Can They Forget West Finals, Finalize Deal With West?

As we survey the wreckage of the latest Laker dream, we note even more bodies than usual strewn about the stage.

Of course, there’s our old standby, Nick Van Exel. He’s trade bait this summer but may again re-materialize in fall, vowing never to repeat last season’s mistake, whatever it was.

Refuse to go into a game (1994)?

Bump referee (1996)?

Wave off coach’s signal, bringing their battle of wills bubbling to the surface during the playoffs (1997)?

Resign as starting point guard (1998)?

Kidnap Del Harris and hold him for ransom (1999)?

There’s kindly old Delmer, down but not yet out (still available for speaking engagements.) There’s Robert Horry, frozen in his usual pose--camped on the arc, thinking about taking the shot, deciding not to--and Elden Campbell, dreaming of the good old days with Vlade Divac.

There’s . . . Jerry West?

Gosh, who will be left if West leaves? Only Jerry Buss, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Oops, we just got a call from Leonard Armato and Arn Tellem, the agents for Shaq and Kobe, respectively. Make that only Jerry Buss, for sure.

Before the Lakers figure out how to fix this mess, they have a more basic decision: whether to remain the Lakers. Without West, they may still wear purple and gold but it won’t be the same.

Whether Buss could repair the damage and right the roster would remain to be seen, but this stuff isn’t easy. Check West’s record: He hasn’t won any titles recently and he’s the best there is.

Happily for the Lakers, West isn’t gone yet. Despite months of hints and/or vows (depending on whether he was talking into a live mike), the team’s executive vice president is willing to stay and last week met with Buss to try to work it out.

Buss promised him a bonus in 1995, according to a source close to West, and has been paying it on a deferred basis, 10% or so a year. West will work the last year of his contract and consider signing a new one if Buss pays the balance now.

Yes, it’s about money. It’s money West could live without or recoup many times over from many sources. Or, as a disbelieving Clipper official said recently, “If he’s hirable, we’ll hire him.�

The money shouldn’t be important to Buss, given his need for West’s services, not to mention the windfall of $50 million to $60 million the owner will soon get from Fox (shudder) and the Kings, who are buying 10% and 15% of the team, respectively.

Buss is the mystery. However heart-rending or overwrought West was, he was only being Jerry West and long ago proved he was worth it. But when did Buss stop being Buss, benefactor to the stars who went from just another rich guy to flamboyant sportsman?

Buss isn’t talking. Despite his image, he’s media-shy, but if he thinks this is toasty, wait till he lets West walk and tries life on the griddle.

Who do you think will be pan-fried in the papers next spring if West is on the back nine at Bel-Air and the team implodes again?

Hint: It won’t be Harris or Mitch Kupchak.

A wide array of Lakers and ex-Lakers are baffled by the change in Buss, suggesting factors such as the pressure of competing against billionaires and corporations with a modest personal fortune that’s mostly tied up in this franchise, or even a conflict of egos with a partner of 19 years.

Not that any of them are confused over whose side to take.

Says one: “Buss doesn’t have a clue. You see their entertainment? All they have is the Laker Girls. He still thinks this is the ‘80s.�

Buss invented the Laker Girls and did more important things, such as promote West and make him see the Shaq hunt to the end. Now Buss has to decide whether he wants to risk everything he helped build.

Tradition is no guarantee. When you stop thinking as though it’s a family, it stops being a family. The next thing you know, some TV executive has taken over, calls the Marlins to ask about their cable rights and trades them Mike Piazza.

It’s getting late in Lakerdom. We know where your kids are, but do you know where your soul is?

WHAT WENT WRONG THIS TIME

Van Exel isn’t a bad guy, but he is a defiant one, not to mention one with problem knees and an erratic jumper.

Horry isn’t awful, but he isn’t a power forward, and there’s declining use for a small forward who’s a great shot-blocker and used to be able to shoot three-pointers.

Campbell could average 18 and eight for a team that felt like throwing him the ball in the post every time and doesn’t have to win a title.

Eddie Jones isn’t a grown-up No. 2 option, but he made some headway this spring. Around here, this qualifies as an eye-opener.

Rick Fox isn’t a prototype athletic small forward, but he’s gritty, has handy specialties--shooting, defense--and began taking a leadership role. He should stay if they let him know they’ll take care of him in the old Laker Way. If they want their team to grow up, they’ll need grown-ups.

Kobe Bryant. Boy, there’s the hard one. He made huge strides, but only multiplied expectations--and tried to live up to them. His first season, he was a high school kid who was trying to prove he belonged. His second, he was trying to be the next coming of you know who.

He remains the prospect of the decade, or century, but even if they pay off on “prospective� these days, so what? He can sign for $10 million a year this summer, but that will only make it trickier. How do you bring someone along slowly, while paying him that kind of money? If West leaves and Kobe decides to wait and see how the organization goes without him, how exactly could Harris, Phil Jackson or John Wooden deal with him in his free-agent season?

This is a basketball team, not Icon Preparatory School. It’s a testament to Bryant’s sweet nature there hasn’t been trouble with teammates over his stop-the-ball-movement-I-want-to-take-over style, but there are ominous rumbles.

It’s one more reason they need West. Everyone would love to have their problem but it’s still a problem and they’ll need someone sharp and influential to oversee it.

Then there’s O’Neal.

It’s nice he isn’t being blamed for this swoon because he produces, plays with heart and brings it every night. On the other hand, the Lakers weren’t trampled because they didn’t care or try. They lost because Utah frustrated them on offense and they weren’t good enough on defense.

Defense allows teams to come out, establish an aggressive tone, create easy hoops and involve everyone. The Lakers lay back, partly to protect Shaq.

The Jazz beat them silly with the game’s simplest play, the pick and roll, involving Shaq whenever possible. Hard-nosed East teams, especially the Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks and Miami Heat, whose coaches are Dick Harter disciples, double-team that play, even if a big center has to jump out on a little guard.

They swarm the little guy and chase him out high. They don’t let John Stockton come off that pick, roll into the lane 17 feet out, able to shoot or find someone closer or Karl Malone fading to the baseline for that 17-footer he has gotten so good at.

It isn’t easy for a 7-1, 320-pounder to switch out. Shaq might never be great, but OK would be a big help.

Also: No more premature celebrations or complaints about referees, hostile crowds, “peripheral opponents� (who taught plucky Derek Fisher that one?) or the press. The Lakers are the ones that have to improve. The rest of us already do what we do and will never, ever change.

This is a lot for one summer, but the Lakers have enough talent on the lot. There are other words we’ve heard way too often. Talent. Potential. Who cares, in the absence of poise, sacrifice and performance?

Let’s see how much of that talent returns in the fall, upstairs and downstairs, and in what kind of mood.