Seven weeks after suffering a torn left Achilles tendon, Kobe Bryant no longer feels confined with a certain accessory every time he walks.

Boot comes off today. Will be in a “medical mamba” shoe. I still need a lil heel lift for the achillies #progress #bearNtrouble

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) May 30, 2013

The recovery still continues enough for the Lakers to expect Bryant to sit out at least another four to seven months. But Bryant has come a long way since suffering the season-ending injury April 12 against the Golden State Warriors. Bryant had his cast removed 11 days after the injury. He had stitches taken out a week later. Just over a week afterwards, Bryant managed enough strength to put his foot on the ground, though he still kept a boot on to minimize the pain.

Should Bryant return by or before the early portion of the Lakers’ expected timetable, he could suit up in time for the team’s season opener in late October. If not, Bryant could miss one or two months of the beginning of the season. Based on Bryant’s progress and well-documented history, it’s safe to assume the former scenario will happen.

RELATED:

Video montage features Kobe Bryant’s difficult shots

Lakers to make sixth Las Vegas Summer League NBA appearance

Evaluating Dwight Howard’s current free agent options

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

When no one is looking, Kobe Bryant practices them. When everyone is watching, Bryant attempts them. And when the odds suggest otherwise, Bryant often makes them.

Bryant’s 17-year NBA career spans plenty of qualities that’s earned him five NBA championshps, two NBA Finals MVPS and a fourth-place stnading on the league’s all-time scoring list, ranging from playing through injuries and obsessing over everything basketball. But nothing defines Bryant’s legacy more than his ability to make seemingly impossible shots.

We’re talking up-and-under reverse layups, jumpers while facing double teams and fadeaways over the backboard. No one has performed an exact breakdown of what percentage of Bryant’s 31,617 career points reflects the difficult shots he made. But it’s safe to say that skillset enabled Bryant to post a career-high 81 points in a game. It helped him convert on countless game winners. It left defenses in fits over wondering if a double or triple team will do enough to stop him.

Sometimes it has. Many times it hasn’t. And the video montage above shows how Bryant converted a seemingly impossible shot into one he’d normally make.

RELATED:

Lakers to make sixth Las Vegas Summer League NBA appearance

Evaluating Dwight Howard’s current free agent options

Phil Jackson on the Lakers’ struggles: “I know what they need”

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

If only the Lakers could make sure what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

They will make their sixth NBA Summer League appearance in Sin City from July 12-22 carrying an all-time record of 8-18 dating back to 2004. Then again, the Lakers haven’t exactly touted plenty of prospects in these games.

They haven’t carried a first-round pick in the regular season since Javaris Crittenton in 2007. Barring a trade, the Lakers will only have the 48th pick in this year’s NBA Draft. But it would provide a good stomping guard for promising albeit undeveloped players such as Darius Morris, Andrew Goudelock and Robert Sacre to receive playing time.

All 22 teams will play at least five games before receiving a seed on July 16 for a single-elimination tournament through July 22.

RELATED:

Evaluating Dwight Howard’s current free agent options

Phil Jackson tabs Kobe Bryant as “very sensitive” to criticism

Phil Jackson on the Lakers’ struggles: “I know what they need”

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

Dwight Howard has escaped all the talk surrounding his pending free agency, spending last week at Lake Tahoe where he fished, rode dune buggies and hung out in a cabin. It sure beats laboring through a surgically repaired back and partially torn labrum in his right shoulder. Or hearing scrutiny from Kobe Bryant and the media alike. Or fighting through persisting double teams. Or missing free throws.

But just like it us for all of us when we see a huge inbox of unread emails the day we return from work, Howard will have to tackle one unsettling question. Where he will play next season?

A source familiar with Howard’s thought process told me last week that he’s currently considering the Lakers, the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors. But knowing that a more than a month awaits before he becomes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, that list could change. Whether Howard narrows the list or keeps adding on potential suitors remains to be seen. But we at least have a general idea on where Howard might end up.

Lakers

Pros: It seems downright offensive the Lakers would need to tick off reasons to convince Howard to stay. After all, they’re the keeper of 16 NBA championships, some of the all-time greatest NBA players (Magic, West, Kobe) and centers (Mikan, Wilt, Kareem, Shaq) and they’re in the land of perfect sunny skies, beaches and Hollywood.

