George Remains on the Bubble

Devean George, one of the last links to the most recent string of Laker championship runs, could be in his final season as a Laker. Suddenly one of the older faces on the roster, the team’s first-round pick in 1999 is in the final year of a four-year, $18.5-million contract.

“I’m just going to play and let things happen, however they flow,” George said. “Just let the chips fall where they fall.”

The chips pretty much tumbled into the abyss last season.

George, 28, became a forgotten man, missing all but 15 games because of complications relating to off-season ankle surgery.

About the only significant thing that happened to him was his election as the Lakers’ player representative to the union.

He missed the first 67 games, then came back and averaged only 7.3 points while shooting 35.6%, inferior production for a player expected to help ease the transition from Shaquille O’Neal and Phil Jackson.

“It was a rough experience, coming back after having surgery,” George said. “There’s nothing like health. It takes something bad like that to happen to get you to change things and get you to work out a different way. Now that I’m over it, I’m kind of glad I went through it because it helped me out.”

George worked on his ball-handling during the off-season and arrived at camp 10 pounds slimmer.

Filling the role as the Lakers’ sixth man, George has averaged 9.5 points in only 18 minutes a game but had a 22-point effort on 10-for-12 shooting last Tuesday against the Washington Wizards.

“I think he looks comfortable playing,” Jackson said. “That’s the one thing I felt last year, that he didn’t look comfortable playing.”

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Rookie Andrew Bynum, back in practice Monday for the first time in more than two weeks after recuperating from a strained abdominal muscle, doesn’t consider missing most of the exhibition season a major setback.

“I know pretty much all the base triangle stuff,” he said. “[Jackson] added a lot of quickie plays, just come down the court and he’ll call a set play. I don’t know those yet but I’m going to learn them real fast.”

Bynum said he was 90% fit and expected to make his exhibition debut Friday against the Sacramento Kings in Las Vegas. Bynum also turns 18 that day.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said, smiling. “It’s in Vegas too.”

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Kobe Bryant has had a solid exhibition season, averaging 22.3 points in 29.3 minutes, although Jackson hopes the seven-time All-Star doesn’t become a security blanket for teammates.

“He can become like a thumb that you need to suck when trouble’s going on, and you just stick it back in your mouth,” Jackson said. “You don’t want them to do that with Kobe.”