Green Is Out, Madsen’s In

There was a less-than-subtle transition at power forward on the Lakers on Wednesday, when A.C. Green and Mark Madsen saw their careers pass in the night.

Though the Lakers made it clear that it was not nearly as simple as replacing Green with Madsen--Green could be asked back and Madsen will have to earn hard minutes as a rookie--waiving Green, who started all 105 regular-season and playoff games in 1999-2000, hours before using their No. 1 draft choice on Madsen was more than a symbolic gesture.

“How could anyone fill A.C. Green’s shoes?” said Madsen, a 6-foot-8, 240-pound bruising forward from Stanford, who was selected with the 29th pick overall (last in the first round).

“He’s meant so much to the Lakers over the course of his career, you know? All I can say is I’m going to go in there and do what I can do and not try to do things I cannot do. The Lakers have got everything intact and I’m just going to go in there and do what they ask me to do.”

Executive Vice President Jerry West said that releasing Green, 36, who was a part of three Laker championship teams and averaged five points and 5.9 rebounds last season, was something he hated to do, but he said the Lakers needed to get stronger and younger and to shave some salary.

If Green had stayed with the Lakers, they would have owed him $1.9 million for the 2000-01 season, and potentially $2.1 million for 2001-02. Madsen’s rookie deal, according to his draft slot, will be about $2 million over three years.

“The one thing that I will impress upon you, this might be the toughest guy in the whole draft,” West said of Madsen, who led the Pacific 10 Conference in rebounding his senior season.

“He knows how to defend, likes to throw his body around, so we probably needed a player like that. . . . There were some other people we liked a lot. But I think this more fits our need--it kind of addresses the A.C. Green situation.”

West also pointed out that Madsen is 24 (he went on a Mormon mission before starting his college career), which means he might be mature enough to step quickly into a regular role with Coach Phil Jackson.

“I think he has an opportunity to play right away,” West said. “He’s older. He played in a great program at Stanford.”

At the end of the evening, the Lakers traded the team’s second-round selections in 2001 and 2002 to the San Antonio Spurs to move into the 54th overall slot to select athletic 6-8 guard Cory Hightower from Indiana Hills (Iowa) CC.

“He can score and he can shoot the ball,” West said of Hightower. “Someone that Phil had a great interest in.”

So, if Robert Horry is still thought of as a backup (and he is) who’s left for the Lakers to start at power forward?

West said he was reasonably confident the newly crowned champions could attract a solid veteran power forward/backup center with their $2.2-million mid-level salary-cap exception.

Jackson emphasized that Green, who has played in an NBA-record 1,110 consecutive games, could possibly come back, at a lesser salary, and neither Jackson nor West projected Madsen into anything close to a starting role soon.

“I don’t want it to sound as if it’s goodbye to A.C.,” Jackson said. “That’s not the intent of what we did. . . .

“We hope if someone else doesn’t pick up A.C.’s contract and he doesn’t find another place to play . . . that there’s still the option he might play here.”

West, though, clearly was looking to the July 1 start of free-agent talks (no deals can be finalized until Aug. 1) to supply the Lakers with a starting power forward.

The list of top power forwards is led by San Antonio’s Tim Duncan, the Clippers’ Maurice Taylor and Portland’s Brian Grant, although all of those players almost certainly will land deals that are far richer than the Lakers can offer.

The second tier includes Kurt Thomas of the New York Knicks and Bo Outlaw of the Orlando Magic.

“We’re hopeful that free agency will be a positive time for us,” West said. “We think we have a very attractive team to come play for, I think. Somebody can look and see that there’s playing time here available at that position.”

Said Jackson, when asked if he was hoping to land Grant: “Oh definitely--Brian Grant’s a wish list. I mean, that’s Santa Claus . . .

“But Brian Grant [opted out of] $41 million that’s left on his contract and I’m sure that he’s not planning on coming here for $2.5 million or whatever the exception is. Maybe he is, maybe we can work that out--I’ve got a nice golden retriever that he can have, he can drive a car that I have that’s an extra car . . .

“[But] we have to be realistic about what we can do.”

Jackson, who cautioned that Madsen must pick up the nuances of the triangle offense (Madsen said he has already read Jackson’s book, “Sacred Hoops”), said Madsen reminded him of an energetic player he had with the Chicago Bulls.

“We had a player like that in Scott Williams--he was 6-10, a little bit bigger,” Jackson said, “played with great enthusiasm, liked to rebound, liked to play hard underneath, a young player we used for energy on the first Bulls three-peat team.”

Madsen, who could barely restrain his joy during a phone interview with local reporters, said his family’s house exploded with emotion when the Lakers selected him--his mother is from Long Beach, and he said he has been a Laker fan his whole life.

“I’m the type of guy, if Shaq says, ‘Go rebound,’ I’ll go rebound, no questions asked on my part,” Madsen said. “He tells me to do something, I’m going to do it, no questions asked.”

Madsen said he had no problems with comparisons to Laker “Showtime” workhorse Kurt Rambis.

“I love that comparison,” Madsen said. “Kurt Rambis when he played was a role player, he did the dirty work, when there was a tough guy that needed to be defended, they put him on him, and Kurt would just go to work and play his heart out. I’ll do that, I’ll play my heart out.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Laker Picks

MARK MADSEN, Round 1 (29th overall)

* Position: Power forward.

* School: Stanford.

* Height/Weight: 6-8, 240.

* The lowdown: Known more for his eagerness to rumble (9.3 rebounds his senior season) and strength on the post than for his offensive moves (10.9 career scoring average).

*

CORY HIGHTOWER, Round 2

(54th overall)

* Position: Guard.

* School: Indian Hills Community College.

* Height/Weight: 6-8, 200.

* The lowdown: A slasher-scorer forecast by some to be a first-rounder, or at least a high No. 2 after averaging 22.6 points last season and making 42% of his three- pointers. The Lakers, and especially Jackson, who loves big guards, were delighted to see Hightower slip far down.