Is Golden State a potential landing spot for Lamar Odom?

After going through a turbulent season and being exiled from the Dallas Mavericks, Lamar Odom will be a free agent and will be looking to catch on with another NBA team. Despite being a headcase and having some baggage, Odom will be a highly sought after player. Not in a Deron Williams sense but there will be plenty of teams vying for his services.

One of those teams could be the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are rebuilding once again and don't look like a natural fit for Odom. All in all, it might be a long shot, but don't be quick to dismiss the notion of Odom in a Warriors uniform. Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the Warriors' secret weapon could be assistant coach Jerry DeGregorio.

"DeGregorio coached Odom in high school, college and the pros and has been like a father to him since Odom was a 16-year-old prospect from South Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. DeGregorio was the best man in Odom's September 2009 wedding to Khloe Kardashian. In his best-man speech, DeGregorio asked Kardashian to make the same vow that Odom's grandmother asked of DeGregorio before she died. Since Odom has no brothers or sisters and his mother died when he was 12, his grandmother asked DeGregorio to promise to watch over her baby." 

DeGregorio was an assistant at Rhode Island, which accepted Odom when his scholarship to UNLV was lost because of paperwork and testing questions. DeGregorio was an assistant with the Clippers when Odom averaged a career-high 17.2 points in 2000-01 and was the first person called when Odom's 6 1/2-month-old son, Jayden, died because of SIDS in 2006.

After this season in Dallas, I couldn't see Odom in Golden State. If DeGregorio has as much pull as Simmons states in his article it could become a reality. The Warriors would have to trade a few pieces or have him sign for the mid-level exception, but the DeGregorio connection could bring Odom to the Bay area.