Buss Appears Ready to Keep Harris as Coach

Laker owner Jerry Buss, careful to say that all personnel will be evaluated after the playoffs, gave a strong indication Sunday that Del Harris will return next season and that the fate of his oft-maligned coach will not depend on whether the team advances beyond the second round.

Buss stopped short of squashing all speculation that Harris will likely be fired if the Lakers don’t at least reach the Western Conference finals, marking a playoff improvement over last season. But he also noted his pleasure after a regular season in which they finished one game out of the best record in the league despite significant injuries to Shaquille O’Neal and Nick Van Exel and the implication of having new starters at two positions, Robert Horry after his move from small forward and free-agent signee Rick Fox.

“He’s got another year on his contract,” Buss said. “Del seems fine for me.

“At the end of the year, you evaluate everybody. That’s the standard approach for all the NBA teams. But I don’t see any reason to criticize him. Del has been kind of a favorite of mine for a long time.

“If you’re asking me if a decision has been made that if we don’t reach a certain pointhe’s in trouble, absolutely, positively not . . . Absolutely no decision has been made whatsoever on anything.”

Told it sounded like Harris had reason to be optimistic about his future with the Lakers, Buss replied:

“I think so.”

The comments come at one of the most critical times of his 19 years as owner, with all signs pointing to a summer resignation by Jerry West as executive vice president and a fallout that already includes O’Neal and Kobe Bryant knowing that decision will play a major role as they consider whether to become free agents. Buss would not discuss that situation, saying he and West agreed not to make it a public issue until the off-season.

As for Harris’ situation, though, Buss said he was not even aware of the perception that the Lakers were currently playing for the future of their coach. Going a long way toward knocking down such a theory, Buss said:

“If he would have won one more game, we’d have home-court advantage through the whole playoffs. Let me have Shaq back. Let me have Nick back . . . Sixty-one [wins] is a very, very positive thing.”