Check out Laker Nation for the newest Odom rumor: Artest, Shelden Williams, Quincy Douby. Not as horrible as Kenny Thomas, but the non-Artest guys are still worthless. Douby's no Jordan Farmar, and I think I'd even rather have Coby Karl off the bench than him. I'll take him over Joe Crawford, though. And Williams? He's better than Thomas, but he's still no Mikki Moore. The advantage is that both guys expire after this year, instead of after 2010, like Thomas. The question remains: do you give up a gifted rebounder, a mismatch nightmare, a guy who gets inside almost at will, a player who doesn't just know his role as a third option/playmaker but actually relishes that role, for a volume shooter who can't stay healthy and might smack his wife around the day after the trade? I don't, not if you're not getting back additional guys who can play (Moore) instead of just salary ballast (Thomas, Williams, Douby, who my iPhone always wants to change to Doubt).

All that said, the good recent news from Marc Stein is that the Lakers are " reluctant" to give up Odom in an Artest swap. I guess they're trying to get the deal done with Vlad Rad and Luke Walton or something, which doesn't strike me as a viable move for Sacto, but would be a relatively unobjectionable type of deal from my standpoint. Pretty much any Artest deal that kept Odom in LA is fine with me, even if it involves giving up a good player like Jordan Farmar to get it done. There's just no reason to rashly trade Odom.