Lakers, Clippers Hardly Looking Like Themselves

Gee, already?

Another season is upon us and it’s going to be a wild one around here, not just because of the new arena.

As usual, one of the local teams is loaded with exciting young players and the other looks confused. Unlike past seasons, however, it’s the Clippers who look exciting and the Lakers who look confused.

Of course, it’s a little soon to be giving up on the Lakers or depending on Donald T. Sterling to uphold the local honor in professional basketball.

Let’s just say, we’re in a little different place right now. . . .

ANOTHER OPENING, ANOTHER SHOWTIME

Believe this, the Lakers needed what Phil Jackson had: credibility, an air of authority, the ability to introduce them to the grown-up world of competing at the elite level.

Of course, with Jackson came his vision of how the game is played and the triangle, which is a fluid, motion offense, or was until the Lakers got hold of it.

Jackson called it “remedial school,” but after several weeks used “autistic,” noting their short attention spans, “probably due to too much rap music going in their ears.”

This highlighted not only the difficulty of the task but the 12 or so cultural generations between Jackson, 54, and his players, who may have to widen their musical tastes to include the Grateful Dead or Tommy Dorsey.

If the personnel was ill-fitted to the challenge, Jackson tried to smooth the transition, which is when he began musing about, or hiring, what seemed to be every player who had ever been a Chicago Bull or passed through O’Hare International Airport.

Jackson’s habit of musing aloud poses more challenges to the “Laker way.” His candor may be refreshing and may oblige Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, et al, to understand what’s expected. However, upstairs they aren’t used to outspoken coaches, and Jackson’s jibes--like his steadfast pining for Scottie Pippen--couldn’t be reverberating any louder if O’Neal turned up the stereo speakers in his van all the way and drove it into Jerry West’s office.

And more changes waft in the breeze. . . .

It’s now almost universally agreed, even within the organization, that trading Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell for Glen Rice was a terrible mistake (which, truth in punditry obliges me to note, I endorsed at the time).

Rice is now a) making the transition from a No. 1 option to being a co-No. 2; b) an awkward fit, or c) completely out of his element.

It had always been assumed that Jones and Bryant, shooting guards, were on a collision course, and, of course, at $7 million, Campbell was a tad pricey for a reserve.

However, management failed to factor in Bryant’s early-season success at small forward. Then there was the emerging notion that the real problem was defense, at which Jones excelled. Former coach Kurt Rambis had that figured out, which was why he was fidgeting so badly when the deal went down.

Jackson was reportedly told that if events prove they need Pippen, management will try to get him since Portland was willing to make the deal. Of course, unless the Trail Blazers are in trouble in December too, General Manager Bob Whitsitt may not feel like sending the Lakers a key piece as a Christmas present.

Owner Jerry Buss acknowledges shooting down the Pippen deal for financial reasons. Pippen may get as much as $42 million in the last two years of his contract, when the new dollar-for-dollar luxury tax kicks in.

However, the reported package for Pippen--Rice, Robert Horry and Travis Knight--now gets $15 million a season and Rice, a free agent next summer, wants a $120-million deal to stay, assuming the Lakers want to keep him.

Otherwise, the best they’ll get for Rice is whatever is available in a sign-and-trade.

“It will be a season which I’ll probably be coming to Jerry West’s office and say, ‘Jerry, there are some guys here who cannot learn what we’re trying to do,’ ” Jackson told the Chicago Tribune early in camp.

“ ‘If we’re going to have a team that is consistent, we’re going to have to change some personnel to meet the kind of things we have to do.’ ”

Lakerdom trembles, waiting to hear what Jerry answers.

Don’t book those parade floats just yet. The Lakers have the little matter of a paradigm shift to see if they can make it through first.

YOU AREN’T GOING TO BELIEVE THIS BUT . . .

After years of suffering from, and being, an urban blight, the Clippers are looking good and not just because they’re offering NBA ball at discounted prices in a sparkling new arena, if one that wasn’t color-coordinated with them in mind.

For the moment, at least, they’re loaded with bright young players, led by Lamar Odom, who may be a rookie feeling his way around, but is plainly special, a 6-foot-10 athlete who handles like a point and has that rare knack of making the pieces fall in place, just by walking on the floor.

“I think the Clippers got lucky, or figured something out that no one else figured out because I think he’s really going to be good,” said Milwaukee Coach George Karl last week.

“Any time you play with the good players, some players get awe-struck by it and other players are lifted up by it. I think Odom’s one of the guys that likes it. . . .

“I know he’s pretty good because other players are talking about him. I’ve already gotten four or five guys tell me, ‘Hey, that Odom kid is pretty good.’ His handle, his sense for the ball--there’s no way that can’t get better.”

What could go wrong now?

Well, of course, there’s Sterling, owner, chairman of the board and chief impediment, coming off his summer triumph of failing to secure Maurice Taylor, who, wonder of wonders, actually wanted to stay.

Sterling has never understood that in order to answer years of league-wide scorn, he’ll have to pay a premium to get someone to re-up.

Once, that might have been whatever some agent, like Danny Manning’s representative, Ron Grinker, dreamed up. Now it’s capped by the new bargaining agreement at $70 million over seven years.

This isn’t like shopping at Costco, but now, with rookies on a five-year scale, Taylor and Derek Anderson were the last major long-term commitments Sterling was going to have to make until Michael Olowokandi became a free agent in 2003.

Moreover, there wasn’t a single Clipper official counseling Sterling not to offer Taylor the maximum.

They could have given Taylor the $70 million, locked up Anderson for $50 million and taken the field with some actual morale for a change, rather than the second-best thing. As Anderson put it, “We are going to work this whole year, because I don’t know how long they’ll keep us together.”

I don’t know how long, although I have a hunch, but while this lasts, it might be fun.

FACES AND FIGURES

Phoenix Sun Coach Danny Ainge, on former teammate Charles Barkley’s moving announcement that this is his final season: “I’ll believe it when I see it. I think Steve Francis is getting too much attention in Houston. Charles needs some attention.” . . . Detroit Piston Coach Alvin Gentry, on the theory Barkley did it to set up a farewell tour: “You tell him, when he comes to Detroit, we ain’t giving him a damn thing.” . . . Barkley, musing about buying a team with Michael Jordan: “Then I would have to do what Michael tells me,” Barkley said. Why? “Because he’s Michael,” Barkley said. . . . More Karl on the ’99 rookie class: “I like [Phoenix’s No. 9 pick Shawn] Marion and I like [Cleveland’s No. 8] Andre Miller, more so than even some of the guys who went higher.”

New York Knick guard Latrell Sprewell, offended by Jackson’s suggestion the Lakers weren’t interested in him because he wasn’t compliant: “I think it’s an unfair statement because he hasn’t coached me. He probably hasn’t talked to anyone that’s coached me. If he did that, he’d know that most of the time, I am compliant.” Ask P.J. Carlesimo what happens the rest of the time.

What is this, fantasy camp for celebrities? First it’s Garth Brooks training with the San Diego Padres. Now rap mogul Percy (Master P) Miller tries out with the Toronto Raptors--and Coach Butch Carter actually tries to keep him, but is shot down by management. Carter insists it was a good idea because the publicity--the Raptors had to bring in waves of security--would have taken the heat off Vince Carter. Oh, by the way, Butch Carter concedes Master P isn’t good enough: “From a skills perspective, it would be hard to put him on an NBA roster.” Comment: Butch Carter is losing it a little early this season.