Roland Lazenby Breaks Down Kobe Situation

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p>

Roland Lazenby knows a thing or two about the Lakers. He wrote the book on them, for one thing, and he sometimes runs a Laker blog (when he's not too busy doing many things associated with the journalism classes he teaches at Virginia Tech).</p>

His take on the latest Laker news is fascinating. He sees two camps in Lakerville. There are those who want the Lakers to do everything possible to bring in top talent immediately, so that the team can have a shot at winning titles while Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson are still functioning at high levels. Then there are those who want Kobe, Phil, and their allies to be patient as the youngsters like Andrew Bynum develop. Chief among this second camp is Laker owner Jerry Buss's son Jim, who is said to be Bynum's biggest supporter.</p>

Lazenby emails the following thoughts:</p>
<blockquote>

Jerry Buss is a lot of things but fool isn't one of them.</p>

Isn't it amazing the way he just trumped Phil and Kobe? They seemed ready for one of those season-long PR wars, with Phil, Kobe, the team and Jeanie Buss lined up against Jim Buss.</p>

That's just like Phil allied things against Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf in Chicago in 1998.</p>

Usually, nobody plays this game better than Phil. He eviscerated the Jerries in Chicago with Jordan as his major card, had them begging for mercy by the end of the season. Krause and Reinsdorf still haven't recovered from that showdown with Phil, who coolly rode off in the sunset after it was over.</p>

Phil had primed the pump this time by getting his pal Sam Smith at the Chicago Tribune to write a column saying Kobe ought to sit out the season. Jerry Buss could see the play coming. So the owner walked into training camp and knocked Kobe almost unconscious. We'll trade your ass and put it on the table now, Jerry Buss told Kobe in so many words.</p>

Phil was left gulping, Kobe speechless.</p>

Phil has finally met his match in those juicy PR games that sell newspapers and books. Question is, do Phil/Kobe/Jeanie have another move? Or are they done, left slinking away sheepishly?</p>

Phil wants another championship and he wants Jim Buss out of the way so that he can do it. It was Jim Buss, supposedly, who talked his father Jerry in firing Phil in 2004, so this thing has a history.</p>

In case that's not crazy enough, Jeanie Buss and certain Hollywood producers are shopping around a reality series about her life. Too bad the cameras aren't rolling right now, because this is very dramatic stuff.</p>

But Jerry Buss is pushing toward that Rodney King solution. Can't we all just get along? Nothing else will be tolerated. Buss can't fire Phil again, but he can make him walk away from his contract offer on the table by simply taking away the talent. With no toys, Phil would have to retire or look elsewhere to coach. Which leaves the team free to start over.</p>

Buss seems to prefer building around Kobe, but not on Phil's terms. Would Buss actually trade Kobe? Only if he has to to thwart Phil and save Jim Buss' position with the franchise.</p>

I wrote this summer that Buss was headed into his dotage, like King Lear, and leaving the kids to fight it out. Boy, was I wrong. The old guy still has a poker hand or two left in him.</div></p>

Source: ESPN True Hoop</p>

There are so many sublots and drama surrounding the Laker organization. It's tedious keeping up with everything and has become embarrassing to be a Laker fan at some points.</p>
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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

You can always switch to being a Celtics fan. </p>

No drama here. lol</p>

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You are a sick man my friend.</p>

I'll role with whoever the Lakers put out on the floor every game, but I wish the organization would get ahold of itself. The Lakers used to be THE DESTINATION for free agents and superstars to come play for. Ever since Jim Buss has taken more control of this team from daddy, the Lakers mystique has taken a hit.</p>

When you cannot field a championship contending team with the best player in the world on your roster something is wrong with management.</p>

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (shapecity)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (CelticKing)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

You can always switch to being a Celtics fan. </p>

No drama here. lol</p>

</p>

</div></p>

You are a sick man my friend.</p>

I'll role with whoever the Lakers put out on the floor every game, but I wish the organization would get ahold of itself. The Lakers used to be THE DESTINATION for free agents and superstars to come play for. Ever since Jim Buss has taken more control of this team from daddy, the Lakers mystique has taken a hit.</p>

When you cannot field a championship contending team with the best player in the world on your roster something is wrong with management.</div></p>

I think that's the shame of it for the Lakers. The "drama" and the "facts as I see them" are very confused.</p>

The drama, nicely summed up by the article you posted, is that you've got two sides that probably can't coexist any more. But look at the facts and who would you want to leave town?</p>

