LA Clippers: The best power forwards in franchise history

LA Clippers best power forwards in franchise history: 4) Lamar Odom

Lamar Odom would enter the league as the fourth overall pick in the 1999 draft after a promising and exciting single season at Rhode Island. Odom originally considered entering the NBA directly out of high school, but decided against it after deciding he wasn’t quite ready to make the leap. Odom would commit to UNLV before controversy over his ACT scores, and some legal issues would have him transfer to Rhode Island and sit out the 1997-98 season before he would gain eligibility.

Odom burst onto the scene with the Clippers, scoring 30 points and grabbing 12 rebounds in his NBA debut. He’d go on to earn First-Team All Rookie honors putting up first year averages of 16.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

He spent the first four seasons of his professional career as a do-it-all forward for Los Angeles, putting up Clipper-career averages of 12.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game in his 312 career games with the team.

The team declined to match a contract offered to Odom by the Miami Heat in the summer of 2003 when the six-foot-ten inch lefty was a restricted free agent. He’d spend one season in Miami, before being traded to the Los Angeles Lakers as part of the deal that brought Shaquille O’Neal to South Beach. He’d end up spending the majority of the rest of his 14-year NBA career with the Lakers, eventually winning two NBA titles and being named the 2010-11 Sixth Man of the Year.

He might have ended up higher on this list if the Clippers would have chosen to match the Heat’s contract offer.