Sports Radio Interviews

Be Careful What You Ask For

There has been much talk recently about the Lakers wanting to trade their young star, Andrew Bynum, for the Toronto Raptors All-Star, Chris Bosh. That would definitely make the Lakers an even bigger favorite to win the NBA title this year, but that would also mean the Lakers would be even softer than Charmin on the inside. We all know that both Gasol and Bosh do not play any defense. So Lakers fans, be careful what you ask for.

Phil Jackson joined The Herd on ESPN Radio to talk about how long he is willing to wait for Andrew Bynum to mature, whether the Lakers front office is thinking about the few years Kobe has left and if they would rather have a finished product of Chris Bosh or keep Bynum, and whether he is concerned about the lack of intensity his team has shown this season.

How long he is willing to wait for Andrew Bynum to mature:

“Oh not at all. We consider Drew to be a great fortune for us. He is a player that is, I don’t want to call him a learner anymore because this is his fifth year. He is four years into the league. He is still a player that has not learned all of the things that there are to learn in this game. I hope that most people are that way because they haven’t learned all of it anyway. Last night for example, he used a move that he has been practicing on with his left hand to dunk the ball over the top of Hibbert. It was one of those things that is a real growth step. Those things you get your comfort zone out on the floor and a lot of times guys have their pet-move and their favorite things to do and they don’t deviate. With Andrew he is still a learner willing to try things and develop things. We are really happy with his offense whether he gets as many touches a night as he wants or could use. He is one of the options below Kobe and Pau. That is the way it is going to be. So he is going to have nights that he is not going to have as many points as others and the nights that they don’t pay attention. Last night they were willing to throw a small lineup on the floor and say look at, try to beat us on the inside. We are going to front. We are going to high-side. We are going to make it tough to try to get the ball in and we were able to do it anyway.”

Whether the Lakers front office is thinking about the few years Kobe has left and if they would rather have a finished product of Chris Bosh or keep Bynum:

“I think obviously there is a great deal of speculation about Chris this year because he is at the end of a contract. The looming feeling is that he is going to leave Toronto, whether he does or not who knows? That is kind of like the feeling. Everything is speculating who would be a reasonable situation in that regard. It doesn’t make any sense in the structural way to run a basketball team to take that kind of a risk… You have a player who is a free agent and a player who is signed for a long duration. There are no guarantees. Everybody thinks that there are. The idea is that we have played together now for a considerable amount of time. We are doing pretty well. There had been some games in which there have been learning processes. I thought that both Cleveland guys and our big guys learned something. In the second game they were a little bit better than the first and that is a process that we will see also this weekend against Boston how well our big guys do against a very physical front line that Boston can throw out there then we can measure that up and learn from there. We are happy with that personnel in that department right now.”

Whether he is concerned about the lack of intensity his team has shown this season:

“I am addressing it to the team. That is the old coach’s tool as he tries to keep his team keen and ready. I was concerned about our… For example we were the best team against shooting percentage in the league. That says something about our defense. We were forty-two something vs. Lakers and if you have people shooting at that percent you have got a good chance to finish games and do well. Over thirty-five, thirty-six games through the season we were 1,2 in that department and sometime we slid to 5^th which is probably not a remarkable thing to lose a couple points but it just showed that all of the sudden everybody was shooting 48 and 50% against us. We weren’t playing the same kind of defense. Now last night we got that back down again where it is a normal number seeing a team shooting 42%. That says something about contesting shots and what it seems is that we got a good chance with the size that we have. We rebound the ball and have more opportunities at the other end of the floor. So I have been harping on that a little bit if that is a good term to use…”

What harp means to him:

“You talk about the penetration in the paint. The ability to not stop the ball. The lackadaisical effort on screen rolls. Those kind of things worry your coach when you preach penetration as the key to the offensive end. Obviously is the key at the defensive end and we haven’t done a good job with that. So that is what we are working on as a team right now to get that equation back again and have that not just rely on that we are tall enough to block the shot. That is not good enough.”

Phil Jackson on the Herd on ESPN Radio (5:45 into podcast)

Tags: 10 NBA titles, Andrew Bynum, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, LA, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, NBA trade rumors, Phil Jackson, trade rumors, Western Conference