Well, if Kobe and Phil leave, you're pretty much committing several more years to Mitch Kupchak (and I guess Jim Buss) and the facts as I see them is that they don't inspire much confidence.</p>

If Mitch and Buss leave, is Phil Jackson or Jeannie effectively your GM? Or Kobe? I don't have much doubt that whomever it is will make some moves to win in the short-run, but here's the rub. First, none of those guys have much track record. Second, they've only got so much to work with as far as getting help for Kobe. He and Phill need quite a lot of help and they don't have that much left in the tank IMO. Cap space doesn't look that likely and I don't see how the players they could trade bring back enough help.</p>

In short, the right strategy is probably to clear the decks and rebuild, but the older guys aren't going to stand for it and Kupchak isn't the guy I'd want overseeing it. So either way, I'd not be too happy with the situation.</p>

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</div></p>

Spot on. You can insert any of these cliches to some up the current Laker situation.</p>

"Choose your own poison."
"The lesser of two evils."
"Stuck between a rock and a hard place."
etc.

The kicker for me was the comment about how Jim Buss ran PJax out the first time around. With Jim receiving more control of the team I'm sure these two butt heads all the time. Kobe's close relationship with PJax makes him collateral damage and I don't either want to stick around unless Jim is gone. With Dr. Buss making his recent comments he's going to stand by his son and clean house when necessary. The teams mentioned in the trade rumors are tough deal with right now because a lot of filler pieces can't be included until after December. If the Lakers make a deal to ship out Kobe it will likely be before the February deadline.</p>

If the Lakers move on without Kobe and PJax you can expect Jim Buss to hire an offensive minded coach to run Showtime. This was the reason Jim Buss hired Rudy T when the head coaching job became vacant a few years back. Apparently, Rudy's agent caught wind Jim was in charge and would make the decision and he had a vision to resurrect "Showtime" basketball back in LA. Rudy had the answers to the test and said everything Jim wanted to hear during his job interview.</p>

Obviously when you inherit a halfcourt Triangle team and try to turn them into a run and gun, chuck 3's and don't play defensive team it's not going to work out very well. Kobe Bryant made it clear he didn't have confidence in Rudy T as the headcoach and Rudy T couldn't handle the media pressure in LA and stepped down. I'm sure this was one of the first riffs between Kobe and Jim Buss.</p>

Back to back lottery seasons led to a desperate move by Dr. Buss to bring some hype back to the Laker team and appease the season ticket holders so he bit the bullet and brought back PJax. This move was supported by Kobe, but not so much by Jim Buss.</p>

The past few seasons with PJax back has become an inner power struggle and now the Lakers find themselves at an impasse. Should be a very interesting and frustrating season.</p>

However I think PJax and Kobe can get the last word in if the Lakers jump out to a quick start, stay healthy and have early success. Winning seams to remedy everything in professional sports. Kobe needs to do what he does best and compete for wins. Him and PJax will have a lot more pull if they show this team is just one piece away from winning a title.</p>

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

I've got not problems siding with Jerry Buss in this situation. As good of a coach as Phil is, there is no way I'd ever want him deciding on personnel.</p>

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PJax hasn't been involved much in player personnel. He came back to win titles based on the promise the team was committed to building around Kobe Bryant.</p>

The problem with Jim Buss is his repoire with other GMs. They simply do not like dealing with him and don't feel he has any credibility.</p>

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>esterday, Roland Lazenby told us some interesting stuff about the Lakers. (He is quite a guy. He wrote the book on the Lakers, sometimes runs a Laker blog, edits Lindy's Pro Basketball Annual, and does a lot of interesting things associated with the journalism classes latest insight he teaches at Virginia Tech). Lazenby just emailed some more thoughts:</p>

When Kobe Bryant first began speaking out after the Lakers flopped in last year's playoffs, longtime Phil Jackson assistant Tex Winter figured that Bryant had to speak up.</p>

Bryant was the only player with the power and status to make a statement. Plus, Bryant had earned the right to speak. He'd poured his heart into the team for a decade, by all accounts working harder than any other NBA player, and much harder than any other superstar. Who else besides Bryant could challenge the team's obvious personnel shortcomings?</p>

The only problem was, Bryant has been too emotional, too angry about the issue. Each time he has spoken out, the communication hasn't been good. It has been terrible in fact, and he has angered a lot of people, including owner Jerry Buss. Winter agreed that Bryant should speak up, but like many others, the veteran coach was upset at how Kobe went about it.</p>

