Harris Finds He Has Too Much in Reserve

Today the All-Star opening lineup, tomorrow the Laker opening lineup?

Define tomorrow. It will come for Kobe Bryant, all right, but it just won’t come today, decisions on the local scene being made by an autocracy and not the popularity contest that turned him from a full-time reserve to a starter for the Western Conference on Feb. 8 in New York.

The good news for Coach Del Harris, who makes the lineup decisions for the Lakers, is that the announcement Sunday that Bryant had outpolled every guard in the West except Gary Payton won’t start a groundswell of support that the 19-year-old wunderkind should be among the first five.

“They’re already saying it anyway,” Harris said.

The bad news is they’re going to be saying it even more now.

“It kind of messed up my system of bringing him along slowly, I must say,” Harris said, smiling. “Probably a conspiracy out there.”

Either that or several national ad campaigns, a slam-dunk title won at 18 and skills and professionalism that are every bit what the Lakers promised 19 months ago upon his arrival from high school. The system never had a chance.

But that doesn’t change the other reality. Bryant is overflowing with skills and, just as important, is learning to channel them and reduce the out-of-control moments . . . and he also isn’t playing better than any of the starters at the three positions he has played. He will remain a reserve, maybe even the leading candidate for sixth man of the year.

For now. The safe guess is that he will finish the season on the bench, make it even harder for the coach to hold off on a move, and then get a promotion for the start of 1998-99. The not-so-safe one comes from Harris’ comments Tuesday:

“And maybe he will be [sooner]. Everything changes. If what we’d been doing has been working to where we’re one of the teams at the top of the league and he’s having a great year, that doesn’t necessarily mandate we do something different. But I think everybody who knows me knows I’m open to change.”

Yeah, that’ll squelch speculation.

But in the next breath, Harris insists he is just keeping his choices open and has no thoughts of a lineup change.

When he does have some, though, there will be several options:

* Bryant at small forward. It’s too much for him now at 6-feet-7 and 210 pounds, in a conference in which he would have to face Detlef Schrempf, Kevin Garnett, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Rodney Rogers, et al, four times every regular season. But if, say between the end of this season and the start of the next, he grows another inch and adds another 15 pounds. . . .

* Bryant at shooting guard. That means Eddie Jones probably gets traded.

“Eddie is also the same way,” Shaquille O’Neal said, noting Jones’ scoring and open-court abilities. “Coach is just not going to give the position away.”

* Bryant at point guard. He has shown the ability to be a great passer, especially when he breaks down defenses and gets into the lane, but this may also be where his game is stifled most. Bring the ball up and throw it into O’Neal? So much for taking advantage of Bryant’s explosive offensive talents.

Nick Van Exel, the incumbent, may help make the decision. Or at least Van Exel’s knee will. If the soreness there persists, and there is nothing to indicate it won’t, he may be better suited to playing 18 minutes off the bench than being counted on for 38 as the starter.

Such a move also would probably prompt Harris to rework not just the starting lineup, but the Laker offense. He could go with no point guard, much as the Chicago Bulls do, though they have the added benefit of Scottie Pippen to initiate the offense.

All options will probably be examined. Probably just not much before the full-time reserve goes to New York as a starter, something even Bryant admits is a strange turn of events.

“A little bit,” he said. “But I’ve just got to let it all hang out. Go out there and have fun. Not think about it.”

Because he can be that patient.

“I’ve waited this long.”

All 19 years. All 1 1/2 seasons.