Lamar Odom, Mavs part ways
Lamar Odom's brief and bumpy ride with the Dallas Mavericks has come to an abrupt end.
The
Mavericks and Odom spent Easter Sunday working out a parting, according
to sources close to the situation, that frees the struggling Odom to
leave the team immediately without actually being released.
"The
Mavericks and I have mutually agreed that it's in the best interest of
both parties for me to step away from the team," Odom said in a
statement to ESPN.com. "I'm sorry that things didn't work out better for
both of us, but I wish the Mavs' organization, my teammates and Dallas
fans nothing but continued success in the defense of their
championship."
Sources said Monday that Odom's departure will be
immediate and that the Mavericks intend to simply list him as inactive
for the rest of the season instead of outright releasing him, leaving
open the possibility that they could still trade him after the season in
conjunction with the draft. Any team that has Odom on its roster as of
June 29 must buy him out by that date for $2.4 million or otherwise
accept responsibility for the full $8.2 million that Odom is scheduled
to earn in 2012-13.
Even if either side had pushed for a formal
release, there is little upside to taking that step now with Odom
ineligible to play in the playoffs with another team because he wasn't
waived before the March 23 deadline. One source close to the 32-year-old
told ESPN.com that the decision sets Odom up to "clear his head and
start getting ready for next season" after his career-low numbers and
minutes continued to dip as the season wore on.
Odom will not be
at practice Monday, sources said, after he was given just four
first-quarter minutes of playing time Saturday night in Memphis,
accounting for the low point of a consistently rocky season in Dallas
following his trade in December from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Odom's
representatives pushed for the trade to Dallas after it became known
that the Lakers had agreed to trade Odom to the league-owned New Orleans Hornets as part of a Chris Paul blockbuster that was ultimately vetoed by NBA comissioner David Stern in his role as the Hornets' lead decision-maker.
Throughout
Odom's season-long struggles to adapt to his new surroundings, Mavs
officials and players have repeatedly expressed confidence that the
former Laker could still be a playoff X-factor, pointing to the team's
0-7 record without him as evidence that his presence -- if only for the
minute relief Odom gives star forward Dirk Nowitzki -- has helped the team on some level.
But
exasperation with Odom's languid play reached an apparent breaking
point in Memphis. Both coach Rick Carlisle and Nowitzki refused to
discuss the Odom situation after Dallas' 94-89 defeat to the Grizzlies.
"No Lamar questions tonight," Carlisle told reporters.
Nowitzki,
meanwhile, fielded questions for four minutes about his own struggles
in the Memphis defeat -- including two late turnovers -- but ended the
interview when asked about Odom.
"I'm done talking about that," Nowitzki said.
Associates
of the veteran forward, meanwhile, have long maintained privately that
his lack of a clear-cut role with the Mavericks -- where minutes behind
Nowitzki are limited -- complicated the transition. Lakers star Kobe Bryant
said as much after a game in Dallas recently, describing himself as
"pleasantly surprised" that the Odom deal wasn't coming back to haunt
LA.
"It's tough," Bryant said. "He comes to a team that's pretty
much set, you know what I mean? So it's hard for him to find his niche.
The fans, they don't really understand what he does or how he can do it,
you know what I mean?
"I hope they don't unlock that mystery. I
know. I know how to use him and to use his skill set and this, that and
the other. But with this team, the roster that they had being pretty
much set, it's tough for him to be able to find his groove here."
After declining to offer defensive anchor Tyson Chandler
more than a one-year deal in the offseason to preserve future
salary-cap flexibility, even after Chandler's pivotal role in the
Mavericks' championship breakthrough last season, Dallas used the
resulting trade exception created by Chandler's sign-and-trade move to
the New York Knicks to bring Odom in with the idea that the parties could help each greatly on a one-season basis.
Dallas
was initially seen as an ideal destination for Odom to start over after
the jolt of being discarded by the Lakers, but he began the season well
short of peak condition after a tumultuous summer on a personal level
and never quite caught up.
Left reeling by the July murder of his
24-year-old cousin and a fatal car accident days later that killed a
teen pedestrian after the car he was riding in as a passenger collided
with a motorcycle, Odom did almost no basketball training during the
five-month lockout. The contrast in preparation to his final season with
the Lakers was stark; Odom won NBA Sixth Man Award honors in 2010-11
after spending the bulk of the summer of 2010 with Team USA, often
playing as a center for a squad that won the FIBA World Championships in
Turkey.
Odom leaves the team averaging just 6.6 points and 4.1
rebounds in 20.5 minutes per game while shooting 35.2 percent from the
field and 25.2 percent on 3-pointers, all career lows by some distance.
Unlike
a leave Odom was granted just before the All-Star break, there are no
plans to bring him back to the team this time, sources said.
Link