Jerry Buss' recent comments reveal just how angry the owner is at being publicly challenged by his star player, and Bryant's response of sitting out three days of practice have again proved disastrous. They've irritated his ally, Phil Jackson, and they've confused fans and media alike. It appears to be another childish response, as Bryant's critics have quickly pointed out.</p>

Perhaps Kobe needs to wear one of those WWJD bracelets. You know, What Would Jordan Do?</p>

Facing a similar disconnect with the Chicago Bulls "organization" in 1997-98, Jordan allowed his play to do his talking. The team won, and winning trumped all other answers. In 1998, Jordan had an angry, injured Scottie Pippen as a teammate, and the Bulls struggled until Pippen found some health. Kobe, alas, doesn't have the veteran, accomplished team around him that Jordan did.</p>

But he still has to try to answer with winning.</p>

That's the opinion of Alan Elliott, a good friend of Jeanie Buss' who not surprisingly is a serious long-term Lakers fan. "Kobe is making $19,490,625 from the Lakers this year," Elliott told me Wednesday. "He needs to go to practice and play defense like he did for team USA. THAT is what Phil is pissed about right now. If he did that, this would all pass."</p>

Winning does cover a multitude of sins. The Lakers have long shown that.</p>

But the question does remain: Just what is the problem with the Lakers' front office? There is the case that Laker basketball executive Jim Buss, the owner's favorite son, has no real basketball background, that he and sister Jeanie are caught in a sibling rivalry that has affected the franchise.</p>

Then there's the perception that Jackson has a tendency to savor the internal gamesmanship he indulges in around an organization. (Jackson, who believes Jim Buss was behind his 2004 firing, traded barbs with the owner's son in the media over the summer as Bryant was stewing.)</p>

But what about General Manager Mitch Kupchak and his staff? The fans frequently refer to him as Mitch "Kupcake" and blame him for the poor O'Neal deal.</p>

First, as I wrote in Lindy's Pro Basketball Annual, Jackson has a solid working relationship with Kupchak. He trusts him and communicates easily with him. Kupchak and the Lakers' fine scouting and front office staffs were all groomed by Jerry West. In terms of pedigree, they are the best in the business. Kupchak assistant Ronnie Lester, a former star-quality player who had his career shortened by a knee injury, has spent years paying his dues as an NBA scout for West. He knows the game inside and out. He has his own opinions about players and strategies, but that's what he's paid to do, have opinions.</p>

Lester is not a tremendous fan of Jackson's and Winter's triangle offense. Lester was charged with finding personnel to build a running team (which Jerry Buss has always favored) in 2004 after Jackson was fired. Lester began finding players to fit the running game (Lamar Odom was the first) when suddenly Jackson and the triangle returned to the team in 2005 (I understand it was Jim Buss who hired Rudy Tomjanovich out of the blue, a monumental disaster for the Lakers).</p>

The bottom line is that the Lakers remain at cross purposes. They have a triangle coach with a strong contingency in the organization, including ownership, that has never been enamored of the triangle, even though it won them three championships.</p>

The NBA is a bottom line business. The bottom line is that it's time for this excellent front office to come up with results. "The expectations are awful high around here," as West used to say, almost pridefully.</p>

West, though, also complained about having to do his job despite Buss' demands and interference. Buss' response was always that the organization had to watch its dollars. Now, though, it's about more than dollars. It's about Buss inserting his son several years ago into the front office as a vice president for basketball. It was laughable when Buss did that, except that it was an irritant for West and anyone who respected the game.</p>

Now the irritant has grown immensely. And it's no pearl. From many accounts, Jim Buss is a good person and certainly no dummy about basketball. Still, he ain't no personnel guy, no way, no how, never, never, never. He's the owner's son, the owner in waiting. But it will take eons (and lots of winning) before the Lakers basketball public accepts him as the man - if it ever does.</p>

Jerry Buss is well-known as a gambling man, which makes it stranger that he would put his son in the position of facing such long odds. As a father, Jerry Buss loves his son dearly, so you can chalk it up to the blindness of a father's eye. (Just look at the football coaches who try to make their sons the offensive coordinator. It never works.)</p>

Given the circumstances, prudence suggests that Jim Buss should be cautious as to how he proceeds. If his father is guilty of blind love, it's understandable that Jim Buss seems intent on proving he's his own man, that he is a "basketball guy."</p>

Unfortunately for Lakers fans, the stench of hubris is high in these circumstances, just as it was for former Bulls GM Jerry Krause in 1998 when he wanted to assert that he and his organization were the reason Chicago won all those championships. The fans are absolutely nauseated by the circumstances. (Aren't sports supposed to be the place you can go to forget about the pressures of life?)</p>

