He may sometimes get called out for it, but Bill Simmons is never one to shy away from sharing his opinions about NBA players, and he was at it again with this particular tweet about the status of Lamar Odom after observing the power forward from afar:
It sounds mean, but based on what Odom’s own coach Vinny Del Negro reportedly said about his power forward (via SLAM) just a few days ago, there is probably some truth behind what Simmons said:
“For Odom, weight and poor conditioning are issues. Del Negro said Odom’s knees are bothering him and that playing the 6-10 forward against the Jazz probably would have set him back. ‘He’s got to work through some conditioning things and some health things right now, which he’s doing,’ Del Negro said. ‘Yeah, I wish he was in a little bit better conditioning, and he wishes he was. But he’s just got to continue to work every day and I’m sure he’ll get there eventually.”
It has been a while since we’ve seen the best of the versatile big man, and it’s unclear which Odom will show up once the season begins: the Odom that dominated and won the Sixth Man of the Year Award with the Lakers in 2011, or the one that seemingly lost all edge on the court while with the Mavericks last season. He may be out of shape at the moment, but his struggles last season seemed more psychological than physical.
According to him, though, his mental state has returned to where it needs to be, from Broderick Turner of Los Angeles Times: