Harris Considers Revolving Lineups

Del Harris was prodded into a forward-thinking mood Sunday, and let his brain wander through all the scattered possibilities that his vast and varied collection of forwards presents him.

Of course, with several days left to consider the situation and training camp still in progress, the Laker coach warned that he was far from any final decisions.

But, when asked, Harris suggested that, with the proposed trade for Tom Gugliotta dead, with six forwards in camp, with the compacted season putting a premium on depth and conditioning, and with the desire building to get Kobe Bryant some starts, he was considering an interesting starting rotation at both forward spots.

At power forward, to no great surprise, Harris said that he could find himself starting either Robert Horry, Travis Knight or Corie Blount (and maybe even backup center Elden Campbell) on a night-to-night basis next to center Shaquille O’Neal, depending on the opponent matchup and which one is playing best.

And, for the first time, Harris said he was considering a rotation of Bryant, Eddie Jones and Rick Fox at the guard-small forward spots, meaning a different member of the talented trio would come off the bench every night on a revolving basis.

If Harris goes with the concept, one night Fox would start at forward with Jones at guard, as they did all last season; the next night, it would be Fox with Bryant at guard; the next, Bryant would start at small forward with Jones at guard; and then back to the start of the rotation.

“Maybe that might be something we do there as opposed to saying that one of them is the sub,” Harris said after Sunday’s morning practice. “They all feel that they’re a starter then. They don’t feel that they’re taking a back seat to anybody.

“They just know that every third game it’s their turn to come off the bench. I’ve thought about that. I don’t know. I have to talk to those players about that. If they’re comfortable with something like that, it’s an option.”

Meanwhile, the power forward scenario, Harris said, was less about having to find minutes for everybody who deserves it than figuring out who can match up best against the Western Conference’s legion of dangerous big men.

The Lakers, who do not have a clear-cut physical starting power forward, open the season against the Houston Rockets and Charles Barkley followed by the Utah Jazz and Karl Malone.

“We don’t want to get beat at that position,” Harris said. “For five years we’ve wanted to try to improve that. It’s just hard to do. You know, when I first came here, we had Elden [Campbell] and Vlade [Divac], and both of them were centers.

“But we do all right. It’s not like we didn’t win 61 games. You’re not going to have a perfect guy, an all-star at every position. All four of these guys are very good players. I think we’ll figure out a way, through the efforts of all of them, to get the job done.

“You know, everybody else’s got to be figuring out how to guard Shaq, all right? Then they’ve got to figure out how to guard Eddie and Kobe.

“We’ve got to figure out how to defend the [power forwards]. They’ve got to figure out how to guard a bunch of our people.”

Knight, for his part, said all the Laker forwards know that playing time is up for grabs--and that outsiders consider power forward the team’s greatest weakness.

“I think we have a lot of good power forwards here,” Knight said. “People who are saying [the Lakers need better power forwards] are not people who are in the situation.”

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At the end of Sunday night’s extremely physical practice, Harris named O’Neal and Derek Harper the team’s co-captains.

“Guys have to also look at themselves, and everybody has to be on the same page,” said O’Neal, who shared the captaincy last year with since-departed point guard Nick Van Exel.

“There is no vote on this team. Jerry [West]’s the president, Del’s the general, and I’m the colonel.”

Harper, a 15-year veteran who has been with the team only since the start of camp, said he was a little surprised to be named a co-captain so swiftly, but understood why Harris chose him.

“It’ll mean that I have to set the right example,” Harper said. “It means that they’re looking to me for leadership, and I accept that.”

Meanwhile, O’Neal, who has not hidden his desire for more outside shooters and one true power forward, expressed disappointment the Lakers did not land free-agent forward Tom Gugliotta because Minnesota refused a sign-and-trade deal.

“We tried to make some moves,” O’Neal said. “But I guess other teams really don’t want to help us. So from now on I’ll hold a personal vendetta against Minnesota. They’re added to the list . . .

“I would’ve liked to have that thuggish forward that I was looking for, that Horace Grant-type player. But what we’ve got is pretty good. We just have to work with what we’ve got.”

Laker Notes

Though the team could not find a way to acquire Tom Gugliotta, the Lakers aren’t finished exploring personnel moves. Executive Vice President Jerry West said, “We’ve said all along that we would like to have a little bit better fit for our team than we’ve had We’re in a very short season this year and I think teams are going to look around a little bit and try to make very quick judgments on where they’re going. If we’re a team that people looked at and said, ‘Well, they’ve got a lot of players over there, maybe they have some spare parts,’ would we look at it? Yes, we would.” . . . The Lakers will hold an open scrimmage today at 5 p.m. in “The Thunderdome” on the UC Santa Barbara campus.