Columnist Dean Juipe: Lakers will be dismantled

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, June 8, 2004 | 9:02 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Dysfunctional as the Los Angeles Lakers have been all season, there has been something of a general consensus that if they won the NBA championship the team might stay intact for another couple of years. After all, it's hard to break up a club that has four future Hall of Famers.

But I no longer think the Lakers of 2005 will resemble the Lakers of 2004, and from what I can gather no one else does either.

Win or lose in the Finals, the Lakers are in for a shake up. Something has to give and none of L.A.'s vaunted starters or coach Phil Jackson is above being moved or asked to relocate in the aftermath of a very troubling season.

Down 1-0 to the Detroit Pistons heading into tonight's Game 2, the Lakers still have the better talent and are still likely to win the league title. (Of course, I thought Smarty Jones was a sure thing in the Belmont, so go ahead and disagree.) They have the capacity to play infinitely better and with more enthusiasm than they did while losing Game 1 by 12 points to a team that was an eight-point underdog.

But that doesn't mean they will and therein lies the basic, bottom-line reason the Lakers have alienated so many fans and observers this year. They play to the best of their ability only when they feel they have to, or want to.

They didn't want to in Game 1 and it left Karl Malone apologizing, Kobe Bryant shaking his head and talking about being puzzled, Shaquille O'Neal grousing and Gary Payton fleeing out the back door of the locker room rather than answering questions about it. Each of those players has Hall of Fame credentials yet only Malone seemed truly disheartened during the postgame interview session that was broadcast live on TV.

Jackson didn't help O'Neal's outlook by suggesting the big guy was winded in the second half, which O'Neal curtly disputed.

It's hard to picture Jackson willingly staying at the helm, even if he likes LA and the owner's daughter.

Either O'Neal or Bryant seems apt to go as well, with Bryant far more likely to be the one pursuing greener pastures. Two rumors: Bryant goes to Phoenix because that would keep him in the Sun Belt and allow him to take charge of a young team that lacks direction; or Bryant goes to Memphis because former Lakers great Jerry West calls the shots and has a team that is within a player or two of being formidable.

As for Malone and Payton, only Malone is in position to even be invited back and at 40 years old he may choose to retire whether the Lakers win the championship or not. Payton is definitely gone, his sorry attitude securing the deal.

The Lakers need help and their fifth starter, Devean George, is very much replaceable as well. So, too, is the team's entire corps of bench players, who combined to score only four points in Game 1.

The Lakers are the best team money can buy, but the best team money can buy doesn't always win its league championship, as the Detroit Red Wings and New York Yankees can attest.

But even winning the championship this month isn't going to keep these Lakers intact. They lack harmony, they're too combustive, their personalities don't mesh and their coach may be a bit too passive with his scholarly, wise-man approach.

Even their greatest asset -- their ability to entertain -- is in question after a season of soap operas and intermittent effort.

They may yet win the league title but win or lose it's a last hurrah.