Lakers Were Fine With Or Without Odom

Since the Lakers took home championship No. 15 back in June, all anyone could talk about was the importance of re-signing reserve forward Lamar Odom. Even with the addition of the tough and loose-minded Ron Artest, people felt it was imperative to bring back the unrestricted free agent. Odom provided a great spark off the bench for Los Angeles throughout the playoffs. Many felt that without him, tittle defense would not be as easy.

As a fellow Queens native and former AAU teammate, Ron Artest made efforts to persuade Odom to stay out west while he flirted with the possibility of reuniting with Dwyane Wade in Miami. Kobe Bryant never even believed he would leave in the first place. Even still, the Lakers faithful were trembling from the fear of him bolting for South Beach. For a while, Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers management did nothing to calm that fear. Negotiations went on forever before the two parties reached an agreement that would keep Odom in LA for at least another three years.

Looking back on it all, would the Lakers have been that bad off if Odom would have walked?

The acquisition of Ron Artest had already penciled them in to be even better than a team that was miles ahead of all the other 14 teams in the Western Conference. Artest is a proven veteran who should pair up well with Bryant on both sides of the ball. Sure, he's been known to put on a couple shows that are unrelated to basketball with all of his antics, but Phil Jackson should be able to keep all of that to a minimum.

Barring another injury, Andrew Bynum should improve even more. For the past two seasons Bynum was becoming a dominant post presence and was a threat to put up at least 20 a night. Then he would get hurt and come back and play without confidence which usually resulted in inconsistency. Bynum was virtually non-existent in the tittle run. So having a good Bynum back for a full season next year will make the Lakers look even scarier.

Derek Fisher will keep the point guard position stable, Pau Gasol will still be one of the top power forwards in the game, and Kobe is still Kobe. With Artest in the mix they already have arguably the best starting five in the NBA. Odom helps make their bench perhaps the finest in the league, but the reserves are not heavily relied on when you have super efficient starters. They would still have survived with a solid at best bench.

Odom was undoubtedly an integral piece to LA's title puzzle, but let's not be fooled to believe that they could not have put it together again with Odom in another city. Having Odom simply makes it much clearer that they are the undoubtable favorites to reclaim the Larry O'Brien Trophy next June.