The Orange County Register (Kevin Ding) reports: Andrew Bynum will likely receive a maximum-value contract extension this month worth nearly $90 million over five years. Pau Gasol has nearly $50 million over three years left on his massive contract – also new money being spent by Jerry Buss when you consider the Lakers acquired Gasol for Kwame Brown’s contract that expired at the end of last season. With the Lakers paying Bynum and Gasol that kind of coin into the future behind one Kobe Bryant, it’s just not in the budget to keep paying Lamar Odom his current wage – $14.3 million this season – or more. There were no talks over the summer about a contract extension for Odom for good reason: The Lakers can’t possibly do it. If the Lakers win the title this season, the only way to keep the team intact figures to be Odom accepting a massive pay cut. And the only way that even becomes a realistic possibility is if Odom has a bad year – at least in the statistical sense, which fewer minutes as a sixth man might trigger.
