Why Losing Lamar Odom Will Be the Real Death of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2012

The Lakers have 17 NBA titles, but No. 18 will have to wait until at least next season. The Lakers ensured that was the case when they dealt Lamar Odom to the Mavericks.

Just to be clear, the Lakers were swept by the Mavericks a season ago in the playoffs. They were swept for three reasons:

1) Play in the paint

2) Point guard play

3) Lack of depth

That's what it ultimately boiled down to. 

The season is less than one week away from starting; and the Lakers haven't improved in the paint, haven't improved their point-guard play and have gotten thinner overall. Dealing Odom cost them one of the best bench-players in the league, and he went to the very team that beat the Lakers. 

That makes no sense. 

I'm not the only one that thinks so. 

If Kobe Bryant is expressing even a little bit of doubt, it doesn't bode well for the Lakers' chances. 

But that's more indirect. This was a terrible trade for direct reasons.

Odom's a great player. He knows the offense and has reliably been in the 12-15 (or more) points-per-game range for his entire career. He was given away for virtually nothing. 

The Lakers are now going to rely far too much on aging players like Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace (Ron Artest) to log too many minutes. In a season that's going to feature five games per week, that's too much of a load for their older bodies. 

Dallas has similar age problems, but they have depth to work around that. Teams like the Thunder and Clippers have a distinct age advantage over the Lakers.

With Odom, there's depth to override the lack of youth. Without him, their title hopes aren't there. 

Not many teams contending for titles make their team worse from one year to the next, but that's what the Lakers did. It's inexplicable. 

With Odom, they had a core group of starters and probably the best sixth man in the game to add depth. Now they are an aging group with no depth. 

That move was baffling. But at this point, the explanation doesn't matter. 

When they dealt Odom to the team that handily swept them in four games, they essentially gave any hope of a title away. That's not acceptable for the Lakers.

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