Laker Deal Finally Brings Ceballos Aboard : Pro basketball: Former Sun small forward expects to fit in nicely after being swapped for first-round pick.

His has been an unlikely path, starting at Dominguez High in Compton, where he played only one season of varsity basketball before moving on to Ventura College and Cal State Fullerton. When the Phoenix Suns drafted him in 1990, he was the 48th choice, one of the last players picked.

The most memorable moment of his four years there was his winning the slam-dunk contest during the All-Star weekend.

Friday, the course turned back to Southern California, to the team he grew up rooting for and playing for in pretend games. Cedric Ceballos became a Laker at last, a key to their future success as the new starting small forward.

“You dream the dreams,” he said at a Forum news conference.

They became reality when Ceballos, the Lakers and the NBA hammered out a restructured contract that allowed a trade with Phoenix that had been imminent for days to become official. Ceballos will receive the $350,000 he gave back for 1994-95 salary-cap purposes over the final three years of his pact. And the Suns, as previously reported, will receive a first-round pick within the next three drafts, largely at the Lakers’ discretion.

The price tag that would be too steep for most rebuilding teams became much easier for the Lakers because of that last point--the protection that might allow them to escape from the deal relatively unscathed.

For example, if they finish within the top six in 1995 or the top four in ‘96, which, barring an epidemic of injuries would take beating big odds in the lottery, the Lakers have the choice to keep the selection and make the Suns wait until ’97 to cash in. Around the Forum, the plan is to be picking in the 20s by then.

One other factor helps the Lakers see it as a low-risk move--they can make the decision on when to give up the pick. That is, if few undergraduates come out early after this season and the draft turns out to be one of the worst in recent years, a definite possibility, the Lakers can tell the Suns to go in ’95 with, say, the No. 6 pick.

For this, the Lakers get someone to address many of their needs now.

Only three teams had a worse shooting percentage last season. Ceballos finished sixth in the league at 53.5% and won the field-goal title the season before at 57.6%.

Only four teams were worse rebounders by percentage, and none had poorer numbers on the defensive boards. Ceballos is one of the best rebounding small forwards in the game, having averaged 6.5 in 1993-94 in only 30.2 minutes per game.

The 14.2-point average by Vlade Divac marked the second consecutive season that the Lakers had the lowest team-high in the league. How badly do they need accurate shooters? They took the second-most shots in the NBA and still came within half a point of failing to average 100 points for the first time since moving to Los Angeles.

Ceballos is coming off a career-best average of 19.1 points, despite the limited time and being the fourth option in the Suns’ offense at times behind Charles Barkley, Kevin Johnson and Dan Majerle.

“It’s different playing with Phoenix and here, with the role,” said Ceballos, who, at 25, fits nicely into the youth movement. “But when the opportunity was given to me at Phoenix, I took advantage of it when Charles, Kevin, Danny Ainge, all our big stars were out. Phoenix turned the burden on me, and I think I handled it well. I felt comfortable with it, I didn’t have a problem with it whatsoever.”

Said Jerry West, the Lakers’ executive vice president: “We don’t expect him to be anything except Cedric Ceballos, and that’s awfully good. He’s young and he’s getting better.”

Laker Notes

The entire starting lineup might be new--sort of. Coach Del Harris said he plans to move Vlade Divac from center to power forward and Elden Campbell from power forward to center when training camp opens in Honolulu in two weeks.