FB&G: Phil Jackson Talks Lakers

Forum Blue & Gold: Phil Jackson met with the media on Friday in advance of the Lakers camp opening next Tuesday, and, as you expect from Jackson, he said a few interesting things. If you want to watch the entire press conference, the always-on-it guys at Lakers.com have the video up.

What follows are some highlights, followed by a few comments.

Question: “Have seen enough of Trevor to envision a role for him?”
Jackson: “I don’t hesitate to say that if this team doesn’t work out the way I want it to, Trevor may be a starting player. I may just insert him and convince Lamar to come off the bench if I feel it’s better for the team and we don’t feel as comfortable on the floor as I’d like us to feel. That’s a role I see Trevor playing for us. I think he’s going to be a person who does things defensively and offensively for us that are going to be big pluses for us.”

Question: “Would that be Plan B?”
Jackson: “I have to give that an opportunity. They deserve an opportunity.”

….Lamar is going to have to make an adjustment. He’s had an advantage at power forward the last couple of season, especially playing power forward in a guard slot offensively. So he’s going to have to make some adjustments and we’re going to have to see how he does with that.

That answers that question—Lamar Odom is going to get the chance to start at the 3-spot. If it doesn’t work, Ariza could step into that role. But Jackson is going to give the “start the best five” system a chance, and as an advocate of that I couldn’t be happier.

Offensively, that five (Fisher, Bryant, Odom, Gasol, Bynum) are going to score a lot of points. The question about that group is really tied to my mantra for the season—the Lakers will go as far as their defense takes them. How that group defends will be the key. The best part is, if it doesn’t work out, the fallback plan of starting Ariza with Odom off the bench should also be very good.

And, as has been suggested here, it looks like Odom will do plenty of ball-handling and play some point-forward. Again, I’m excited—I would love to see Odom and Gasol work the two-man game on the triangle’s weak side, with Gasol getting the ball in the high post and Odom cutting past him to the basket. That is going to be very hard to defend.

Question: “Any more specifics?”
Jackson: “I’d like to have Lamar in a role that’s kind of still on the ball. I want him to do some thing in organizing the offense. He’s also going to be played by small forwards instead of power forwards, which ta

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