Odom Could Move To Small Forward

HONOLULU– A day after Phil Jackson revealed to the media his plan to start Ronny Turiaf instead of Luke Walton, the Lakers’ coach could be seen scanning printouts of Lakers stories from the Internet after the team’s Saturday morning practice.

Jackson said it was “important” to read his players’ reaction to the idea and that the reaction “seems OK.” He then added: “Compliance is what I’m looking for.”

Besides the firecracker-lit Turiaf and the reluctantly cooperative Walton, the player directly affected by such a move is Lamar Odom, who would shift from power forward to small forward to start games. Jackson said that would change things for Odom “a lot.”

“We know what his strengths are,” Jackson said. “He’s a great open-floor player. He gets a lot of offensive rebounds. So it’ll really enhance a lot of what he can do because of that. I think we have to make sure that we understand that.”

After two years of shaky execution with Odom playing a lot of guard and Kobe Bryant playing more small forward, Jackson intends to limit Odom’s ball-handling responsibilities this season and have Bryant direct the triangle offense more. At small forward — or the Michael Jordan wing position in the triangle — Odom would have greater freedom to create and attack as he wishes.

“That’s the position I came into the league playing,” Odom said of small forward, “and is probably more of my natural position.”

Odom envisions doing most of his damage by using his 6-foot-10 frame to post up opposing small forwards, saying: “Most small forwards don’t like to play post defense.”

It also is possible Odom will be less likely to get injured if he isn’t dribbling the ball up the floor or banging with power forwards at both ends. Odom is recovering slowly from the second tear in two years to the labrum in his left shoulder.

Odom isn’t sure about altering those injury odds, though.

“I didn’t hurt my shoulder from responsibility,” he said. “I just hurt it from going as hard as I can.”

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