Point

My first thought was, I wouldn’t do this.

I thought it for weeks. I thought it even more after the Lakers signed you-know-who, tying their fate to the game’s leading wacko, who has been giving off distress signals before and after joining them.

What did they need with another chemistry makeover when they’re not sure their power forward won’t flip out or they don’t need to get another point guard? They just traded Eddie Jones, their most--and last--marketable commodity for a small forward and the one they had was doing OK.

Then, I thought, Glen Rice!

A year ago, they almost traded Jones for Mitch Richmond. It was a move I thought they should make--and one Jerry West kicked himself for not making for months afterward.

And this is better.

With Rice taking over at small forward, Kobe Bryant moves back to his natural position, shooting guard. With Rice, the Lakers, who led the NBA in offense last season, just went from “good” to “overpowering,” especially in the half-court, which is how the playoffs are played and titles are won.

Rice is a career 41% three-point shooter. With Shaquille O’Neal, who has to be double-teamed, and Bryant, who further occupies defenses, he’ll get more open looks than he ever dreamed of.

Personally, I would have kept B.J. Armstrong, another crack outside shooter.

Where J.R. Reid figures in this remains to be seen. The Lakers took him to make the money come out right, aren’t thought to be high on him--and could even cut him. Even in a career year, Reid is averaging only 7.1 rebounds. That’s fewer than former Laker Rip Van Campbell took.

On the other hand, this had better work because it’s going to be expensive.

Rice’s contract situation is complicated. He will be a free agent, unless the Lakers exercise a one-year option at $7 million.

They expect to forgo that to re-sign him as a free agent. However, they don’t have the “understanding” that teams usually have on future salary, before trading for upcoming free agents.

And Rice’s agent is the one and only David Falk.

Falk is big-market friendly (make that great-big-market friendly) and is reportedly aching for an association with the Lakers, who are the new hot team, but never forget, he’s David Falk.

When the Lakers sit down with Rice this summer, Falk will be going for the max, a contract starting at $14 million. It won’t matter if Dennis Rodman blows up the Lakers and they don’t even make the playoffs, as long as Rice looks like a semblance of himself, Falk will be after the $14 mill like a crusader headed for Jerusalem.

And the Lakers, who tried to get Rice down to a deal starting at $11 million, will have to come up with the 14.

Their only options would be to bring Rice back unhappy for a year and then almost certainly lose him. Or they could just let him walk, meaning they’ll have traded Jones for nothing.

There are a lot of reasons not to like this deal. There have been reports Rice doesn’t want to be a No. 3 option. If so, that’ll be a problem because Nos. 1 and 2 are already spoken for around here.

The Laker players have been through a lot of tumult and more can be expected at any moment, so you can sympathize with the ones who issued pleas to keep them together, as their winning streak mounted.

Rice’s arrival just set back Rick Fox some more (for this, he turned down $10 million-plus, multiyear offers?) and made Robert Horry even more superfluous.

The deal could surely have been done this summer, when the Lakers would have had a clearer idea of their needs.

On the other hand, this is Glen Rice, so even if there are problems, it should work out in the long run.

If they can just hang on until then.