Lamar Odom had a different feeling about him this summer during the Team USA Basketball mini-camp in Las Vegas, Nevada. He's always been a fun-loving guy but he just seemed to be at ease for the first time in his life. He had accepted his role as a celebrity on the court as well as of it after a year of married life with Khloe Kardashian, he had just won his second straight NBA championship and he was about to go to Turkey as one of Team USA's two leaders.
Odom performed at a high level during the FIBA World Championships, playing his best two games in the final two rounds in the tournament. In the gold medal game against host nation Turkey, Odom put together a masterful all-around game, scoring 15 points on six-of-eight shooting with 11 rebounds and picture perfect rotations defensively.
Whether his experience has given Lamar a new found confidence in himself or maybe playing all summer long has him in shape much earlier than he usually is this early in the season, there is no denying that Odom has carried over his success to the Lakers so far this season.
With Andrew Bynum out with a knee injury, Odom has been bumped into the starting line-up to start the season for the second year in a row. In 35 minutes a night, Odom has been able to put in 16.6 points per game this season with 11.4 boards and nearly four assists to go along with it. Lamar has also been shooting the lights out, knocking down 70% of his field goals and 80% of his three-point attempts.
Lamar's reputation as a swiss army knife has always been accurate. His ability to play every position on the basketball court effectively has made him the most versatile player in the NBA for the past two or three seasons, which is especially useful for the Lakers when he gets to be the leader of the second unit. The problem with Odom has always been his inconsistency. One night, he'd throw up 18-18-7 against the Jazz and make you wonder how anybody could beat the Lakers and then he'd follow that up with 4-5-1 against the Nuggets.
Being consistently inconsistent is what made Lamar such an interesting player to watch. Not just because he could do everything you could imagine a power forward doing, but because he did it as if to tantalize you. He'd show up one night and be gone for the next three, making him one of the harder players in the league to fully understand.
This season, Lamar seems to have eliminated that part of his game. Its early, but he hasn't had one bad game, or even a meaningful five minute stretch, of bad basketball to speak of. Odom is playing with a lot more energy and focus right now and his outside shot has never looked as good as it does right now.
If Odom can continue to play like this, even if/when he is put back in his reserve role, the Lakers are going to be a completely different animal come post-season time. Forgetting that their much improved second unit looks better than any group of reserves the Lakers have had in the past six years, Odom's current play has risen the likelihood of a three-peat even more.
It has been said often over the past two years that when Odom is on, the Lakers are impossible to beat, and it almost always proved true. The rest of the league should be frightened by that, beacuse right now, it doesn't seem like Odom will ever turn it off.
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