Lakers Take a High Risk Gamble on J.R. Rider

By Jerry Mittleman

As an NBA coach he’s done the nearly impossible. Now Phil Jackson is shooting for the unimaginable. When J.R. Rider joins the L.A. Lakers this fall, the persuasive, master psychologist coach will try to handle a player deemed “uncoachable”  by everyone. Though its hard to bet against Jackson, even for him, dealing with someone like Rider could be quite a stretch.

It’s no secret that the Lakers have been looking for a 3rd scoring option behind Shaquille O’Neal and Kobie Bryant. Glen Rice was never a good fit for the Lakers’ Triangle Offense and they’ve been actively shopping him all summer. Still, its incredulous and more then ironic that the Lakers have decided on the problematic Rider as the answer to their needs. High maintenance doesn’t even begin to describe J.R. We are talking about a guy who’s been so  bad that his mother’s come to courtside during an NBA game to discipline him.

Technically, Rider is better suited to the Lakers’ attack than Rice is. He’s an aggressive slasher who can create his own shot as well as hit the spot up three pointer while Rice has a tendency to be passive and needing a screen to set up his outside shot. But along with twenty points a night, the Lakers get headaches: flaunted rules, missed practices and flights and even more missed opportunities for open teammates while J.R. is jacking one up. This could easily endanger the harmony and delicate balance that Jackson worked so hard to establish last season, which culminated in a Laker championship. One wonders, if Jackson, as usual, knows something we don’t know or has become addicted to challenges.

The challenge Jackson faces draws predictable comparisons to the one he faced trying to coach Denis Rodman in Chicago. With Rodman he stood a lot more to gain and a lot less to lose. 

To begin with, in his past, Rodman had been successfully coached by Chuck Daly in Detroit, albeit during a less troubled and recalcitrant period in his life.  In addition, behind the sideshow antics, shticks and mind games was a furtive, creative mind. Rodman was a basketball genius. For several years he was the dominant defensive player in the game. He developed inventive offensive rebounding techniques that helped him win 7 consecutive rebounding titles. In short, when Rodman was on his game and focused, which was a lot more often then not, he did all the little things that enhanced his team’s chances while complimenting Michael Jordan’s and Scottie Pippin’s skills. When Rodman was out of control,  Jordan and Pippin were mature enough leaders to provide damage control and to keep the Bulls from becoming unraveled.

With Rider and the Lakers, we have an entirely different set of circumstances. J.R. has been an egotistical, disruptive force wherever he’s played in the NBA, though never having the benefit of playing for a coach of the caliber of Daly or Jackson. Nothing in his history or make-up suggests a change unless Jackson can pull off one of his greatest coaching feats ever.
 
This is a higher stakes gamble than maybe even the Lakers realize. O’Neal and Bryant, for all their immense talent are not yet the mature, stable leaders that Jordan and Pippin were in the later stages of their careers. They have just begun to harness the mental side of their games and mesh it with their physical abilities and the discipline that Jackson provides, in order to produce championship caliber play. Dealing with a presence like Rider and the certain distractions, could upset a very delicate, albeit tasty apple cart.

After watching the Lakers’ dramatic 4th period, 7th game comeback against the Blazers in last year’s Western final and their subsequent overpowering of the Pacers, I had them penciled in for the next two or three NBA titles. Leave it to Phil Jackson, the Lakers and J.R.Rider to never let things get boring.
 

9/14/2000
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To contact the writer of this article, email jdmitt@hotmail.com

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