Lamar's Cool, Ronnie May Move, and The Mothership Has Landed

Pretty quiet around Pacer-land the past few days. Don't look for much newsworthy action until the NBA Finals are over. I did find a few interesting items floating around the Internets this morning, though.

• A reliable source close to Lamar Odom has clarified his position on recent trade rumors. Since the souce is Odom himself, I'll let his direct quotes trump sources off the record.
  Odom wants to play for the Lakers but said the business of sports dictates that players have to move on.

  "I'm 100 percent down for the Lakers," Odom said. "But you have to understand that this is a business. Nobody likes to be traded off their team. But if you do, hopefully your game protects you and puts you in a situation where it's comfortable, as far as being accepted by the other organization."

  Now, Odom may still be leary of the Pacers situation, but I'm sure he and his game would be accepted with open arms. A little more alarming is the off-season surgery schedule.
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• According to this, the Heat are considering dealing for Ronnie Artest. The lure of his contract and on court talent are hard to resist. The cost of team disruptions aren't figured into that salary but are the obvious cost risk. Ronnie might flourish under a strong authority figure like Riley. Plus, with support from Shaq and D-Wade, both of whom Ronnie has to respect, it may be the best situation for Artest. Of course, this is Artest and there are plenty of clubs in South Beach where his "rap game" may, ahem...distract him. For general entertainment purposes, I'd love to see this happen.
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• The mothership has landed and I'm quite impressed with all of the tricked out goodies. Take a look at the fresh new SBNation.com site. Just further proof that SBNation has no intentions of standing still. Big ups all around to the design team!