Winter Sees Improvement

SACRAMENTO â€”  Tex Winter, one of the originators of the triangle offense, has seen the scheme at its best -- pick almost any of the last nine championship seasons of the Lakers and Chicago Bulls -- and at its worst, as in the second half of the last Laker season.

The current edition employed by the Lakers would apparently fall somewhere in the middle.

“I think they’re starting to feel more comfortable with the offense,� the Laker consultant said. “There’s times where we play very fine ball. But we’re still not as consistent as you have to be to win consistently, especially against good teams.

“Too many lulls. I think more than anything else, some of the players are not as comfortable as they should be in the offense right now. They don’t know when to take the shots and pass up shots, and they take shots when they shouldn’t. It’s a question of becoming more comfortable.�

The Lakers are averaging 97.6 points, 15th in the league, but Winter wants to see more production from some players.

“[Lamar] Odom, No. 1,� he said. “I think he’s coming around, but he should be much more consistent. He should be a 15- to 20-point player in this offense every night, and 10 to 15 rebounds. I think he just has to get more comfortable in the offense.

“He’s not used to playing out of the kind of format we like to play out of. He likes to have the ball in his hands. He likes to try to do a lot of things with it, which he can at times, and at times he doesn’t. But he hasn’t learned to play a team concept, hasn’t learned to play off the ball the way he needs to in this offense. He’s not reading that consistently. I’m sure he will. I’ve seen a lot of improvement already.�

Winter, who once wrote a 320-page book detailing the complexities of the triangle, also found areas where the league’s leading scorer, Kobe Bryant, needed work.

“Most of these guys have to rely pretty much on team play and Kobe doesn’t,� Winter said. “He doesn’t have to rely on the offense, even though we’d like for him to rely on it a little more than he does. I guess that’s the best way to put it. He could give the ball up more, hit the first open man a little bit more, play off the ball a little more.�

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TONIGHT

at Phoenix, 7:30 PST, Ch. 9, ESPN

Site -- US Airways Center.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 21-18, Suns 25-13.

Record vs. Suns -- 0-1.

Update -- The Suns are still at least a month away from getting back Amare Stoudemire, but they’re still averaging a league-high 105.2 points and are atop the Pacific Division.