J.R. Smith sang the praises of the Knicks’ new signee, Lamar Odom, the troubled power forward from Queens who was officially signed Wednesday for the final game of the regular season in Phil Jackson’s first personnel move as team president.
The idea is for the Knicks to try out Odom across the next couple of months to see if he’s worth bringing to training camp. Odom will make a pro-rated $8,500 for the one game — 1/170th of the league’s veteran’s minimum.
More importantly, the former Christ The King star signed for a second non-guaranteed year. If the Knicks deem Odom not worth keeping for reasons stemming from his alleged drug issues, that salary figure of $1.3 million for next season can be thrown into a summer trade if need be for salary-cap reasons to make the mathematics work.
“Lamar’s a great player,’’ Smith said after the Knicks finished their season with a 95-92 win over the Raptors at the Garden. “A championship-caliber game, brings so much intangibles to the game. He’s a glue guy to the championship teams. I’m happy to have him.’’
Odom played five seasons for Jackson with the Lakers and won two titles. Arrested for DUI last summer, he didn’t play this season, other than a brief two-game stint in Spain before he was derailed by back issues. In November, he met in November with the Clippers, with whom he played last season, but they passed.
The 6-foot-10 Odom, who recently split with his wife, Khloe Kardashian, holds career averages of 13.3 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 33.4 minutes in 961 games (684 starts) over 14 seasons with the Clippers, Heat, Lakers and Mavericks. He appeared in two games for Baskonia (Spain) this season and last played in the NBA for the Clippers during the 2012-13 season, averaging 4.0 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists over 19.7 minutes in 82 games.
As Jackson still feels out the Knicks’ landscape, he brought in a former Bulls ally in Clarence Gaines Jr. last week to be his “eyes and ears,’’ according to an NBA source.
Gaines Jr., whose father was Clarence “Big House’’ Gaines, the legendary Winston-Salem State basketball coach, does not yet have an official capacity and is just helping Jackson out for now, the source said. He could be named to the front office, but not to supplant Knicks general manager Steve Mills. Gaines could help with the expected Knicks coaching search.
Gaines was Jerry Krause’s right-hand man as a Bulls scout when Jackson coached there. Gaines has been hanging around the team for several days and with the front-office staff, including Mark Warkentien, Mark Hughes and Allan Houston.
“Phil’s not comfortable with a lot of people but he’s very comfortable with him,’’ the source said of Gaines. “There’s some good people in the front office and I don’t think he’s intending to clean house.’’’
Kenyon Martin said he will have left-ankle surgery soon, indicating it would be a “clean-up.’’
Martin missed the final two months but said he wants to return next season as a Knick.
“I’ve got a lot of basketball left and I hope it will be here,’’ he said.