The book tour was over, the late night talk shows, radio appearances and lunchtime interviews on sun-dappled patios in select cities. He was back at home, sitting on his high comfortable chair at the breakfast counter. In front of him was a  tablet device and a small case housing his eleven championship rings from his days as a coach and the two rings he earned as a player. His fiancee was in another room. She was on a conference call with an Asian electronics consortium. The topic of conversation had to do with leasing rights for the Los Angeles Lakers. Her father’s will had very strict stipulations about the team’s ownership but there wasn’t anything in there about offshore leasing. Jeanie thought it was a win-win. The conversation was at a delicate and critical stage.

Phil was looking at the tablet screen, frowning. He was comparing several different reviews of his latest book, cross-checking them not only for accuracy but to also make sure that everyone understood the spirit of his communications. He removed all of his rings from the case and carefully arranged them on the counter. He took a cell-pic, then rearranged them again and took another cell-pic. He sighed, called out plaintively.

“Hey Jeanie, are you busy?”

There was an apologetic murmur from the other room. “I’m on my conference call honey. The one I told you about?”

“Oh, okay. I’m not sure all these so-called sportswriters understand the essential truths that I’m trying to get across here. There are discrepancies.”

“Okay honey. We can talk about it at lunch. After I’m done with my call.”

“Oh, okay. Do you know what Portia’s making us for lunch?”

“No honey, but you can ask her.”

Phil sighed heavily. It wasn’t easy being a legendary ex-coach with eleven rings plus two others which made a total of 13. Not that he was counting. He frowned at his arrangement of rings, bent down and flicked a tiny piece of dust off a sparkling purple jewel.

“Hey Jeanie? Do you think Portia might have been dusting my rings earlier?”

There was sigh and a pause, followed by a bright and somewhat tremulous reply. “Not since you had them out earlier this morning, Phil.”

“Oh. I’m not concerned about it. They’re just ornaments.”

“Yes honey, rings are ornaments. Sometimes it can take a long time to get the ornament you want. I just gotta finish up this call.”

Continue Reading…

In the brave new world of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, building through the draft becomes increasingly necessary. There’s a bit of a Catch-22 for teams that have successful seasons with any regularity. Winning compromises draft position while free agency spending becomes increasingly funneled into a punitive bottleneck. The Lakers have few options available for plugging holes in the dyke until the 2013-14 season when a lot of money theoretically comes off the books. For now, there’s the veteran minimum, the mini mid-level exception and one paltry pick – #48.

For teams like the Lakers, the conventional wisdom is usually to pick the best player available, regardless of position. It’s a simple matter of logic when you have one pick and a poor slot. It’s a little different if you’re the Cavs with four bites at the apple including number one, or Portland, also with four. So what are the Lakers needs? Everything. Given age, injuries and Dwight Howard’s free agency there is no position where we have any real depth – possible exception being point guard though you wouldn’t have known during the recent playoffs. Then again, there may not be a lot of positional choices by the time Adam Silver hits his mark and announces #48 – the bottom half of this year’s draft tends to favor big and slow.

Ben Rosales from Silver Screen and Roll has put together a thorough and thoughtfull Lakers draft primer – give it a read.

The Lake Show Life has put together a good round table of potential picks.

Here’s a great overview on Western Conference draft trends from Matt Norlander at CBS Sports.

Dave McMenamin from ESPN GO offers ten decisions that shaped the Lakers fate this past season.

Ronnie Lester was with the Lakers organization for 27 years as a player and executive before being let go in 2011. Eric Pincus from the L.A. Times has an update.

The San Antonio Spurs are legendary when it comes to managing the draft, especially with overseas players that are usually stashed and ripened. Tony Parker was drafted at #28 and Manu Ginobili at #57. J.R. Gomez from Pounding the Rock has the story on the team’s most recent long term development prospect – Tiago Splitter’s coming into his own in the NBA after being drafted #28 six years back.

Here’s a bunch of good Lakers links and rumors from Arielle Moyal at Lakers Nation.

Also from Lakers Nation via Elizabeth Benson, Phil Jackson’s view on fixing the Lakers problems.

Finally, while we rarely link financial media sites here (and it’s not really relevant to the draft), here’s an article from CBS MoneyWatch, How to Lead Like Phil Jackson.