So let's do the fans a favor for a minute. Let's forget the sibling rivalry and all the "drama" and focus on the real basketball problem.</p>

The Lakers are a team with huge philosophical differences. In 2004 as the Lakers were getting dunked by the Pistons in the league championship series, Jerry Buss was explaining to anyone within earshot that he was fed up with the triangle. He wanted a running offense.</p>

Now, it seems that Jackson is going to try to give Buss what he wants. The Lakers are going to run more. Tex Winter has been fussing for years that the triangle offense is great for running a controlled break, but Jackson wouldn't do it because he didn't want to piss off Shaq, who was slow moving and wanted the offense to wait for him.</p>

Truth be known, Jackson is a great coach, but he has never been much of an Xs and Os guy. Tex Winter has done all that for him. Which means Jackson, while fighting through health problems, has done a poor job of speeding up the Lakers offense and taking advantage of the talent the front office has brought to the equation.</p>

Now Jackson is feeling better; the pressure of the Hall of Fame is off of him and his reputation is assured. Winter was reluctant to go to Hawaii this year, but it appears Jackson needed him more than ever. The Lakers have have shown they can slow it down and play system basketball toe to toe with San Antonio. Now they are trying to speed up to stay with the fast teams in the West that have given them trouble.</p>

The transition to a faster tempo is going to mean a rough start for the Lakers.</p>

Buss has had a vision since he put together an amazing deal to buy the team and the Forum in 1979. He has displayed amazing instincts. But that doesn't mean he's been perfect. Why did Buss trade Shaquille O'Neal? He was hesitant to sign him to a huge contract extension because of O'Neal's age and conditioning (as O'Neal told me, the two were never close).</p>

Then O'Neal harshly criticized Buss, which sealed the issue. Buss has enjoyed tremendous fortune as owner of the team, but he still has a pretty thin skin. Has Bryant hurt Buss? Will Buss trade Bryant? Can he trade Bryant? Or will Phil and Tex and Kobe and everyone else get the opportunity to reinvent the team and prove once and for all Tex Winter's assertion that his triangle offense is plenty flexible and very capable of running?</p>

Now that's what I call real drama. And it's all about basketball. Mostly.</div></p>

Source: True Hoop Blog ESPN</p>

Here's an update. Even more insight to the behind the scenes.</p>

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<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MikeDC)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan)</div><div class='quotemain'></p>

I've got not problems siding with Jerry Buss in this situation. As good of a coach as Phil is, there is no way I'd ever want him deciding on personnel.</p>

</div></p>

Following up Shapes excellent post (he did compliment me after all!) I think I'd be more inclined to turn over the keys to Jackson than I would to the Jimmy Bus and Mitch.</p>

As I said, I expect the short-run result of that would be not so good. The Lakers would probably make a couple of trades (or try) to bring in some immediate help. I don't think it'd work though, so then what do you have? A rebuilding project that probably even Jackson (or his successor) would acknowledge and work on a couple years down the road.</p>

Going with Jimmy and Mitch may well start the rebuilding project early, but I can't imagine it being on a good foundation with those two running the show. I guess I'd prefer a fresh face instead of one I'm pretty sure isn't going to get there. Sure, there's the chance Jackson as GM is a disaster, but I I don't see Jimmy and Mitch as successes. So better to roll the dice.</p>

Another question I've got is what sort of guys the Lakers could get if they really made an all out push. I don't think they could get enough, but could they pick up enough guys to make a real difference?</p>

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I don't see any chance of Phil having success running a front office. Yes, Mitch is a buffoon and Jim doesn't help matters but the Lakers aren't close to being a championship team with Kobe. My take is that Mitch hasn't been fired because Phil is still around. Once Phil is gone, it becomes very easy to get rid of Mitch and put a competent GM in place. If a competent GM is hired, I see Jerry telling Jim to let the new GM do his job.</p>

In short, the only way I see the Lakers getting better is a complete blowing out of Kobe, Phil and Mitch.</p>

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The post above sheds more light on the situation. You have the Laker scouts and Jim Buss going after players who fit in an uptempo game and you have a headcoach he prefers players who work in a halfcourt set.</p>

I know PJax isn't the ideal candidate for evaulating talent. He's admitted he doesn't pay attention to college basketball players or potential draft picks. He has an idea of the type of players he needs in his system and tries to develop them into those roles.</p>

Watching all of this unfold is taxing. The Lakers front office has turned into the DMV department.</p>

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