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Lakers' three-year plan might be too farsighted for Phil

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by RocketsMVP, Aug 25, 2005.

  1. RocketsMVP

    RocketsMVP Member

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    http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=kreidler_mark&id=2141978

    By Mark Kreidler
    Special to ESPN.com


    On so many levels, the Los Angeles Lakers' approach to the next few seasons appears straightforward and even sensible: Cut payroll, limit most players to short-term contracts and try to free up scads of money for 2007 or 2008, when a fresh crop of high-profile free agents comes to market.


    It's a plan. It has at least an intermediate goal set within it. It may yield a longer-term payoff.


    Just wondering: What in the seventh concentric circle of Hades is Phil Jackson doing in the middle of it?


    Is this really what Jackson rode in from the Montana plains to wrangle? It's almost an incomprehensible thought. Did the coach with nine NBA titles on his shelf really yank himself out of a post-retirement reverie to work with Smush Parker, Laron Profit and Chris Mihm?


    It's no offense to those guys -- or to Brian Cook, or Von Wafer, or Sasha Vujacic, or any of the other names that fill out the Lakers' mish-mashed roster. But this is the Phil Jackson of the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen variety. This is the Jackson of Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O'Neal vintage.


    Did this man really come back to coaching in order to work a futures market?


    I'm among those who have always disagreed with the notion that Jackson was a lucky guy in the right place when it came to his coaching "legend." Jackson's talent is real, and his ability to manipulate and assuage egos are among the greatest gifts accorded any NBA coach in memory. He needed all of it to make things go with Jordan for as long as they did, and he clearly needed more of it than even he ultimately had to spin along the Kobe-Shaq axis for all those years.


    Still, Jackson's history is plain: He won titles with Jordan, Pippen, Bryant and O'Neal, plus a specially selected cast of supporting characters (Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper, Rick Fox, Robert Horry), almost all of whom were paid whatever the market dictated when the need arose to sign them.


    So what's he doing with Luke Walton, Slava Medvedenko and Jumaine Jones?


    The short answer is, no one has the slightest idea. Jackson is essentially returning to try to win with a team that includes Bryant, Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and the team's most recent addition, 32-year-old point guard Aaron McKie, just waived by Philly in a luxury-tax amnesty move.


    McKie averaged 2.2 points and 1.5 assists last season, but he at least fits the Jackson mold when it comes to a distributor in the triangle offense: He's 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds. Phil likes 'em bigger rather than smaller when it comes to running his schemes.


    And that's about it. You just heard the game plan for 2005-06. The Lakers might be able to make personnel moves before the season begins, but if it involves taking on salary or contracts, forget it. Jim Buss, the heir to team owner Jerry Buss, already is on record as saying the club is aiming for the free-agent summer of 2007, when players like Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming ostensibly will be pondering their options.


    Of course, by the summer of 2007, Phil Jackson will be two years into the three-year contract he signed to return to L.A. Will the Lakers really spend those two years with Devean George and Andrew Bynum?


    In some respects, Jackson is already contradicting the notion that he'd only come back to get another championship ring, because he sure isn't pursuing one currently in L.A. This situation is more akin to his early days in the game, when Jackson learned the ropes of coaching by working with CBA rosters almost exclusively populated by comers and guys looking for another chance to shine.


    You can't ignore the talent of Kobe Bryant, of course, and the Lakers' current roster is hardly bereft; it's just stacked in some places and bare in others. L.A. pulled its own luxury-tax move by shedding Brian Grant and a potential $30 million in extra payments over the next few years, but doing so has left Jackson with few options at power forward or center. It's hardly fatal -- the Bulls' championship teams never had a dominating center. But Chicago was never as thin as what Jackson and his staff are looking at now.


    In a meeting with Lakers beat writers this week, Jim Buss said that once the financial decks are clear and the Lakers get to chase a big name in 2007, Phil Jackson might well want to stay on and coach beyond the expiration of his current contract. It makes sense in the macro, NBA realm of things: That might be the precise moment at which the next few seasons of grinding, shaping and coaching pay off.


    In the meantime, the Lakers of 2005 continue to consider options as they fill out their training camp roster for the team Jackson will coach in the here and now. The current names being bandied about: Earl Watson and Jannero Pargo. It's a long way from the Montana plains.
     
