One thing I forgot to mention earlier…Phil Jackson indicated that he will make a decision about his future sometime around Thanksgiving. Jackson is deciding whether to accept the Lakers’ contract-extension offer and coach the team beyond this season. Here’s the quotes from Jackson today…
On Lamar Odom’s day of practice…
“Lamar looked good. He looked really good. There’s still some things that he’s going to have to get adjusted to, as far as offensive things and just being in sync with the rest of the guys, but he’s doing well.”
On whether he has decided to play Odom on Friday…
“I haven’t decided yet, but my intentions are that he should. … He will probably start, all things being equal.”
On whether he knows who will go to the bench…
“I do, but you (reporters) don’t.”
On the possibly of Luke Walton going to the second unit…
“Maybe. He’d be really good to help that second team too.”
On the recent strong play of Ronny Turiaf…
“There’s some things Ronny is doing that are very good for our team. His energy is good on the floor. Sustaining it is not easy for him. It’s a lot of work and he’s not in the kind of condition yet that he can sustain that, so it’s great to have Lamar coming back, who can come in and play a couple different positions.”
On the idea of going for steals, and when it’s OK to take risks…
“I wish I knew. I wish they knew. At certain points of a ballgame, there’s elements of (it being) a good time to gamble. The end of the quarter or any time a player breaks down spacing on the floor. Any time we trap or double team. The aspect of chasing the ball on the offensive board to leave a defensive mismatch, those are things we don’t like. I thought we made real poor choices last night. We went to (Morris) Peterson all the time and we left Stojakovic. I would venture to guess that Stojakovic is just a teeny-bit better 3-point shooter than Peterson, but they’re both good 3-point shooters.”
On how team chemistry is going…
“They’re working really hard, practicing hard. All of that seems to be going real well. I don’t see guys hanging their heads out there.”
On the progress of Kwame Brown…
“He was mostly in a relaxed position today. He did stand upright a couple times and came up to the court, but most of the time he’s been laying down.”
On the likelihood of Maurice Evans missing Friday’s game…
“This is a good time, when we have a limited amount of games, to quiet things down for him.”
On whether he is any closer to determining his future with the Lakers…
“I’ve yet to experience a two-game road trip, or something like that, to just know that I can get out of bed, get my clothes on and make it to breakfast in the morning. People that have been through this kind of thing kind of warned me about the tell-tale signs of fatigue from operations that kind of wear on you. Hawaii went OK. That was a sustained amount of time, where it wasn’t always the best restful area, or the best environment for me to recover in. All things going are very positive for me. I’m feeling very good about it.”
On when he expects to make a final decision…
“It will probably be before Thanksgiving, or around Thanksgiving time. That’s a good time period.”