Somewhere, Mark Madsen might be dancing.

The popular former Lakers reserve has been named the head coach of the D-Fenders, the team’s Development League affiliate. The Lakers recently lost Reggie Theus, who left to take a head-coaching job at Cal State Northridge.

Madsen, who spent last year in his first season as an assistant at Stanford, played nine years in the NBA and was on the Lakers’ 2001 and 2002 championship teams. He earned a place in Lakers lore both for his constant hustle in practice and for his unique dancing style during championship parades. Madsen also spent two seasons in the D-League as an assistant for the Utah Flash.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@dailynews.com

This is the eighth in a series grading the Lakers’ efforts on the 2012-13 season.

Player: Earl Clark, Lakers forward

How he performed: Averaged a career-high 7.3 points on 44 percent shooting and 5.5 rebounds through 23.1 minutes in 59 regular-season games, including 36 as a starter; Averaged 3.5 points on 36.8 percent shooting and 3 rebounds through 20.5 minutes in four playoff games.

The Good: So much for the Lakers initially considering Clark no more than just a throw-in involving the trade that brought them Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic. Clark emerged as a surprisingly reliable stretch forward that provided plenty of energy, length and an occasional jumper. Clark may not have received such a chance if not for injuries to Howard (shoulder), Pau Gasol (concussion) and Jordan Hill (regular season-ending left hip injury). But Clark’s season-high 20 minutes against Houston on Jan. 8 soon morphed into career-highs in points (22) and rebounds (13) the next day against San Antonio. Even when Gasol returned, D’Antoni granted Clark the starting spot after because of his preference for a smaller lineup.

Clark took advantage of that opportunity. He posted 11 double doubles. Clark made a key basket in a win Jan. against New Orleans. He scored on a lob with .04 seconds left before the first half in a win Feb. against Detroit. And in two must-win games in April against Memphis and Dallas, Clark averaged 15 points, 8.5 rebounds and three blocks.
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This is the seventh in a series grading the Lakers’ efforts on the 2012-13 season.

Player: Antawn Jamison, Lakers forward

How he performed: Averaged 9.4 points on 46.4 percent shooting and 4.8 rebounds in 21.5 minutes through 76 regular season games; Averaged 7.3 points on 43.5 percent shooting and 1.8 rebounds in 19.8 minutes through four playoff games.

The Good:Team accounts described Jamison as the Lakers’ second best off-the-ball player behind Kobe Bryant for a number of reasons. Jamison seamlessly snuck through the cracks of any defense so well that Bryant affectionately described him as a “cockroach.” Steve Blake marveled at how quickly Jamison slipped off of screens to set himself up for an open shot. Everyone mused how Jamison’s ridiculously ugly flip shot usually remained effective.
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Phil Jackson stopped at midcourt moments after suffering perhaps the most embarrassing loss of an otherwise storied 19-year NBA coaching career bearing a slight smile on his face.

Plenty of things could’ve soured Jackson’s mood. The Lakers’ 112-86 Game 4 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 Western Conference semifinals derailed the team’s hopes to three-peat. It also marked the end of an accomplished coaching stint that spanned 11 NBA championships, 13 NBA Finals appearances and 229 playoffs wins. Consider Jackson’s bemused reaction as nothing more than a moment of Zen.

“I’ve never been very good at dealing with loss. Like many competitors, one of the main driving forces in my life has been not just to win but to avoid losing,” Jackson wrote in his book, “Eleven Rings,” slated for a May 21 release. “Yet for some reason, this fiasco didn’t affect me as much as some of the other losses I’ve endured in my basketball life. In part, that was because this wasn’t the finals. It’s much easier coping with an early-round loss than a game in which you’re closing in on a ring. But even more than that, the way in which the Dallas finale unfolded was so over-the-top absurd, it was hard to take too seriously.”
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This is the sixth in a series grading the Lakers’ efforts on the 2012-13 season.

Player: Steve Blake, Lakers backup point guard

How he performed: Averaged 7.3 points on 42.2 percent shooting and 3.8 assists in 26.1 minutes through 45 regular-season games; averaged 14 points on 39.3 percent shooting and 2.5 assists in 37.5 minutes through two playoff games.

The Good:  Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni gushed plenty of hyperbole in his introductory press conference. He envisioned how the Lakers would averaged 110-115 points per game (they averaged 102.2). D’Antoni believed he would have little problems incorporating a faster-paced offense to a veteran group (there were plenty). He set his sights on an NBA championships (the Lakers were swept in the first round).

