Rumours: Nets Could Trade Jefferson To Lakers For Odom. - Lakers Topbuzz - Los Angeles Lakers News, Rumors, & Fan Forum

It was about a year ago that Rod Thorn dialed Mitch Kupchak and floated Richard Jefferson-for-Lamar Odom. The conversation, we're told, didn't last long. Not interested, Mitch said. Besides, I'm a little busy right now, trying to dodge the molotov cocktails Kobe keeps tossing through my office window.

Care to bet the Nets try again?

And want to bet they stay on the phone a little bit longer?

We said a few months ago that the Lakers are going to find out one thing about their team, with the postseason pending -- whether a frontline of 7-1, 7-0 and 6-10 is the matchup nightmare that it appears to be on paper; or whether they really need another type at the three-spot.

Though we never saw that frontcourt, it's pretty clear where the Lakers are heading. Odom took the biggest hit in the aftermath of Game 6. If L.A. moves anybody, it shall be him, because Pau Gasol is best suited for the four-spot anyway.

But is RJ the right replacement at the 3? If the Lakers figure to meet up with Paul Pierce again next June, there's no one better. Nets fans know that better than anyone.

The main thing preventing L.A. from considering this deal, we surmise, is the contract lengths. It's not a cap neutral trade: RJ has three years ($42.4M) left, Odom is a free agent after next season. Might quash it, might not. But we know this much: If the Nets pursue this deal again, it could go a long way toward charting their path over the next two years.

Think about it. If the Nets move RJ to, say, Phoenix, it will be cap business as usual. That still-breathing discussion that includes Barbosa/Diaw -- which is utterly nonsensical, but breathing nonetheless - would bring back a pair of contracts that last into 2012. How nice for Phoenix. Those deals are a waste of time, but then, the Nets are getting desperate: They have shopped RJ all over the league without any words of encouragement from the other end on the phone.

But there's another call to make. And if you make the deal for Odom, and take him off the books after '08-09, this is what you're looking at in the summer of '10: A $38.2M payroll for eight guys, including the third-year salaries of the two kids they're drafting next week ($2.4 and 1.4, respectively).

(That's assuming Mo Ager doesn't get that fourth-year option he's counting on. Sorry, Mo.)

By then, the Nets should know for certain when (if) moving day will come, the salary cap will be in the $59-60M area, and there will be a lot of space to fill - by LeBron, Bosh, Amare, Yao, or any of the other guys who may be free agents that summer.

Of course, all that is predicated on somebody actually putting a damn shovel in the ground in Flatbush, which may not happen in our lifetimes.

It's also predicated on having the requisite pool of talent to entice that free agent whale, because the eight guys mentioned earlier include a 33-year-old Vince, Harris, Boone, Hassell, the Williams duo, and a pair of kids. Not very appealing, unless the Nets draft brilliantly in the next three summers.

Anyway, the RJ thing will continue to be a flash point for the rest of the summer -- even more so if they draft a 3 next week.