Come June, Shaq’s Toe, Clark Won’t Matter

News item: Shaquille O’Neal to have toe surgery, will probably miss early-season games.

News item 2: Keon Clark signs with Sacramento Kings.

Reaction: I don’t see either one stopping Shaq in June.

So maybe the Lakers stumble out of the gate while O’Neal completes his recovery in November. Maybe they don’t get the best record in the Western Conference and the home-court advantage in the playoffs that goes with it. Big deal. This group is developing into one of the best road teams in NBA history--they’re 15-2 in the purple jerseys over the last two postseasons.

If the surgery can alleviate the pain he felt throughout last season, it’s worth a few missed games.

Why wait so long? Well, all the Laker regulars needed their chill time this summer. The three-peat has drained this team. Several players I’ve spoken with said they’re feeling the effects of the 58 playoff games they’ve played in the last three years and it’s going to be harder for their bodies to crank up for the next season.

If Shaq rounds into form for the playoffs the way he did last season, no one will remember the games he didn’t play in November.

General fatigue and perhaps a lack of motivation will be the Lakers’ greatest foes as they go for No. 4.

On the court, the top competition comes from the Sacramento Kings. That would be the case whether or not they signed Clark. But bringing him to Sacramento doesn’t change the hierarchy in the Western Conference.

We should remember our lesson from two years ago, when Portland brought in Shawn Kemp and Dale Davis and some people (guilty) thought that would tip the balance of power. The only things that shifted were the scales due to Kemp’s weight.

Keon Clark is long, athletic and was probably the top big man available in the limited free-agent market this summer.

He also will be backing up two of the Kings’ best players, Chris Webber and Vlade Divac, which means there probably won’t be a lot of minutes for him if they’re both playing well and avoiding foul trouble.

Clark does provide a better scoring threat than current backup big man Scot Pollard, who looked as if he needed a hand-held Global Positioning System to find the basket during the Western Conference finals.

But when it comes to stopping O’Neal, Clark brings the same to the table as Pollard: six fouls. Other than that, he can’t offer much more of a defense. Have you ever seen his calf muscles? Skinniest in the league. They look like a couple of extra-long pens.

Maybe he just represents their Plan B in case Webber gets sent to the slammer. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Detroit will seek an indictment on charges that Webber lied to a grand jury in the numbers-running case of Michigan booster Ed Martin. If convicted, Webber could face a maximum of five years in prison.

Clark could have been a Laker, if they knew then what they know now. Why isn’t he? That would be the guy in jersey No. 3, Devean George.

The background: George, almost by default, was one of the most desirable free agents in this market. But teams weren’t in a spending mood, especially after they learned that next season’s salary cap would drop from $42 million in 2001-02 to $40 million. Those teams that could get around the cap issues were wary of crossing the luxury tax threshold.

The Lakers also knew they weren’t in position to easily replace the youth and athleticism of George, who made great strides during his third season but faded in the playoffs. But they didn’t want to see their championship roster picked apart piece by piece, so they acted to keep a player who figured prominently in their rotation.

The two sides agreed to use the Lakers’ 2002-03 mid-level exception of a little more than $4.5 million, and George signed a contract worth $13.5 million for the first three seasons, with an option for a fourth at $4.95 million

Five days later, the Toronto Raptors rescinded the $3-million qualifying offer they had made to Clark, which made him a free agent.

But the Lakers had already played their card. All they had left was the so-called million-dollar exception (actually worth $1.4 million), and that wasn’t going to be enough to lure Clark.

The Lakers needed Clark more than the Kings did, and perhaps that’s what King owners Joe and Gavin Maloof were thinking. It’s addition by subtraction--subtracting from the Lakers, that is.

Apparently, Clark getting cited for marijuana possession while driving through Illinois last month didn’t scare them.

And what did they sign him for? The $4.5-million mid-level exception.

J.A. Adande can be reached at: j.a.adande@latimes.com.