But D’Antoni was hardly exaggerating when he said he long coveted Steve Blake, feeling his playmaking, feistiness and team-mindset proved the perfect fit in his system. Blake lived up to that billing in what became his most productive season in three years with the Lakers. In his previous two seasons under both Phil Jackson and Mike Brown, Blake admittedly played fairly tentative both out of respect to the team’s star studded lineup and because the offense hardly catered to his hope to create on his own. That wasn’t the case with D’Antoni, who always encouraged Blake to play with full aggression and take any shots that came to him.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers recently asked and received permission from the Lakers to talk with player development coach Phil Handy about possibly joining Mike Brown’s coaching staff, said Lakers spokesman John Black.

Brown hired Handy as his player development coach in the 2011-12 season, his first season as the Lakers’ head coach. Since then, Handy has developed a strong reputation among the Lakers’ players for both his engaging on-court workouts and infinite willingness to work with them at all hours of the day.

When the Lakers fired Brown last season following a 1-4 start, Mike D’Antoni still kept the coaching staff intact and added his brother, Dan, to the staff. That included Handy, whose duties entail working players out before games and after practices through various individual shooting and ball handling drills. Handy also worked closely with players in individual workouts as they progressed from various injuries.

The Lakers’ coaching staff has remained in flux in recent weeks. Eddie Jordan took the Rutgers’ head-coaching job just before the NBA playoffs began. D’Antoni informed both Chuck Person and Bernie Bickerstaff Monday that they won’t return for the 2013-14 season. Steve Clifford also plans to interview soon with the Charlotte Bobcats for their vacant head-coaching position.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@dailynews.com

After having a procedure Thursday to reduce the soreness surrounding the tendonosis in both of his knees, Pau Gasol is expected to return fully healthy in three months.

There’s obviously no rush for Gasol to return considering the Lakers bounced out of the first round last week in the 2013 NBA playoffs in a first-round sweep to the San Antonio Spurs. But Gasol won’t be able to go through any on-court training until early August.

Everything has gone well! Now I’ll have to rest my knees and start with the rehab. Thanks everyone for your support! twitter.com/paugasol/statu…

— Pau Gasol (@paugasol) May 9, 2013

Gasol plans to have another procedure next week with Dr. Steve Yoon of Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Group in Los Angeles, which will entail the Lakers forward receiving stem cell injections to help stimulate regeneration in his tissue. Gasol underwent a the so-called “Fast Technique” procedure on Thursday, which entailed having a probe inserted into both of his knees to direct to eliminate scar tissue without damaging the healthy tissue.

Gasol suggested as early as the day prior to the Lakers’ Game 4 loss two weeks ago to San Antonio that he’d have some offseason work done on both of his knees. Gasol missed a total of 33 games due to various ailments, including knee tendonitis that sidelined him for eight games in early December. But Gasol said the injury lingered throughout the season. He averaged 13.7 points on 46.6 percent shooting and 8.6 rebounds through 49 games.

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter. E-mail him at mark.medina@dailynews.com

This is the fifth in a series grading the Lakers’ efforts on their 2012-13 season.

Player: Metta World Peace, Lakers forward

How he performed: 12.4 points on 40.3 percent shooting, 5 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 33.7 minutes per game in the regular season; 6 points on 25 percent shooting, 3.7 rebounds and .7 steals in 28 minutes per game in the playoffs.

The Good: World Peace posted his strongest numbers in his four seasons with the Lakers and also became one of their most consistent players mostly because of his offseason conditioning. That effort mostly entailed improving his diet (lots of protein, nuts, vegatables and little sugar) and frequent offseason workouts. As a result, World Peace looked a lot more comfortable attacking the basket. The stronger conditioning gave him better shooting balance, allowing him to shoot at least 50 percent from three-point range in 25 games. And if even if none of the efforts ever looked pretty, but World Peace also managed to throw down some dunks.
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In a sign that this marks the beginning of a long offseason for the Lakers, Time Warner Cable SportsNet has started a new creative idea on their Access SportsNet show called the “What If” game.

After all, there’s only so many times we can go into the importance of resigning Dwight Howard, speculating on Pau Gasol’s future and the struggles the Lakers face with acquiring new players because of their bloated payroll. So instead, TWC host Andy Adler posted this interesting question Wednesday night on the show: what if Kobe Bryant had gone to college? He’s stated publicly that he would’ve played at Duke for coach Mike Krzyzewski. So what would’ve happened with his first — and only – season with the Blue Devils?
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For someone intent on swinging for the fences, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak spent plenty of time last offseason perfecting his home-run swing in assembling a star-studded lineup.

Yet, the likes of Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and a litany of bench pieces didn’t even come close to an NBA championship. Instead, the Lakers lost in a first-round sweep to the San Antonio Spurs partly because of overlapping injuries and partly because such a talented group never found the chemistry. So it’s hardly surprising that Kupchak received zero votes for the NBA’s General Manager of the Year award, which was granted to the Denver Nuggets’ Masai Ujiri.
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