He Still Wonders What the Deal Is

So it is with the Lakers that nothing stands on its own, not even an exciting game such as Friday night’s 103-100 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics and the six-game winning streak.

There’s always a subtext, always some other shoe waiting to drop.

Maybe it’s part of the Rodmanization of the Lakers, a lesson learned from the power forward who is as skillful at self-promotion as he is at rebounding. Be sure to keep watching, because you never know what will happen next.

As soon as they got past so many of the problems that led to their 6-6 start, the countdown began to the March 11 trading deadline. That means more speculation about Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell going to Charlotte for Glen Rice, B.J. Armstrong and J.R. Reid.

It’s the trade that hasn’t happened, but the trade that won’t go away.

Can the Lakers really afford to mess with something that’s finally going well? Or has this winning streak persuaded management to keep things intact?

Just when we’re starting to get our breath back after that trip through the rapids last week, it might be time to plunge into another round of changes.

On surface value, the thought of the Lakers gaining a sharpshooter like Rice sounds fearsome.

“I might retire,” Seattle’s Olden Polynice said of the ramifications of that trade. “That wouldn’t be fair.”

But nothing is that simple with this team. Trading for Rice would bring about more shifting, more uncertainty. After doing so well at small forward, Kobe Bryant would have to move back to shooting guard. That would probably result in more long jump shots and fewer rebounds.

The Lakers managed to find minutes for Rick Fox after Bryant supplanted him in the starting lineup by playing them together (with Bryant moving to the backcourt) for stretches. They couldn’t do that with Rice and Fox.

Rice has flourished as the primary offensive threat for the past seven seasons. Would he be willing to stand in line behind Shaquille O’Neal and Bryant here?

If the Lakers are committed to a fastbreak offense and fastbreaks start with defense, then why trade Jones, who annually ranks among the league leaders in steals?

Whatever happened to continuity? When the Chicago Bulls lost to the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 and 1990 conference finals, they didn’t make drastic changes. They let their team mature, while the Pistons grew old. The Bulls team that won the championship in 1991 was the same core group from 1989: Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Bill Cartwright, Horace Grant, John Paxson and Craig Hodges. The only significant additions along the way were draft picks Armstrong, Stacey King and free agent Cliff Levingston. The Bulls didn’t make big changes, they supplemented.

Shooters, like Dale Ellis, stick around the league long enough that sooner or later one can be picked up at a good price.

If the Lakers make this Rice trade, it would complete a significant alteration of the team. And the window of opportunity begins to get narrower. All of a sudden the young, promising team of the future won’t be so young anymore. Half of the top six players would be over 30: Derek Harper (37), Dennis Rodman (38 in May) and Rice (31 in May). If they were close enough to a championship to taste it, if they knew they were only one player away, they could afford to go all out for the present. But they still have a couple of steps to go. You don’t jump from being swept in the conference finals to trying out ring sizes in one year.

Recently, owner Jerry Buss and General Manager Mitch Kupchak have been asked the same question: Can the Lakers, as currently constructed, win a championship. Both answered yes.

Yet at the same time, no one will step forward to quell the trade rumors by stating unequivocally that Jones isn’t going anywhere. If they feel they can win it all with this team, then don’t alter the key components and hold tight. It might take a couple more years, but it should happen--if for no other reason than by attrition. Karl Malone and John Stockton can’t play forever, can they?

It might be too late to undo the damage to Jones. He has become so convinced that he’ll be traded he has mentally packed his bags. He checked in with a barely noticeable eight points on three-for-eight shooting Friday night. Maybe if March 11 passes and he’s still in a Laker uniform he’ll snap out of it.

The Lakers know that to get to the finals they need to go through Utah. Sunday in Salt Lake City, the Lakers will face the Jazz for the first time without Del Harris and with Rodman--the supposed problem and solution.

It translates into a single-game referendum on the state of this team, a tryout before the trading deadline to see if this group is capable of doing what it needs to do. When was the last time a regular-season game mattered this much?

The players who know they’ll be around here long-term have faith that management will do the right thing. It could be that the right thing is nothing at all.