Points in the Paint

» July 15, 2009 6:01 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Charley Rosen says the Lakers’ hopes of repeating depends on their re-signing Odom: “He provides the kind of versatility that no other player in the league can match: He can carry the ball safely across the time line, score from the low post and beyond the arc, move effectively without the ball, attack the basket with speed dribbles and tricky finishes, rebound at both ends, run like a guard, play hard, scrabbling defense, make alert passes and create matchup nightmares for opponents. Plus, he’s the designated scorer for the second unit as well as being the backup big. And he’s left-handed, which is a huge advantage.”

Tim Kawakami on Anthony Randolph: “He wants to be great. He wants to be the GREATEST. That’s what everybody told me from the get-go last season, and that’s what everybody still says. He has that elite-level arrogance, which is absolutely a good thing, and looks like is carrying through against SL Scrubs.”

Josh Childress on his decision to play in Greece, as transcribed by Tas Melas of SRI: “I’m happy with my move. It was an experience, a learning experience; you know, I feel like I grew as a person and as a player. That’s something that you can’t really put a price on. Just being to travel the world, see different things, and learn different people, you know, just take in different cultures. As much as money plays a part in people’s lives, that’s not what the world is all about – or my world is all about – so that was a great experience for me like I said.”

John Schuhmann at NBA.com uncovers all kinds of interesting numbers involving this summer’s free agents. This one caught my eye: “Rasheed Wallace has 291 career technical fouls and is easily the active career leader. In fact, if he picks up one more “T” before O’Neal does, he will have exactly twice as many as Shaq, who is second on the active list with 146.”

Tom Cowlishaw of the Dallas Morning News: “I never thought Dallas had any shot at LeBron James or Dwyane Wade. But even though he’s not an ideal fit, Chris Bosh returning from Toronto to his Dallas roots always seemed like at least a possibility. After talking to Bosh at his basketball camp at Greenhill Academy on Tuesday, I have to put him alongside LeBron and Dwyane in the ‘no chance’ club. There are multiple reasons, but No. 1 is that Bosh genuinely likes Toronto. Who wouldn’t? It’s a great cosmopolitan city. I guess if you are young and rich, even Sacramento looks good, but Toronto has clearly won over the pride of Dallas’ Lincoln High. ‘It probably took me two or three years, but I went there when I was 19,’ said Bosh, who played one season at Georgia Tech after helping Lincoln to a state title. ‘I was fresh out of college. I was used to roommates and guys knocking on the door, saying where the frat party was. But I love Toronto. And Toronto loves me.’”

David Stern says he expects Seattle to get another NBA team, and tabs Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer as a potential owner.

Steve Aschburner takes a look at how signing bonuses can affect free agency: “Plenty of NBA owners, even heirs of late Utah owner Larry Miller for all his success, could have a problem matching wallets with Portland billionaire Paul Allen in sheer cash on hand. ‘This is a good ploy and we’ve seen it before with restricted free agents,’ the team executive said. ‘Portland is trying to be creative. But at the end of the day, as poisonous as this deal is, Utah always has the potential to match.’ An Eastern Conference GM said: ‘The last 10 years, if you see a bonus and it’s not for a superstar player, it’s to ‘defeat’ the other team, making it real difficult for them to keep their guy.’ In 2004, the Nuggets reportedly dangled a signing bonus of $15 million for New Jersey forward Kenyon Martin, which would have cost the Nets — with Martin’s first-year salary front-loaded, too — upward of $25 million for 2004-05. New Jersey dodged that problem by trading the player for three first-round draft picks. One year earlier, Andre Miller and Lamar Odom changed teams thanks in part to similar up-front payouts. The league’s collective bargaining agreement limits signing bonuses to 20 percent, 17.5 percent for restricted free agents. For salary-cap purposes, the bonus is allocated against the guaranteed years in the player’s contract, so it’s a cash-flow and timing mechanism rather than additional pay.”

UPDATE: Gilbert Arenas paid $25,000 for the autographed chair that President Barack Obama sat in when his Chicago Bulls came to the Verizon Center on Feb. 27, 2009.