Good article about Lakers' success this season

[Teddy Roosevelt]

And it's coming from Tony Mejia. This dude never liked the Lakers since that I've known of.

The Juice: Jax stabilizes his team -- you listening, Riles?

In a season where the Boston Celtics have lost as many times through their first 32 games as his 72-win Bulls team did 12 years ago, Phil Jackson is in the midst of his finest coaching job ever.

His hair is whiter and thinner and he doesn't move as well, but as far as being able to extract every ounce of effort from the components of his roster, he's back at the top of his game. People forget that Chicago squad had its share of challenges, from curbing Dennis Rodman to finding minutes for Toni Kukoc off the bench to working with Luc Longley and Bill Wennington as the primary centers. Those two weren't exactly the most active 7-footers in league history.
   
Those problems paled in comparison to what Jackson faced with the Lakers as this season began. Star guard Kobe Bryant wanted out, making no secret of the animosity he held for management and the team's top building block, center Andrew Bynum, still a teenager back when training camp started. Unless you were the blindest of homers, it was impossible to forecast anything positive.

No one knew who would be in place. Players had to toil in an environment where everyone was wondering who said what about whom and what the latest trade rumors were. It wasn't exactly an atmosphere conducive for growth.

Brian Cook, now with the Orlando Magic, admitted that when L.A.'s training camp began, guys were upset with Bryant. They felt he had thrown his teammates under the bus. Factions were developing. Some refused to talk to him.

Bryant, to his credit, stopped fanning the flames. He might have still wanted out, but he kept his mouth shut. Toward his teammates, he was contrite and apologetic. He said all the right things to a media that hung on his every word, eager to exploit the next time he played contrarian.

Even when Jackson called out his effort late in training camp, Bryant used it as fuel and made assurances that he'd be ready come the regular season, regardless of all the distractions.

Chicago, most closely tied to Bryant as a potential destination, wound up tripped up by all the rumors. Ultimately, that contributed to Scott Skiles losing his job. In L.A., through all that muck and uncertainty, Jackson coaxed progress out of the Lakers, who are 23-11 after a 109-80 victory in New Orleans on Wednesday night.

Bynum, who relishes being told he can't do something or isn't good enough, has grown into a beast. He moved to the forefront of the league's Most Improved Player race, averaging a double-double through 32 games. Backup point guard Jordan Farmar looks like a completely different player than he did as a rookie, brimming with confidence and leading all Lakers reserves in scoring. Rookie Javaris Crittenton has started making an impact, too.

While getting the most out of his young players, Jackson has saved his best work for the veterans he leans on to help him coach the team, something he has always done. Over the years, despite the resistance, he has taught Bryant how to be more like Michael Jordan, involving his teammates more and learning what buttons to push, when to push them and when to take over.

Jackson has stopped trying to shove his Lamar Odom peg into that Scottie Pippen hole, understanding that Odom will never have the ball in his hands as often as Pippen did and realizing that the type of Jordan-Pippen chemistry between two wings comes around once in a lifetime. So Jackson moved Odom to power forward, where he feels he's more active on the boards.

"When he was (a three), he wasn't rebounding as well. We missed that part of the game when he was out on the perimeter and not rebounding with the big guys," Jackson told the L.A. Daily News. "I don't have any problem playing him there (small forward), (but) he defers to Kobe so often. A lot of times Kobe will beat him to the post or beat him to the ball. I have to run specific things just so Lamar gets the ball."

You don't have to diagram rebounds, so Odom is taking advantage and averaging 12 per game over the last five, increasing his touches that way. His move inside has opened up minutes for Luke Walton and Trevor Ariza to share on the wing, with Jackson taking advantage of their strengths -- Walton's passing and Ariza's athleticism -- based on the matchups that present themselves.
            
Derek Fisher is playing the Ron Harper role, the sage veteran who knocks down shots, defends, is always in the right position and serves as an extension of Jackson on the floor. His 12th season has been the best of his career and it's helped the Zen Master be at his finest.

Fisher has been the glue, with Jackson the adhesive holding it all together when few expected the dysfunctional Lakers could be kept from coming apart. Even when he signed an extension to remain with the team past this season back in November, there was no way of knowing who would be on the roster. There was no way of knowing things would be going this well.

The 2007-08 Lakers won't win 72 games, but they've restored stability to a franchise that spiraled out of control this summer. No matter what the future holds, the fact Jackson is in place through 2010 should infuse L.A. with the confidence it can get through any crisis -- and we do mean any -- so long as his steady hand is pulling the strings.
Not standing Pat?

As if calamity were some kind of epidemic spread like the common cold, Miami's Pat Riley has caught what his fellow coaching legend is just now getting over.

Any way you slice it, rock bottom for any team this season is a loss to the Timberwolves, currently winning games at a rate of two per month. Minnesota met half its quota by dispatching the Heat on Tuesday night, snapping an eight-game losing streak. Even before suffering the setback, as if sensing his team wouldn't be able to handle what was to come, Riley broached the topic of stepping down after this season to concentrate strictly on rebuilding the team from the front office.

