Odom Gets the Point Slowly

Lamar Odom, playing his second position in as many seasons, is discovering the nuances of life at the top of the key, as the facilitator in Coach Phil Jackson’s triangle offense.

There are nights such as Sunday, where the 6-foot-10 point guard hit Kobe Bryant in stride for an alley-oop, found Smush Parker on the fastbreak for an easy basket and went coast-to-coast for a layup, all in the first quarter.

More often, there have been nights where his no-look passes have floated askew, where Baron Davis has picked him clean, where his outside shot has fallen flat.

Odom, at his new position, remains a metaphor for the team -- a work in progress.

“He’s struggling,” Jackson said before Sunday’s 98-97 Laker exhibition victory over the Charlotte Bobcats.

“He still has a ways to go and some recognition of what it takes.”

A power forward last season, Odom is now fighting off guards while bringing up the ball and has sometimes found himself drifting from the basket after making the first pass to initiate the offense.

He is averaging 10 points in six exhibitions and has made only 15 of 43 shots (34.9%). He has a team-high 26 assists but also a team-high 20 turnovers.

“We’re a long ways from saying you’ve got to throw the baby out with the bath water in this situation,” Jackson said. “We really think that the upside of our team is with him at that position. We could go back to Kobe playing that position, but that’s going to take a lot of leg out of him, put a lot of pressure on the rest of the team. This is a situation I think that we all look forward to trying to experiment with.”

Said Odom: “I feel like I have an IQ for the game and a nice little learning curve as far as learning the offense, but trying to put yourself in position to score all the time I guess is my most difficult part.”

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Despite a two-week layoff while a strained abdominal muscle healed, top draft pick Andrew Bynum will start the season with the Lakers and not be sent to the development league, Jackson said.

“We really have an intention of getting some experience for Andrew early in the year, so that he has something to measure up against and an idea of what it takes out there,” Jackson said.

Bynum is expected to return to practice today.

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Laker draft pick Ronny Turiaf scrimmaged with Gonzaga players Saturday, less than four months after having open-heart surgery to repair an enlarged aortic root.

Turiaf, rehabilitating in Spokane, Wash., had three points and four rebounds in 16 minutes. He said he felt fine afterward.

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be out there,” he told the Spokesman-Review.

Turiaf’s future as an NBA player remains uncertain. The Lakers had no comment.

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Chris Mihm had 14 points and 11 rebounds against Charlotte. Bryant had 25 points and Parker had 13.