THE MEMO TO LAKERS ON RODMAN: JUST SAY NO

It didn’t take long after the Dennis Rodman-back-to-the-Lakers talk heated up for him to have another one of his Worm incidents.

Just in case the Lakers had the slightest hint of a thought--even the firing of one neural synapse--about considering giving another chance to the wacky rebounder, he gave them yet another reason not to.

Rodman was arrested and booked into the Newport Beach Jail on a misdemeanor charge of suspicion of being drunk in a public place after an altercation at a Newport Beach restaurant and bar Saturday night. Police want the district attorney’s office to file misdemeanor public drunkenness charges against Rodman.

It should serve as a reminder, a yellow caution flag about what an engagement with Rodman entails.

As if the prolonged negotiations, the late arrivals and the impromptu vacation the Lakers went through with Rodman last season weren’t enough.

Then there’s his propensity for drawing lawsuits. Three were filed against him in Las Vegas alone in 1998. Now, like Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, he’s ahead of last year’s pace. Two have been filed against him already this year.

In May, a casino security guard accused Rodman of grabbing her breast while she was working at the Las Vegas Hilton. In June, a Kentucky woman accused him of assaulting her in the lobby of a resort.

With Rodman, there’s always the chance he could miss practice or games because he is being deposed or in jail. And those are just the legitimate excuses.

Let’s set the legal liability of Saturday night’s escapade aside for a minute. Witnesses said Rodman didn’t start the incident, that it began when a female patron verbally harassed him, he responded and it escalated when her male companion joined the action. Police said Rodman slapped the man.

I have no reason to doubt the accounts that Rodman wasn’t the instigator. Whenever I saw him out during his days in Chicago, he never bothered anybody.

The thing that concerns me from a basketball perspective is that when police arrived at the restaurant and asked Rodman to leave, he became agitated and started jumping up and down, banging his head against the ceiling in the process, according to Newport Beach police Sgt. Mike McDermott.

Huh? Let’s get this straight: He doesn’t bang his head in a fight, he bangs it on the ceiling by his own actions. This is the guy who’s supposed to help a team that can’t help itself?

And did we mention that he’s 38 and looked every bit of it during stretches of last season?

The Lakers don’t need a one-year, quick fix because this isn’t going to happen in one year. There’s too much triangle offense to learn to have it all come to place before Rodman’s shelf life expires.

The Lakers need a little outside intervention right now. Lorenzen Wright passed them up for more cash in Atlanta, and Jerry West’s old buddy Elgin Baylor wasn’t about to help the Lakers by facilitating a sign-and-trade deal with them.

Charles Oakley and the Toronto Raptors, who possess his Larry Bird rights, aren’t making matters easier themselves.

J.R. Reid just left for Milwaukee via free agency.

That leaves Robert Horry as their top option at power forward. As with Rodman, that’s an already failed experiment.

Travis Knight? He picks up two fouls in walking from the bench to the scorer’s table. He still hustles, and he must have some of the ability that first impressed the Lakers and persuaded the Celtics to sign him to that big contract after his rookie season. He just isn’t the answer.

Which brings us back to . . . the past. I’ll say this for the final time, because I don’t want to spend the new season dwelling on it: The Lakers shouldn’t have traded Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell for Glen Rice and Reid.

As frustrating as Campbell could be during his days as a Laker, he looks pretty appealing right now, next to their current choices. And he makes for a better backup for Shaquille O’Neal than Sean Rooks.

Looking back at the roster from the end of the 1997-98 season, the Lakers have downgraded at three positions. There is the power-forward situation, the loss of half of the high-powered combination of Jones and Kobe Bryant at shooting guard, and at point guard, Nick Van Exel at his best beats Derek Fisher at his best.

They added a guy capable of bringing more than 20 points a game in Rice at small forward, but he won’t put up those types of numbers consistently with O’Neal and Bryant around, so what’s the point?

The best news for the Lakers is that the competition in the Western Conference hasn’t improved much either.

The San Antonio Spurs will miss Sean Elliott, who had a kidney transplant.

The Portland Trail Blazers rid themselves of plenty of headaches, but lost their best scoring option when they traded Isaiah Rider to Atlanta.

The Utah Jazz grew even older.

So there’s no need for the Lakers to get desperate. In other words, no need for Rodman.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: j.a.adande@latimes.com.