The Sun (San Bernardino)

Lakers need a strong voice

- Jalexander@scng.com

Lakers president and controllin­g owner Jeanie Buss receives plenty of advice, internally and externally, and I’m sure one more suggestion from the outside is the last thing she feels she needs right now.

But if she were somehow to ask, I’d keep it simple.

Pick one.

One person, at the top of the basketball operations pyramid, to make the ultimate decisions. One person, free to listen to advice but also free to disregard it and follow his (her?) own instincts — and, not insignific­antly, free to ignore players, agents, social media, talk show hosts, columnists ... and particular­ly the chorus of voices inside the building.

Is Rob Pelinka really that guy? The jury is still out. He did hit on his last coaching hire, Frank Vogel. But he also cut the legs out from under Vogel when he made the Russell Westbrook trade last summer, valuing additional star power over many of the complement­ary parts that helped the Lakers win their 17th championsh­ip in the 2020 bubble.

Not only was Westbrook unproducti­ve last season but he puts the team in a bind in 2022-23, assuming he picks up his $47.1 million player option in the coming days. There was scant evidence last season to suggest that (a) he can play effectivel­y alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis or (b) that his game hasn’t deteriorat­ed beyond all repair, period.

Do you trade him (and, likely, give up one of your few first-round picks, among other things. to convince someone to take him)? Do you waive him and stretch the contract, creating a salary cap burden for years? Or do you

cross your fingers, close your eyes and hope somehow that it works this time with Westbrook, James and Davis together?

Who knows what Jeanie’s kitchen cabinet is pondering.

Buss values a collaborat­ive atmosphere. But with so many self-created obstacles facing the Lakers going forward, and so many collaborat­ors, there’s more chance of complicati­ng things than of finding solutions.

We have Kurt Rambis (and, presumably, Linda Rambis) providing input. We have Phil Jackson. We apparently have Magic Johnson chiming in again as well — the same Magic who originally piped up about too many voices when he left the organizati­on in 2019. Who knows who else? Hey, anyone heard from Del Harris lately, or Bernie Bickerstaf­f?

And then there is the phenomenon unique to the NBA, the immense power of the superstar and his agent. James and Rich Paul have voiced their opinions, I’m sure.

At what point does it become too much?

The current search for Vogel’s replacemen­t is a case in point. There are three “finalists,” and the one interprete­d as the favorite of James’ camp, Milwaukee Bucks assistant Darvin Ham, may indeed be the best choice.

A Tyronn Lue in waiting, perhaps.

But there also has been this mysterious groundswel­l of support for Doc Rivers, more than likely coming from his former players and associates elsewhere in the league. Doc currently has a job in Philadelph­ia, of course, but that can be easily overcome. Still, I doubt the 76ers’ Daryl Morey would go for that Doc-forWestbro­ok trade that I’m sure is about to be floated in various corners of social media.

Any candidacy of Rivers, as much as we in the media love his candor, should be a no just because of his teams’ record of playoff flameouts over the last decade, considerin­g that the Laker organizati­on’s sole currency is championsh­ips. It also probably would be a no because ... well, any coach with a significan­t amount of gravitas would come in and demand that things be done his way and that the voices in the background be silenced.

Would Phil have put up with similar chatter from the peanut gallery when he got to L.A. in 1999, after six championsh­ips in Chicago? I suspect not. He wouldn’t have stayed around long enough for a three-peat, and wouldn’t have come back after a year’s sabbatical to put two more championsh­ip banners on the wall of what was then known as Staples Center.

As it was, Jerry West stepped down from his executive vice president role in the summer of 2000, one year into Jackson’s first tenure with the Lakers, though sources said at the time that the cause wasn’t so much Jackson’s large shadow as it was the rising profile of Jim Buss as assistant general manager. Years later, the family tensions between Jim and sister Jeanie set up the most explosive of the many messy moments the franchise has dealt with since the death of patriarch Jerry Buss in February of 2013.

(We do know that

West, now a Clippers advisor, isn’t going to provide his old team any free advice. But the jarring estrangeme­nt between West and the Lakers is another of the franchise’s messy moments.)

In contrast to the mom-and-pop store in El Segundo, there’s the way other franchises handle their business. For example, Tim Connelly did such a fine job in building the current Denver Nuggets roster as that team’s top basketball decision-maker, the Minnesota Timberwolv­es poached him with a fiveyear, $40 million deal to do the same in the Twin Cities.

Most NBA franchises aren’t wedded to their alumni, or those with ties to the franchise, quite the way the Lakers are. It’s admirable, but Lakers Exceptiona­lism does have its limits.

We’re seeing them now. And a coaching change alone isn’t the answer.

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