‘Goodby’--and ‘What Next?’ : As Lakers Pack Up, Center Question Is Loose Baggage

The end of the Lakers as we have known them arrived Wednesday morning when they gathered at the Forum.

Playoff shares were determined, off-season plans related and, perhaps, the disappointment of the four consecutive losses to the Detroit Pistons in the National Basketball Assn. championship series rationalized. Then, before parting, goodbys were said--some for the summer, some for good.

Change is unavoidable, now that the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era has ended. Abdul-Jabbar’s retired jersey eventually will be hoisted to the Forum ceiling alongside those of Jerry West, Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain.

The Lakers knew this day eventually would come. But those expecting the Lakers to swing a major trade or free-agent signing of a premier center probably will be disappointed.

“It’s going to be fun, a new challenge, to see if we can win without Kareem,” Magic Johnson said. “The driving force for me now is the ‘90s. It’s a whole new time with a new center. I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten for a while, and I’m going to go for (another title) again.”

Coach Pat Riley, assessing the past and contemplating the future, said the Lakers still could be the team of the early ‘90s without radical changes. Riley already has created a theme for next season, “the Question Mark,” referring to what might have happened had Johnson and Byron Scott not been sidelined because of hamstring injuries during the playoffs.

“I think we’re going to be a leading contender next year,” Riley said. “I don’t think we’ve got to mess with our four (starters). We’ve got four corners filled, and now we have to put somebody in the middle.

“The Question Mark will gnaw at me all summer, and it will be lingering next year.”

Who will that somebody in the middle be? Quality centers are in short supply and they usually come at the expense of several premier players at other positions. And West, the club’s general manager, said the Lakers are a championship caliber team as is.

“We’ll look around a little bit and see what might be our best options,” West said. “We may not be a lot different than we are today.

“We aren’t going to be bankrupt at all next year. We think we have a real fine team right now.”

The Lakers will have half of Abdul-Jabbar’s 1988-89 salary--$1.5 million--available to acquire a replacement. It does not have to be a center--and it might not be--but the Lakers must use the money before this season or lose it under salary-cap restrictions.

Other questions also lingered: --What of power forward A.C. Green, the club’s leading rebounder, who will become a restricted free agent?

Green could receive an offer sheet from another team, which the Lakers most likely would match, or sign for another season with the Lakers at a significant salary increase and become an unrestricted free agent after next season.

Green, also the Lakers’ fourth-leading scorer and arguably their most durable player, certainly will receive a major raise from the $269,000 he earned this season.

Figuring to make in excess of $1 million a season, Green also might be the Laker most likely to be swapped if the club does the unexpected and makes a blockbuster trade for a center. “Just because you have (big) names, that doesn’t mean you can’t explore and see what those names might bring,” said West, declining to talk specifically about players or the club’s needs. “But, again, we plan to do something we hope will help our team and we like the players we have now.”

Wednesday, Green was noncommittal.

“I’m not going to get into it yet,” he said. “I want to rest some.”

Said Riley: “Everybody probably wants A. C. Other teams are probably thinking that the Lakers might have a problem signing him and want to trade. But I think we’ve got to keep him.”

--The league will hold its expansion draft today, and David Rivers, the third-string point guard, figures to be selected by either the Orlando Magic or Minnesota Timberwolves.

Teams can protect only eight players and can lose only one. But since the Lakers have only eight players under contract--Johnson, Scott, James Worthy, Green, Thompson, Orlando Woolridge, Michael Cooper and Rivers--they must offer one of them.

With Rivers perhaps headed elsewhere, the Lakers say they will need to select a quick guard with their first-round pick--the 24th overall--in the college draft June 27.

“A guard is our priority,” Riley said. “One who is multi-dimensional.”

--Perhaps two of the Lakers’ three unrestricted free-agent fringe players will go elsewhere. Tony Campbell, the ninth man in an eight-man rotation, said he would prefer to play somewhere else rather than spend another season on the bench. Jeff Lamp has considered a return to pro ball in Italy, but Mark McNamara probably will be re-signed because the Lakers’ need for a third-string center appears even greater now.

The center question figures to linger all summer, or at least until the Lakers’ use the $1.5 million to sign someone.

Prospective replacements have been speculated upon for months: Sam Bowie or Ralph Sampson through trade or Denver’s Wayne Cooper through free agency. However, West has indicated that it might not be a center. Or, if it is, it probably will be a big body, not a big name.

Should trade opportunities arise, the Lakers will have to dip into a core group that enabled the Lakers to win consecutive NBA titles and advance to the finals this season. Teams would be asking for Scott and Green and perhaps Michael Cooper, but the Lakers seem hesitant to break up what is left of the designated team of the decade.

Of acquiring a big-name center, West said: “That just can’t happen anymore. There are too many teams.

“What is the biggest premium in the league today? Centers. There aren’t enough around, and that’s why I think you’ve seen teams go to a different style of basketball. A lot more passing-game kind of things.”

Thompson performed capably as Abdul-Jabbar’s backup, performing as a reserve in name only. He averaged more playing time and rebounds than Abdul-Jabbar, and nearly as many points.

“This team has slowly been undergoing a metamorphosis, and I think Pat himself has alluded to that,” West said. “By the nature of the scoring from our team today, there is a different look than there was a few years ago.

“I think you’ll see this team play similar to the way we have played, maybe a different look offensively a bit. But that’s the coach’s decision. I want to help Pat get the players to implement the way he wants to play.”

Said Riley: “You can’t get a great, great center. You can’t trade for anybody these days. But if we can find someone who can play defense and get some rebounds and maybe a few blocked shots, that’s all we need. We’ve got four or five key players that will go into the ‘90s, and Jerry will fit the rest of the pieces together.”

Riley said the players acquired for next season will have to fit into the Laker way of basketball, because he doesn’t foresee a drastic change of style.

“We’ve been a power post-up team for 10 years, so some of the players we get have to have skills that complement that,” Riley said. “With Mychal Thompson (at center), we’re more than competent. We’re not as big, but maybe if we can find (a center) to help him out, we’ll be all right.”

Johnson said his adjustment will not be drastic, since the Lakers have not emphasized the center in their offense for about three seasons.

“You don’t need a premium center to win, as long as you got other guys coming off the bench,” he said. “The offense doesn’t have to revolve around the center, as we learned with (Detroit’s Bill) Laimbeer.

“Our nucleus is still here--myself, Byron and James. We’ve done most of the scoring the last couple of years. You got to make changes just to keep getting better. I’m not saying by trades, but by draft choices and free agents.”

Worthy, the Lakers’ leading playoff scorer with a 24.8 average, predicted that the Lakers no longer will dominate the league but still will be contenders.

“Now, it’ll be real competitive,” Worthy said. “We’ll be almost equal now with the rest of the West. We can’t take anything for granted. We’ll have to fight to win.

“I’m sure we’ll have to be more aggressive, more physical, change our style a little bit that way.”

Become bad boys, perhaps?

“No,” Worthy said. “Bad men.”

Laker Notes

For finishing second, the Lakers will divide $486,875 in bonuses among 12 players and trainer Gary Vitti, and another share will be split among other team personnel. Each share will be worth $33,776. The Pistons will divide $691,875. . . . Vitti said that Magic Johnson and Byron Scott will continue treatment on their hamstring injuries. Johnson, however, ruled himself out of Larry Bird’s charity all-star game in French Lick, Ind., later this month. . . . Johnson said that not playing in the finals was the most difficult thing he has had to deal with in his life. “But I’m not going to be what-iffing all summer,” he said.