Jackson Assumes Role of Teacher in Los Angeles
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

One of the favorite evergreen arguments among avid basketball fans concerns the coaching skills of Lakers head man Phil Jackson. His detractors point out that it didn’t take tremendous acumen to win titles with a starting lineup of peak-form Hall of Famers like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, or Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles (plus great role players like Chicago’s Dennis Rodman and L.A’s Robert Horry). His defenders are quick to note that those dynamic duos never won squat without Jackson at the helm, despite playing under solid NBA coaches like Del Harris in Hollywood and Doug Collins in the Windy City.
The argument will get thoroughly refreshed this season as Jackson turns over a new leaf. His return engagement with the Lakers after a rather acrimonious parting in 2004 will be closely watched, with the primary focus being on his contentious relationship with All-Star guard Kobe Bryant. Jackson trashed Bryant in his book, “The Last Season: A Team in Search of its Soul,” but has said that his return to Los Angeles was in part to save Bryant from unfair criticism.
The other focus will be on the reinstitution of Jackson’s triangle offense, which the Lakers got away from last season under Rudy Tomjanovich and interim coach Frank Hamblen. But there are several other factors that will go further in structuring the new phase of the Jackson debate. The current edition of the Lakers won’t be winning any titles this season (and probably not next season, either) but how much improvement constitutes significant improvement?
The bar is higher than it may seem. At a glance, the Lakers look like a horrible team. They finished last season with a 34-48 record, but the campaign was split into two very different segments. During the first segment, under the veteran Tomjanovich, the team played solidly enough to post a 24-19 record and contend for a second-tier playoff spot in the Western Conference. After Tomjanovich resigned for health reasons, the team went into freefall, going just 10-29 under Hamblen, the latest in a long line of veteran assistants who proved to be in over his head in the lead role.
Okay, Don Chaney, Herb Williams, Stu Jackson, or any of the unimpressive coaches to lead the Knicks in the last two decades could probably improve on Hamblen’s performance. The real measure of Jackson’s success will be if he can get this team to play as well or better than it did under Rudy T.
One key will be restructuring the defense. The Lakers were a solid offensive ballclub last year, even in the second half, finishing sixth in the league in Offensive Efficiency at 108.2 points per 100 possessions. On the other side of the ball, they got creamed, bringing up the rear defensively by allowing 111.3 points per 100 possessions.
The major change followed Tomjanovich’s retirement. The Lakers allowed 95.1 points per game under Rudy, but slacked to a miserable 108.9 ppg under his replacement.
Jackson’s challenge won’t so much be to improve the team’s defensive strategy, but to get the Lakers to play any defense at all. This will involve a new test for him: coaching young players. Jackson has long been a veterans’ coach. His championship teams relied on experienced stalwarts like Ron Harper and Brian Shaw to surround and support the superstar nucleus, and his roster in L.A. this year includes been-around-the-block types like Aaron McKie and Corie Blount. But when the list of players you’ve developed starts at Toni Kukoc and ends at Devean George, it’s clear that teaching youngsters isn’t a strength.
However, it may simply be a dormant skill. Jackson was a teaching coach during his stint in the Continental Basketball League in the late 1980s, and his lasting imprint on the league is teaching the triangle offense to players who preferred to score at will in isolation based offenses. In his book, “Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior,” he reflects fondly on his teaching phase.
This year’s class is hardly a group of model students. Defense starts in the middle, and the Laker paint will be patrolled by sixth-year man Chris Mihm, who has seldom displayed either the athleticism or footwork to be effective in the paint; Kwame Brown, a malcontent who was drummed out of Washington after no-showing practices during a playoff series (his career tallies of 7.7 ppg and 5.4 rpg suggest that he’s hardly a force when he’s on the floor in practice or real games); and Andrew Bynum, a raw, 7-foot, 285 pound man-child taken straight out of high school with the Lakers’ first round pick.
The perimeter cast includes players who have failed to impress in limited action, like ex-Fordham guard Smush Parker and Sasha Vujacic, a second-year player from Slovenia. Fortunately for the Lakers, two of the perimeter positions are filled with Bryant and Brooklyn native Lamar Odom. Though the Lakers lack an experienced point guard, look for Odom to manage many of those duties. The 6-foot-10-inch forward has enough ball handling skills that Pippen, who played a point-forward role during the Bulls dynasty, shows up on Odom’s “most similar” lists at www.basketballreference.com. Jackson will probably be comfortable letting Odom quarterback the offense (whenever Kobe isn’t hogging the ball), and after a short adjustment period, the Lakers offense should remain potent.
Still, this motley crew is the least talented group of players Jackson has ever coached. If he gets a solid defensive out of them, it will be a stunning achievement. Matching Rudy T.’s .551 winning percentage will be a feat; exceeding it might rightfully end the Phil Jackson argument … for now.