It’s not about wishing the Lakers will be OK because if they’re not, life won’t be worth living.
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Personally, my life works fine whether they win or lose. It’s a good thing because, glorious as their times have been in the 23 seasons I’ve been around, they only five titles, meaning they went home bummed in 18.
Nor can I tell you probability is on their side.
At the moment, they don’t even know who they are—and won’t until Dwight Howard announces his decision.
Dwight isn’t officially a free agent until July 1. Unless he drops the manchild-of-mystery persona he has maintained since arrival, refusing to as much as hint he hoped to stay, he’ll take every day, hour and minute before announcing his decision….
All the insiders I know think Dwight will stay for the fifth season—at $30 million—only the Lakers can offer.
If that’s the case, the question will be, as Shaquille O’Neal posed it, excoriating him on the TNT studio show, if you know you’re going to stay, why not say so instead of his penchant to “play with people’s heads.”
On the other hand, I’m not sure what Dwight knows day to day.
The Lakers never asked if he liked the idea of coming here before trading for him. It took him until the All-Star break to begin to look comfortable, after beaucoup signs of strained relationships with Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and everyone else he upbraided on the floor.
My guess is Howard doesn’t like his choices—but will reconcile himself to the one with the extra $30 mill.
Not that keeping him will turn the Lakers around–as we just saw—he can help turn things around the other way, too—but will at least let the Lakers know what they’re working with.
The real hope that I see for the Lakers is, they’re still the Lakers.
GM Mitch Kupchak made that clear in Tuesday’s press session in an impressive show of ease and purpose, complete with light touches like replying to a question about amnesty by asking, “can I refer this one to Mark Cuban? He’s our amnesty expert.”
Mitch didn’t used to joke with the press, or inspire confidence.
In the spring of 2004, the last time the Lakers had their tushies in a crack like this, having just finished 34-48 after trading Shaquille O’Neal, he was asked to attend a “town hall” meeting of season-ticket holders, one of whom got up and asked him to his face to resign.
In general, little comes out of exit interviews and post-mortems by team officials.
With the crossroads the Lakers now approach, this isn’t “in general.”
Before Bryant and Kupchak spoke Tuesday, it had never occurred to me there was an option other than trading Pau Gasol for an athlete(s) who could shoot, trying to give D’Antoni a team that could run his uptempo offense—which was why Jerry Buss nixed Phil Jackson and hired D’Antoni in the first place.
(Yes, that’s Jerry, not Jim, even if he still takes the heat in the local papers. Sources close to Jackson, D’Antoni and Laker management agree this was the paterfamilias’ decision.)
Turns out there’s another way which the Lakers are considering.
Next Page: Getting The Band Back Together – For One More Rodeo
Hey, why not?
If going big and playing so is swimming against the tide of recent NBA history, in which the elite teams play ever smaller and fasted, it’s the only way the Lakers can play, as constituted.
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Nor is it likely that trading Pau will bring in enough players to turn them from aging and hulking into a Phoenix Suns lookalike.
(In the much-speculated scenario of a deal with Toronto, the Lakers would get Andrea Bargnani, who is, indeed a stretch four, and DeMar Derozan, a 24 percent career three-point shooter.)
Then they can pull this team apart next spring, aided in no small way by the fact all their contracts will be up, except that of Nash, and, they hope, Howard.
“It’s going to depend on the talent we have,” said Kupchak.
“The trend in the NBA, and the way you’ve seen college players and and NBA players play, is very different than what it was 20-30 years ago. That’s probably not going to change.
“It’s an open game, a lot of pick-and-rolls, perimeter shooting…. Thirty years ago, you might say one or two three-point shots in a game and now you’re seeing 30 or 40 three-point shots. That’s not going to change.
“The game as really gravitated toward the way Mike coaches, but you have to coach to a great degree based on the players you have on the team.”
Of course, there’s the matter of Jim taking over for his father.
On one hand, after coming in callow and smart-alecky, he has learned to approach the duties as his father did, trusting his professionals.
Jim was instrumental in one initiative that worked out, drafting Andrew Bynum, and two that didn’t, hiring Rudy Tomjanovich and Mike Brown.
So, if it’s not fair if the mere mention of his name occasions despair in Lakerdom, he does, indeed, have something to prove.
So here’s how it will go:
1) Lakers wait to see what Dwight does.
2) Lakers shop Pau to see what they can get for him. If everyone low-balls them—as teams always do when you put a star on the block, knowing you must be desperate—they’ll bring him back and go slow.
Not good enough, you say?
Unfortunately for Laker fans, their team is what it is. Dreaming of saviors only leaves you to wake up bummed.
Speaking of saviors, No, Phil isn’t coming back.
For the team’s part, pursuing him again would look like a neurotic tarantella.
For Phil’s part, showing any interest would look the same way.
Hey, the Lakers feel your pain!
“You have to understand the passion of the fan,” said Kupchak. “During that last game, a fan came up to me in the fourth quarter and just got really close and was passionately pleading with me to do something about the score….
“And at some point, I said, ‘I understand but do you understand we don’t have Kobe we don’t have [Steve] Nash, we don’t have [Steve] Blake?’
“And he looked at me and he said, “I know all that but can’t you do something?”
We’ll see, won’t we?
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