Lakers Have Grown Into a Scary Bunch

Board bandwagon here: We have seen the future and it wears purple and gold.

We should probably wait to speculate on the Lakers’ dynastic prospects until Shaquille O’Neal returns and they win their first NBA title since 1988, or even reach the finals for the first time since ’91. What is plain now is that something is going massively right.

The Lakers don’t merely command respect from their opponents. It has gone beyond that. It’s more like terror.

Back when they were the poster children for mayhem, you could almost hear opponents

praying--God bless Betty and the kids and please don’t let the Lakers ever grow up--but early returns suggest everyone could be in trouble.

Suppose you’re in the Pacific Division. How would you like to gear your rebuilding program to Shaq’s anticipated retirement . . . about the year 2007?

“I think they’re great,” Phoenix Coach Danny Ainge said. “I think they’re the scariest team in the league . . . for the next 10 years.”

What happened?:

Nick Van Exel--Beware of the word “mature.” As used in sports, it generally means “young person who hasn’t been in trouble lately.” Remember when Shawn Kemp “matured” in the ’96 finals, only to demature that summer?

But Van Exel does seem to have learned from his last major embarrassment. This is heartening, because in four years here, he has looked more like a young man with a troubled past and a genius for making himself look bad, than a bad person.

He has always run hot and cold but never this hot, shooting 47%, leading the NBA in three-pointers, turning the ball over 10 times in 10 games. His leadership has been exemplary. In one of the season’s smallest and biggest plays, he gave the ball to Eddie Jones on a 2-on-0 break in Sacramento, starting him to the 35 points that put the Mitch Richmond deal to rest.

“Nick certainly seems to be enjoying himself more,” King Personnel Director Jerry Reynolds said. “He and Del [Harris] might not hang out together, but they’re both good at what they do. That’s what you have to get to, where people respect each other, and it doesn’t always come smoothly.”

Honesty obliges me to acknowledge I wanted Nick out of here last spring. If he stays near this level of performance and especially poise, I’ll be happy to have been proved wrong.

O’Neal--After his first game, when he went 27 minutes to Patrick Ewing’s 37, he outscored seven starting centers, including Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson, 169-67. This game is a lot easier when you start 14 points ahead.

A digression: In 1977, Philadelphia Phillie shortstop Larry Bowa had to be restrained from assaulting writers on successive nights, after which he got several hits and played brilliantly in the field in both games. After the second, the Philadelphia Daily News’ Bill Conlin asked Manager Danny Ozark:

“Are you prepared to sacrifice a writer a night as long as Bowa keeps playing like this?”

No, the Lakers don’t want Shaq to slap anyone else, but he did come back with a vengeance, didn’t he?

New lineup--The pieces are better with Robert Horry and Rick Fox starting, giving Shaq four outside shooters to hit when defenses collapse. As backup center, Elden Campbell plays when O’Neal is out--so they can throw him the ball in the post and bring out his best.

Then there’s Jones, who’s on a career-year pace at 21 points a game and 57%, and Kobe Bryant, who could be the next . . . let’s just say he could be very, very good. The bottom line is a huge, young, deep, somewhat tested and extremely athletic team.

“It just depends on when they come together,” Ainge says, “when the maturity stage hits for them, whether it’s going to be this year or next year or the year after. It’s gonna come and it’s scary.”

And could you see if they have any openings in the Eastern Conference?

THE CLIPPERS: WHAT HAPPENED?

Or didn’t you used to be Loy Vaught?

No, we’re not going to put this on the longest-suffering and most dependable Clipper of them all. He’s off to a slow start (7.5 ppg), but he’s entitled. The Clippers are off to a slow start collectively, and they couldn’t afford one.

What went wrong?

Stojko Vrankovic--He has great size and some athleticism and people think, “I could just have him block shots and rebound.” The Celtics and Timberwolves tried, and here he is, with more turnovers than blocks. Minnesota GM Kevin McHale brought Vrankovic in, even after playing with him in Boston and watching him go bust.

Vrankovic is almost always behind the play. A Timberwolves official was asked if he drops so many passes because he has bad hands or doesn’t pay attention.

“Both,” the official said.

After three seasons without a center, Bill Fitch can be forgiven his desperation, but this was a costly project. They would have been out from under Stanley Roberts’ contract at season’s end; Vrankovic has another year left at $4.2 million.

Friday, Fitch started Lorenzen Wright and went two overtimes with the Bulls. Looks like the way to go.

Defense--If you want to be scrappy, you have to play good defense. When you’re No. 29 in a 29-team league that includes the limp Warriors, Nuggets and Mavericks, you must be limper than they are.

Morale--The organization takes great care to avoid the “same old Clippers” tag. But just because there’s less public complaining doesn’t mean everyone’s happy, or feels the organization has a direction, or doesn’t want out.

On the last trip, the soft-spoken Rodney Rogers, an upcoming free agent who always has been suspected of wanting to go back to his native North Carolina, told Carolina writers:

“I really don’t know what they’re thinking in the front office. Lately, they haven’t wanted to give up the money, so guys leave. Hopefully, in the near future, they can change that around. They’ll have to, or guys will keep leaving. . . .

“Guys get tired of losing. Everybody wants to win. Sooner or later, they’re going to have to change things to make people want to stay.”

Not that the organization will enjoy being reminded of this. Let them put their money (and their new arena plans) where their mouth is and prove someone wrong.

FACES AND FIGURES

Hats off: The bad thing, and the most impressive, about A.C. Green’s longevity record is that he set it playing for the Mavericks, where his undying spirit and professionalism shine like a diamond in a coal bin. . . . Cotton Fitzsimmons, who coached Phoenix when J.R. Reid knocked out two of Green’s teeth with an elbow, let A.C. keep playing minor minutes with a facemask. But Fitzsimmons, then with the Buffalo Braves, says he also let Randy Smith “drag his leg for the last 17 games with a hamstring pull. Impossible is a good word for what A.C. and Randy have done. I’ve had guys sit out with a hangnail.” . . . It shouldn’t be long now: Besieged Detroit Coach Doug Collins zinged Grant Hill after he scored eight points in a loss to Milwaukee--playing with a 102-degree temperature. “He was struggling when he was healthy,” Collins said. “He’s got to snap out of it.” . . . David Robinson, who looked so bad in exhibitions that people speculated rookie Tim Duncan would soon take over the Spurs, started the weekend No. 1 in the league in scoring, No. 3 in rebounds and No. 4 in blocked shots. “He fooled us,” former teammate Doc Rivers said. “We forgot he was a veteran in the exhibition season.”

How hot are the Lakers? Last season they shot 36.3% on three-pointers. Now, with the line moved back, they’re at 34.3%--and have made almost twice as many as opponents, 74 to 38. . . . It must be basketball season if: Anthony Mason is complaining. The former Knick malcontent, now singing the blues in Charlotte, moaned after losing to the Bulls: “Where was our post game? We were too busy trying to run and we were chucking up every jump shot we had.” . . . On the other hand, agent David Falk, who got Alonzo Mourning traded, has vowed revenge for the Hornets’ treatment of another client, Muggsy Bogues, and is now agitating on behalf of two other clients, Matt Geiger and Glen Rice. With Vlade Divac refusing to sign an extension, the Hornets might soon have no one but Mason left. . . . The one and only Jayson Williams, after taking 27 rebounds as the Nets defeated the Celtics: “We were like the whales with the sea lions, we were like tossing them and tossing them and then we decided to eat them. I don’t know where I came up with that. Maybe from watching the Discovery Channel.”