With the start of training camp just hours away, one thing has become clear to me: Whoever is advising Lamar Odom these days (and let's be honest, we're probably talking about an assistant producer at E!) is not doing a particularly good job.
Odom's life has been a comedy of errors over the last year, culminating in his decision this past week to remove himself from consideration for the U.S. Olympic team. Odom is instead electing to spend the summer preparing for the upcoming season and his return to the L.A. Clippers organization. The logic behind this decision is incredibly flawed as recent history shows us that — with an overwhelming success rate — the best thing a player can do to improve his game over the summer is participate in international basketball.
While it may seem counter-intuitive to traditional basketball wisdom (many players like Odom opt not to play in international tournaments over the summer in order to rest, recuperate, and tape new episodes of their reality TV shows), in recent years players who have played with Team USA over the summer have made a significant statistical jump the following season.
The 2010 World Championship Team provides the most recent and best example of this phenomenon — almost every player who participated on that team took a huge leap the next year.
Kevin Love went from averaging 14 points and 11 rebounds to becoming a veritable double-double machine at 20 and 15, while boosting his three-point numbers from 33 percent to 42 percent. Russell Westbrook went from a 16-points-a-night scorer to averaging 22, while seeing significant jumps across the board in his shooting percentages. And Derrick Rose saw large jumps in every single statistical category with the exception of field goal percentage — oh, and by the way, he came out of nowhere to win the MVP award, leading Chicago to the best record in the Eastern Conference.
This effect was not limited to just the up-and-coming young players like Rose, Love, and Westbrook – players already expected to improve with more time in the league. Older veteran players also had career years after their stint at the 2010 World Championships.
Odom, already an 11-year veteran and arguably on his career decline, had his best all-around season in 2010-2011, winning the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award. Tyson Chandler, himself a nine-year league journeyman, suddenly found his place in 2010-2011 anchoring the Dallas Mavericks championship winning defense.
In short, nearly every player on the 2010 edition of Team USA had career years the next season, taking the proverbial "leap" to the next level — but this effect is not localized to that team. The 2008 "Redeem Team" was loaded with talents that were already the best players in the world, and many of these players still had their best seasons following the 2008 Olympics.
In 2008-2009, LeBron James won the first of his three MVP awards. Carmelo Anthony, after a few seasons of relative basketball irrelevance, exploded to score 28 points per game (up from 22 the previous season), while netting his best overall statistical season as a pro (including a career high in PER), and propelling the Denver Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals (still his only significant career playoff run). Kobe Bryant followed up his Olympic run by leading the Los Angeles Lakers back to the NBA Finals, winning their first NBA championship since 2002.
There is no doubt that playing for Team USA can have a transcendent effect on the career trajectories of NBA players, elevating their game, work ethic, and (ultimately) their potential. Instead of spending the summer alone in an empty gym shooting jumpers or playing pick-up games with other NBA (or college) players who happen to be in town, players on Team USA spend the summer practicing against the best players in the world – the top NBA talent – while being coached by one of the best coaches in the history of basketball.
This is why Lamar Odom made a huge mistake in not competing for a spot on Team USA. With the rash of injuries on the American team, Odom had an excellent shot at making the squad. His career very publicly spiraled out of control this past season, beginning with his vetoed trade to the New Orleans Hornets and culminating with his release by the Dallas Mavericks just weeks before the start of the playoffs.
Odom went from winning the Sixth Man of the Year award to averaging 6 points and netting a single digit PER. He became a punchline, a water cooler joke — despite being a player whom I always thought was generally well-liked by the average fan. Playing for Team USA, representing his country to the world in the Olympics' most exciting event, would have been a chance to show everyone that he still has something left in the tank and to build up the goodwill he lost over the past year.
But even more importantly, playing for Team USA is the best thing Odom could have done to prepare for this coming season. Scrimmaging every day against the likes of LeBron James, Tyson Chandler, and Russell Westbrook would have been a much more effective use of his time than lifting weights at a 24 Hour Fitness in West Hollywood or doing rebounding drills with DeAndre Jordan and Kenyon Martin's neck tattoo. Being coached by Mike Krzyzewski would have been more instructive than any contact he'll ever have with Vinny Del Negro.
But instead of competing for a spot on Team USA, working to break into the rotation, and spending the next six weeks playing basketball with and against the best players in the world, Odom instead opted to stay in LA, eat candy, "prepare for the season" (whatever that means), and hang out with Khloe. Having seen the way he competed this past season, I don't know why I'm surprised.
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