It seems every Friday since your friendly neighborhood columnist has started having chats with the HOOPSWORLD community, questions about Lamar Odom and whether or not he'll stay in LA come up every single week. The implication is he's not happy in Los Angeles and wants to be traded. Some also imply Odom is not happy coming off the bench.
Time to sort out a little fact from fiction.

"It's not even an over-exaggeration, it's just exaggerating period," Kobe Bryant told HOOPSWORLD in an exclusive interview about any possibility of Odom being unhappy with his role on the team. "It's just not a problem... at all. If anything I think it makes him more valuable to us."

More valuable? How so, Kobe?

"It's a big year for him, a contract year, and it makes him even more valuable to us," Bryant continued. "When you have a player that can start on any team in the league but now you bring him off the bench and he makes the same contributions a starter would make, that increases his value. The only other player I see doing stuff like that is (Manu) Ginobili in San Antonio."

Odom also threw some water on the proverbial trade fire in a conversation with HOOPSWORLD just a few days ago.

"I've been starting my whole career, and I think people like to make news where there's no news," Odom explained. "Negativity is what people kind of like to read. It just happens to be my contract year. My 10th year in the NBA, my contract year and I'm still willing to make that sacrifice I guess you could say for the team. Whatever's needed of me I'm willing to do because this team is a championship-caliber team. I think people want me to react a certain way, but I've yet to give them that."

Along with Odom moving to the bench, the biggest change for the Lakers has been the team's new approach on the defensive end of the court.

When asked what's changed for the team defensively, Odom replied: "Our energy, our focus, the intensity. We came into training camp searching for that defensive identity. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to play the same way every night on defense. That's how you establish an identity."

Yes, it's been just four games so far. And no, the Lakers haven't played the best the league has to offer, yet. That said, with their new defensive approach the Lakers are looking like a return trip to The Finals could be in order.

In fact, Odom said he believes if the Lakers and the Celtics met tomorrow, the Lakers would win. Of course, as he also accurately pointed out, one win, as the Lakers found out last June, simply won't be enough to get it done.

"We want to be able to beat them four times, so we can pop champagne and hold that trophy," Odom said. "As we keep getting better and better, hopefully we'll get ourselves in a position to do that."

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=10511