Putting Vlade in His Place : Divac Has Always Played Like a Power Forward--and Now He Is One, Changing Spots With Campbell

There was hardly a patent on the thought. Del Harris, like many others before him, looked at Vlade Divac and saw a mobile 7-footer with a soft shooting touch away from the lane, a player who felt so comfortable on the perimeter that he has had to be discouraged from trying to make like a point guard.

So what if the program listed him as a center. Divac was really a power forward and everyone knew it. Now Harris, at the dawn of his Laker coaching career, knew it, too, and he wanted to do something about it.

Then Harris saw his new starting center. Elden Campbell looked back and saw a used-car salesman disguised as a coach bringing the big sales pitch.

Campbell had tried that spot once before, for a brief time during his second season, and didn’t much like it, all that low-post defense against stronger players being more like a turn at slam dancing. Then again, that was two years and 25 pounds ago.

Campbell, though, remained reluctant. So Harris showed him game films, pointing out why this wouldn’t be such a dramatic change from what he had been doing anyway. Harris showed the Lakers’ starting power forward he could be a success as the Lakers’ starting center. Campbell signed on.

Right then, two career paths took turns. Were they sloping, gentle bends or 90-degree jerks? That will be answered during the next several months, starting with the exhibition opener here Friday against the Sacramento Kings, but for now the proper response is probably that the decision by Harris was somewhere between a considerable gamble and an obvious move that is really nothing more than semantics.

“The way that I use (the positions), they play off each other so much that often times it’s hard to distinguish who is a center and who is a power forward in the first place,” Harris said. “You’ve got to remember these are names that have been given as labels. Dr. (James) Naismith never heard of either one of them. As coaches, I think most of us just look at guys as ballplayers.”

It could be that simple. Or it could be a risk, because Divac is coming off his best and most consistent season as a pro, a level the Lakers had waited four frustrating years for him to reach. And now his position is being changed, after he became the first person to lead the team in scoring and rebounding since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1984-85.

He goes from 14.2 points and 10.8 rebounds, the latter good for 12th in the league, to new defensive assignments and, perhaps, fewer chances to hit the boards on a team that is desperate for rebounding.

But unlike Campbell, Divac embraced the idea from the outset and thinks his career got a boost.

“The first thing in my head was, ‘OK, now I can do a lot of things that when I did them before, people told me, “You shouldn’t do that, you’re a center,” ’ “ Divac said. “Now I’m a power forward. I can do those kind of things.”

Said Harris: “Vlade will play the way he’s been playing. Vlade has been playing like a power forward his entire career. This is power forward without the guilt. People are not going to ask why he’s not down by the basket all the time, like Kareem and other traditional centers, which they’ve been saying for years. They won’t have to say that any more.

“He’ll be around (the basket) some, like all power forwards are around there some. But Vlade is a versatile player and a good player, and we’ve got to allow him the freedom to play.”

Campbell, meanwhile, was hardly as diplomatic as his teammate about the move. He remembers objecting to returning to the nightly rigors of the trenches and being an afterthought in the offense.

Harris, an ordained minister, continued to preach his message, though, until finally convincing Campbell that he was pretty much playing center already. Pretty much.

“I guess they’re making it official,” Campbell said.

In doing so, the Lakers hope to capitalize on Campbell’s quickness and leaping ability. This is the player who finished 11th in the league last season in blocked shots despite playing only 29.6 minutes per game, meaning he could move into the top 10 merely by playing closer to the basket as a center. No telling how far he could jump in the rankings if he played 35 minutes per night.

Said Harris: “I think probably the most common thing I’ve been asked since coming here is, ‘What about Elden? Is this Elden’s year?’ This (switch) is as much for Elden. The focus has been on Vlade, but to me it’s a dual spotlight. It’s just as big a deal for Elden because I think this is where he can thrive, where he can come in and establish himself as a center in this league. We’re counting on him. I think he’ll come in and have the best year of his career.”

Said Campbell: “When I first thought about it, that center spot is so limiting. You stand there and wait. You set picks. For the most part, you’re waiting for the offense to be brought to you, and that’s not really the position I like to be in. But the way (Harris) is putting it, I’ll be involved, even if it’s just passing the ball. Being involved is the key really.”

He is in the right place to cut his teeth on a new position, the Pacific Division, the land of Joe Kleine, Ervin Johnson, Elmore Spencer or Stanley Roberts, and Olden Polynice as starting counterparts. Campbell immediately becomes one of the two or three best centers, provided Chris Webber stays at power forward in Golden State.