defence in the NBA, and the best 6th man off the bench, I have no doubt we will do it again next year as well.