Lakers Second Unit: Metta World Peace Should Now Change His Name

Metta World Peace should change his name to Metta World Disaster. The artist formerly known as Ron Artest returned to basketball after the strike so out of shape that he looked like a Christmas turkey in a Laker uniform. He can’t run. He can’t jump and he couldn’t make a basket if you put him on a ladder.

And his excuse is—Ron-Ron was so sure that the NBA season would be canceled he never bothered working out. Unimaginable for any fan, player or commentator who has witnessed the greed of professional team owners in the past. It was always a "fait de compli" that the season would start on Christmas Day. As much as the owners feuded among themselves over the distribution of wealth and profits, none of them could ignore the lure of dominating Christmas Day on TVs across America.

So, why didn’t the Lakers use the amnesty provision of the CBA to dump Ron Artest’s salary? Lakers are asking themselves that question more and more with each game. The myth that Ron-Ron would be the foundation of the second unit was a pie in the sky dream of management.

The only time Ron-Ron’s feet leave the floor is when he is on the Lakers’ airplane off to a road game. Metta was never very fast. But now he makes my TV look like it is in "slow mo." One of the major differences between the classic "stick with my guys" style of Phil Jackson and new Lakers coach, Mike Brown, is that Coach Brown is willing to sit Metta down and experiment with his lineup. Phil Jackson was so slow changing his lineups that it took him longer than turning the Titanic around in a frozen ocean.

The Lakers are truly a work in progress. No one really knows what this team will look like two months from now. For example, with few practices and major roster changes, the Lakers have not practiced against a zone defense. Worse yet, many of us feel that Phil Jackson never bothered to practice plays against a zone based upon the Lakers history of being caught short by teams who do run a zone. Dallas, Portland and Denver have consistently harassed the Lakers with zone defenses with great success.

But the real issue is what to do with an overpaid, apathetic Metta World Peace who will singularly destroy the second unit unless he is replaced with a player with speed and can shoot. Who will that be? The first choice is to develop the youth on the team by playing Devin Ebanks. He has size, range, is fast and shoots well. If his weakness is defense then the only cure is playing time.

There is no way to learn defense in the NBA without spending time on the floor. In an offensive league, there are scores of players, including starters, who do not play a lick of defense. If defense is the issue then Matt Barnes is your man. Fast, aggressive and a better than average shooter, Barnes brings energy and defense to a Laker team known for its apathy against lesser teams.

If size matters, then either Troy Murphy or Jason Kapono can play together and provide outside shooting, defense and rebounding. Once Josh McRoberts returns to the bench, McBob (as he is known) can play power with either Murphy or Kapono at small. Coach Brown has more mix and match players than the Lakers have had on their roster since the Magic Johnson days.

But, in the end, the second unit will be judged by its scoring and whether there is a plus or minus change in the lead when the starters go to the bench. Every championship team has a second unit that either extends the lead or closes the gap when they are on the floor.

At the present, the Lakers bench looks slow, old and disorganized on offense. While their defense is not bad, it really doesn’t matter if the bench goes one for 15 shooting at the offensive end. As I said, it will take at least a month for Coach Brown to figure out his bench because of a minimum amount of practice time and then another month for Coach Brown to determine whether the second unit can work as a cohesive unit. In the meantime, Laker fans will suffer watching.