"At first glance, it looked like any other practice on the second day of any other training camp. The Lakers' workout Saturday was anything but ordinary, however, no matter how familiar the scrimmage and the shooting drills might have seemed.

Behind the scenes, the Lakers, New Orleans Hornets and Houston Rockets tried in vain to rework a multi-player deal that would have brought point guard Chris Paul to Los Angeles. The deal collapsed late Saturday night, according to multiple reports.

"The Lakers are shifting toward trying to make a Dwight Howard deal," an unidentified Western Conference executive told Yahoo Sports, referring to the Orlando Magic center, who has asked to be traded to the Lakers, New Jersey Nets or Dallas Mavericks.

In addition, the Lakers traded Lamar Odom to the Mavericks, who slotted him into a trade exception created when they signed and traded Tyson Chandler to the New York Knicks.

The Lakers will receive a first-round draft pick, the Dallas Morning News reported.

The teams are expected to announce the deal today. It remains to be seen if the Odom deal was the first move in order to get Howard.

The Lakers simply could not meet the demands of the three-team trade after David Stern, NBA commissioner and de facto owner of the Hornets, nixed a deal Friday that would have sent forwards Odom and Pau Gasol to the Hornets for Paul."