***

Mitch Kupchak has done a lot of good things over the years. There’s few general managers better at high-level stealth trades and acquisitions, the melding of veteran talent and the mega market high-wire balancing act. If there’s room for improvement and there always is, the draft is a place to look. It’s been eight long years since the Lakers were in the top ten – that of course being the Andrew Bynum pick. Ronnie Lester and his staff were responsible for scouting the high school center and Jim Buss liked what he saw during a Lakers workout. It has to be noted of course that Buss was also the one who famously offered that “if you grabbed ten fans out of a bar and asked them to rate prospects, their opinions would pretty much be identical to pro scouts.”

The tag has stuck with Jim Buss ever since. To be fair, the remark was made long ago. Jim didn’t exactly douse the flames in 2011 however when he drastically reduced and consolidated the team’s scouting arm. Today, the nucleus of that division is Jim, his younger brothers Joey and Jesse, longtime consultant Bill Bertka and Mitch Kupchak himself. It would be inaccurate to say that the organization no longer employs additional scouts. It is not inaccurate however, to admit that the operation has been streamlined.

So what’s the big deal, it’s only a #48 pick, right? Sure, but there’s always choices. One team might find a Manu Ginobili hidden in plain sight at the end of the line. Or, you could pick a Chukwudiebere Maduabum. We’re about a month away from seeing how the Lakers roll the dice this time around.

From Bill Simmons, Grantland: You know where this is headed. Unless Patrick Beverley comes flying out of the stands to take out LeBron James or Tony Parker, we’re getting a history-altering Heat-Spurs showdown. Can Miami finish off one of the greatest basketball seasons ever played? Can the Spurs win their fifth title while breaking the record for “Most times a fan base irrationally claimed that everyone hated them”? Will LeBron officially join the “Greatest Player Ever” conversation? Will Tim Duncan officially hijack “Best Player of His Generation” status from Kobe Bryant? Will Gregg Popovich forge his way onto the NBA Coaching Mount Rushmore? Will Chris Andersen break the record for most casual viewers who said the words, “My God, look at those tattoos!”

From Andrew Ungvari, Lakers Nation: Another day, another team. Dwight Howard’s list of possible destinations has reportedly expanded to include the Golden St. Warriors. While nothing in the NBA is impossible, the English language doesn’t have a word for the closest something can be to being impossible without actually calling it impossible.Here are three big reasons why Dwight Howard won’t be a member of the Golden State Warriors next season:

From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: The Lakers shopped Pau Gasol around a little at the trade deadline (or at least listened to offers of people that called them, if you prefer that fine-line distinction). This summer the Lakers could test Gasol’s trade value again. Or they could keep him. Or they could amnesty him (although that seems a real long shot). But every decision the Lakers make this summer hinges on one thing: What Dwight Howard decides. If Howard leaves the Lakers then Pau Gasol will be back with the team next fall. If Howard returns the Lakers can explore other options, whether or not they take them. And since Howard wants to take his time, talk to a lot of teams and be wooed, and he can’t even start to do that until July 1, Gasol knows the first part of his summer is going to be one of uncertainty. Gasol sounded resigned to that speaking to Sam Amick of the USA Today. I guess.

From Eric Pincus, LA Times: Assistant coach Steve Clifford will not return to the Lakers next season. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports!, Clifford has an agreement in place to be theCharlotte Bobcats’ head coach. Clifford was added to Mike Brown’s Lakers staff for the 2012-13 season.  Brown was fired five games into the season but Clifford stayed on with Coach Mike D’Antoni. Before joining the Lakers, Clifford was an assistant with the Orlando Magic under Stan Van Gundy.  He also worked with the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets for Jeff Van Gundy. The Bobcats finished the season with a 21-61 record, second worst in the NBA. Clifford’s deal is believed to be for three years and $6 million, with the final year a team option.

From TheGreatMambino, Silver Screen & Roll: From the way the season ended, hopes of a title contender look very, very distant for the Los Angeles Lakers. But as the 2011 NBA Champion Mavericks proved, it might not be as far away as everyone thinks. Odd as it seems, the 7th seeded “woe is me” Lake Show isn’t too far off from the model that won the Mavericks a championship. It’s not terribly visible to the naked eye, but next year’s team could very well have a lot of the same ingredients that propelled the seemingly cursed Dallas organization to a chip. Let’s go down the grocery list and check off the items: