The Lakers have come to a verbal agreement with Lamar Odom, one of their best new forwards. They have been looking forward to having this forward back with their team this year, because he showed the team how good he was when he had to take the place of Andrew Bynum, who was injured. This means that the team will have several people to play the spot really well. Odom looked like he might be on his way to Miami or another team during this free agency summer for him. But the Lakers have the money and they have the talent that tends to attract a lot of players. This way they can keep their team’s talent new and possibly win some more championships in the coming years.

Two of the underperforming teams in the NBA appear to be on the brink of switching centers this offseason. The Charlotte Bobcats’ center Emeka Okafor is one of the up-and-coming players in the league. But Bobcats’ coach Brown has questioned how passionate he is about the sport. He is a very relaxed guy, in-shape and generally very good at playing. But he’s also sometimes too relaxed and needs to bring the intensity and energy into this high-paced game. Meanwhile, the Hornets’ Tyson Chandler would be headed to Charlotte. Chandler is taller and a little better at rebounds and points. This is the kind of trade that these teams need to do in order to get into the playoffs in the future years. Let’s see if they will be able to get these players into such a good position and into the right kind of constellation to do well.

When the Clippers picked Blake Griffin in the draft a few months ago, they probably didn’t expect that he would be injured from the start. He apparently has a shoulder injury that will hold him back a little bit at the beginning. But the team physician, Dr Shimoyama, says that he will be fine after awhile. The team really needs him to start actually playing well this year in order to get themselves back to the playoff world. Meanwhile, the Clippers have noticed that he’s been playing better and better throughout the summer and training sessions and it’s going to be exciting to have them start winning with their new start player. The Clippers have picked a great player and hopefully they will be able to get lots of help from him!

Kobe Bryant is on a tour of Asia to promote a new shoe brand in about half a dozen places. He said in an interview that he doesn’t think that the economy will affect the NBA very much. It wont depress ticket sales or sponsorship very much, in his eyes. More important to him is that the quality of the product remains strong, and he says that the fact that people are less likely to come again makes him play harder. He said, essentially, that because it could be a family’s first or last time coming to the game, he is inspired to play harder and better for the benefit of the fans. No sleepwalking there. It’s rather surprising coming from a guy who sleepwalked through a rather large part of the season and postseason this year. But it will be interesting to see if he’s changed as a result of this year’s playoffs and the changes that his team had.

All the news is Yao Ming. He injured his foot during the Rockets’ playoff series against the Los Angeles Lakers in May and looked like he would be ok if it could heal over the course of time. But it turned out that it wasn’t working, so they had some more serious options. He decided that he was going to take the route of a bone graft that will relieve the pressure on his foot. This gives him the best chance of returning, though it also means that his extensive rehab will have to last through the entire season this year. It’s too bad, because he’s so fun to watch. But he’ll be back most likely and you can expect him to lead that team again when he returns.

Sports Illustrated today asks who has made the best use of their offseason time so far. And most of them seem to think that it’s the Lakers. The won the championship and then went out and beefed up their defense and attitude by getting Ron Artest from Houston. This will make them extra formidable next year, unless some kind of locker room drama takes over. The Sputs have also gotten better, with the addition of Jefferson and a few other lesser-known players. This will give them the kind of improvement that they are looking for. Meanwhile, Houston looks like it will be a major disaster next season, since they will be without Yao, Tracy and some other players. Milwaukee and Orlando seem to be having some trouble getting back into shape as well.

John Kuester is the new coach of the Detroit Pistons. He was previously one of the assistant coaches at the Cleveland Cavaliers and now he moves to a rival team. Kuester is going to be held to an easier standard than many of the previous coaches have been. The recent coaches have been practically required to get to the Finals, but that’s a high standard for this team, which is almost completely different from the team that won the championship a few years ago. Instead, Kuester probably has a multi-year project to work on, in trying to get the Pistons back into playoff contention and getting them to win. It’s going to be a good year for the Pistons, with their new star Ben Gordon partly leading the way. Kuester will have a good team to work with, but it’ll be awhile before we know for sure how well it works.

In a move that resembles Phil Jackson’s earlier move with Dennis Rodman, the Lakers appear to have signed Ron Artest to their team. The Lakers, with their otherwise rather blase style of play, need the physicality and strong defense that Artest can bring. Artest is probably most famous, however, for being a major part of the riot at Detroit’s Palace of Auburn Hills. He charged up into the stands and started punching people. He has had other similar problems, but no one can deny that he plays a strong defense, all over his opponents, getting turnovers and all kinds of things. He will be a good addition to the Lakers, I think, and he might get enough of the discipline he needs to channel his energy into good playing. The terms of the contract haven’t been fully decided yet, but they’ll probably announce it rather soon.

In the biggest signing of the day, Ben Gordon has decided to go to the Detroit Pistons, ending his 5 year tenure with the Chicago Bulls. Gordon had been offered more than $50 million to stay with the Bulls, but the Pistons offered him $55 million, 5-year deal. He is definitely one of the best young players and he can really hold his own in the game. In Detroit, he will be hoping to get into the playoffs and go deep in, although it’s not clear that the team is ready to do so. There aren’t too many big stars on the team, and it’s possible that Gordon will be the best player there. At the same time, the Bulls didn’t seem to be getting that much better for next year, so it’ll be a bit of a shift to see which team does better, particularly in the head-to-head contests.