  2. RocketsMVP

    RocketsMVP Member

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    Interesting read. The Lakers are crazy if they think the can snatch Yao from us.
     
  3. tiger0330

    tiger0330 Member

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    Always thought PJ was a front runner who would only come to a team that was cookie cutter championship material. I forgot that he spent like 5 years in Albany, NY coaching the Albany Patroons after he left the Knicks. This LA team is not quite as bad as coaching in the CBA but I think it will be an interesting test of how good a coach he is and how he rebuilds the Lakers.
     
  4. brentdapmp

    brentdapmp Member

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    There is no way Dirk, Amare, and Yao hit the market. All 3 will be maxed out with extensions by then. To me the lakers are in the beginning of a rebuilding process. IMO they have a worse roster than last year, and I can't see them making the playoffs in the next 3 years with Phil. This plan will take much longer than 3 years.
     
  5. T_in_Charlotte

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    Not just Yao, Amare or Dirk, I can't see anyone wanting to have to deal with Kobe and his crap, no matter who the coach is. And I doubt very seriously that Kupchak is a good enough GM to find that "diamond in the rough" draft pick that could help turn this around. This will be ugly for years to come, and I love it!
     
  6. apostolic3

    apostolic3 Member

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    I'm convinced Phil was drawn back to the Lakers because of either money or the way he left. He knows they have no chance of winning it all any time soon. Either he feels bad about the way he came off publishing the book, or he wants the challenge of winning Kobe over again, or maybe he wants the final word on Kobe in a bit of payback. Next season, Phil will have the upper hand within the Laker organization. Kobe has no options now that he has signed. The team has the power.

    My personal opinion on the Lakers next year:

    1 They will determine if Kobe is their long term future. If he isn't coachable, the blame will fall hard on him and he knows it. The pressure is on just as much as last year. It's possible they trade him next summer if the right deal comes along. It could be war between Kobe and the Lakers. Of course, my bet is he will be there a long time.

    2 They will finally determine if Lamar Odom is worth the trouble. His act is wearing thin and he needs to start playing with authority every game. If he and Kobe can't create good team chemistry between them, Odom is gone. Guaranteed!

    3 Oh yes, the Kwame experiment. They may give him two years to grow up, maybe not. Kobe's personality isn't as strong as MJ's, but it's close. I don't see Kobe begging and pleading with this guy to get it together like Gilbert Arenas did last year. Even if Kobe tries to take him under his wing, the personality differences are huge. I guess they didn't think Caron Butler had enough upside because he meshed with Kobe pretty well on the court.

    4 The Bynum kid is a big question mark. He's got 3 years to show something. Phil hasn't developed a rookie player in years. My guess is he won't contribute much at all his first 2 years. He will be abused terribly and it will be hard to watch if you're a Lakers fan.
     
  7. Mikeylu

    Mikeylu Member

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    good read..but i highly doubt they will get any big names in 2007..phoenix is adamant that they will offer amare the max...cuban is too rich to get rid of dirk..and yao is ours foreverrrrrr :D
     
  8. emjohn

    emjohn Member

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    I'm convinced that is purely an ego trip thing. Kobe constantly resisted him and gave the impression that he didn't need Phil, Buss and Kupchak put their stock in Kobe over Phil (when PJ gave them a him-or-me demand), and now Phil had them begging him back EVEN though he ripped them all new ones in his book.

    That is what is known as 'juice'

    Wonder if the Lakers are about to switch to a Yao in 2012 plan.
     
  9. A-Train

    A-Train Member

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    Has anybody seen all the smack the Lakers fans were talking about Yao after it was reported the Rockets signed him to an extension? They were mostly saying that they didn't want him anyways, that he's not worth the money, he's too big and slow, etc....They would all be salivating at the thought of getting Yao if he ever became a free agent, and they know it...bunch of myopic pus heads...
     
  10. AGBee

    AGBee Member

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    Yeah...the forums chat is "who cares, would rather have Dirk/Amare/James instead" :rolleyes:
     
  11. emjohn

    emjohn Member

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    And as soon Amare inks in a few weeks, he'll be an over-hyped dunk artist that can't do anything else.
     

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