"As a coach," Riley told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, "there's a real personal attachment that I have had with players that is not as objective on the other side."

He'll hate to hear this because they don't exactly send one another Christmas cards, but Riley needs to look to the drama Jackson faced and make the same decision. He needs to stand, fight and see things through, delivering on the promise he made back in August, when he held a news conference that you can still catch on the team's website .

To save the lazy portion of our readership a trip over, here's his key statement:

"I felt that I had to make more of a commitment to (owner) Micky (Arison) and to the fans, to our season ticket base, people who have been supporting this franchise for the past 13 years that I have been here, not to be a one-and-done guy, where every year they are asking if I am going to stay or not. The three-year commitment to Micky to coach, if he will allow me do so, was made while I was over there.

"I think I need to show that commitment to our players. Our players and free agents need to know that I'm going to be here."

Sure, life is fluid. Things change. Shaquille O'Neal hasn't lived up to Riley's expectations, either, and that pledge that was made came in part to assure O'Neal and Dwyane Wade that he would be their head coach through the length of their contracts, both up in 2010.

O'Neal, who had to go to L.A. to get his ailing hip checked out earlier this week, hasn't been himself all season and won't be back for at least a few more games. Wade, Riley revealed, hurt his shoulder far worse than the team initially let on and is paying the price for it now, struggling to carry the team's decimated roster.

Because of the amount it cost to tie up O'Neal to an extension prior to the championship run, Riley had to make fiscally responsible concessions to this year's squad that have resulted in going to battle with guys like Chris Quinn, Luke Jackson, Earl Barron, Alexander Johnson and Joel Anthony. That's all understandable.

That said, running upstairs is not going to keep O'Neal from earning the money that's owed to him. The guys Riley is trotting out there aren't going to look any better or any worse from a view through a plate-glass window. There's no point in handing up-and-coming assistant Erik Spoelstra control of a team that has no chance to win.

What, is he going to do a better job than Riley? That would be the equivalent of Jackson having taken a front-office position and handing the Lakers over to Kurt Rambis or Brian Shaw. He didn't, and you see where it's gotten him. Although he hasn't won a championship since before losing O'Neal to Riley and the Heat back in 2004, Jackson certainly looks like the better leader of men right now. At the very least, he has proven he's willing to stand in and fight.

Riley was right back in August, though he never would've dreamed he'd be in the situation he's in now. What Miami needs is stability. It needs the man at the top to set the example that he's going to stick around and stick things through. He led the Heat to a championship by believing when nobody else did and making his team buy in. Now that the rebuilding process has come calling early, he has to do the same, relying on the people he put in place, from a scouting staff that better be getting acquainted with all the lottery-level talent, to a support staff that needs to help him get over all the supposed warm-and-fuzzy feelings clouding his ability to discern who should remain on the roster.

Riley has bailed out on the team before, then reconstructed a title contender and moved back into coach it. Pulling that stunt again wouldn't go over well.
NBDL call-ups hit century mark

Golden State can never have too many shooters, so the Warriors called up former Tennessee standout C.J. Watson, currently the third-leading scorer in the NBDL, adding another ball-handler known for putting the ball in the basket.

While the majority of Watson's work will likely be giving Baron Davis and Monta Ellis a live body to stay sharp against in practice, it is worth nothing that Watson is the NBA Development League's 100th call-up since starting up in 2001. Golden State has a heavy NBDL influence on its roster, with Matt Barnes, Kelenna Azubuike and recent picks Patrick O'Bryant and Kosta Perovic all having had stints there.

Look for more call-ups to in the coming weeks with the fourth annual D-League Showcase scheduled for next Monday through Thursday (Jan. 14-17) at Qwest Arena in Boise, Idaho. All 14 teams will participate, playing two games apiece. Event organizers are anticipating approximately 50 NBA scouts, general managers and other team executives to attend.

Houston's Chuck Hayes was called up following the '06 Showcase and has been a fixture with the Rockets ever since.
Quote of the week

"I can share that we're on the same page. We talked about the fact that we're making progress, but we're still trying to get around the corner." -- Bobcats coach Sam Vincent on what he and part-owner Michael Jordan discussed when the icon paid impromptu visit to his coach's office prior to Tuesday's 115-99 win over New Jersey.

It's not often an owner bothers his coach so close to a game and when it happens, it's usually trouble. The timing of Jordan's visit delayed Vincent's media availability, prompting whispers about his job security.

Expect everything to remain stats quo, as Jordan isn't likely to ruffle feathers this early in his hand-picked coach's tenure, though you do wonder whether any mandates were made. Charlotte did a much better job of getting the ball inside in the win against the Nets, coming up with season-highs in points and shooting percentage (58.7).

[Now_Im_Not_Banned]

You know something's wrong when Tony Mejia is givin us love and you're still talkin shit.