So even if Howard’s first season with the Lakers consisted of injuries (back, shoulder), philosophical and personality clashes (Kobe Bryant, Mike D’Antoni) and scrutiny (media and teammates alike), there’s plenty that should appeal to Howard. The Lakers are setting him up to be the franchise’s next cornerstone along with a five-year, $118 million price tag no other team can match. Howard’s hope to tap into the entertainment industry will only help if he wears purple and gold. And even if there’s uncertainty in the post Jerry Buss era and punitive luxury taxes on the rise, the Lakers are maintaining they’ll still spend the necessary goods to ensure championship success.

Cons: Forget about the Lakers’ tradition, the money and the endless scrutiny Howard would receive if he left two teams in two consecutive seasons. There’s very little the Lakers showed this season that should appeal to Howard.

They passed up Phil Jackson for Mike D’Antoni, who both rarely featured Howard enough inside and had the patience to understand Howard’s physical limitations. The Lakers field an aging roster, making it both impossible for the Lakers to keep up with older teams and for giving Howard the necessary defensive support. And with the late Jerry Buss’ passing, the Lakers haven’t showed any clarity whether the partnership between Jim Buss (overseing player personnel) and Jeanie Buss (overseeing business operations) could carry the same success that ensured the Lakers winning 10 of their 16 NBA championships with their father running the show.
Continue reading →

The defining legacy surrounding Kobe Bryant will likely entail the following qualities that sound all too familiar. His uncompromising competitiveness. His clutch scoring. His ability to play through injuries.

But underneath such alpha male traits lies a player with plenty of insecurities, according to former Lakers coach Phil Jackson. Namely, that Bryant doesn’t always take kindly to criticism.

“He’s very sensitive,” Jackson said Wednesday to ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd. “I had to be really careful in criticizing him. I learned immediately as I started to deal with him as a young man how sensitive he was in particular if it was done in a group setting. My criticism was best done if it was in my office or alone.”
Continue reading →

As Phil Jackson’s book tour continues, so do the tweaks regarding the Lakers.

They passed him up for the head-coaching job after firing Mike Brown and chose Mike D’Antoni instead. That plan didn’t work out so well. Persisting injuries and the Lakers’ aging personnel struggling to adapt to D’Antoni’s faster-paced system and vice versa largely contributed to the team flaming out in the first round to the San Antonio Spurs.

Don’t expect Jackson to come back. The Lakers have maintained D’Antoni’s returning next season. Jackson has also maintained he doesn’t want to coach anymore, opting instead for an unspecified front office role somewhere. But he offered precise detail on what he’d do if the Lakers approached him again about needing help.

“I would find one of my assistant coaches to help them as quickly as possible,” Jackson said Wednesday to ESPN Radio’s Colin Cowherd. “I know what they need. “They need to get back inside where the strength of their team is and use that presence in there to dominate games. There’s a way to do that.”
Continue reading →

Two years after the Lakers let him go as a cost-cutting measure before the NBA lockout, former assistant general manager has joined the Phoenix Suns’ scouting staff.

The Arizona Republic’s Paul Coro described Lester’s duties as a “master evaluator” and will help in other “unspecified roles.” Lester had spent 10 seasons with the Lakers as an assistant GM after first starting as a regional scout in 1987. But the Lakers didn’t renew his contract following the 2010-11 season, a move the team made to 20 employees ranging from team trainers and almost the entire scouting staff before the lockout.

Lester publicly criticized the Lakers for how they handled such layoffs.

“Ronnie was a dear friend and I thought we really worked well together,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said in his 2012 exit interview. “But the people that I work with now I have a great relationship with and you have to move on.”

The Lakers have since hired Glenn Carraro as the team’s assistant general manager after spending the 2011-12 season as both the director of basketball administration for the Lakers and as general manager of the D-Fenders, the Lakers’ affiliate in the Development League.

RELATED:

Metta World Peace expands mental health campaign

Metta World Peace releases children’s book

Steve Clifford to become Charlotte Bobcats’ head coach

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

After receiving what his publicist described as “really positive feedback,” Lakers forward Metta World Peace and the Los Angeles County Department of Health will extend their campaign through June that involved various posters and billboards featuring World Peace’s likeness throughout Los Angeles.

With the help of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the World Peace billboards, bulletins and posters appeared at the beginning of May at MTA shelters, depots, buses and trainers with a message called “Talk it out” with versions in both English and Spanish. The signs will also have contact information for LACDMH’s 24/7 phone line (1-800-854-7771).

World Peace founded Xcel University, Inc. in 2007, which delivers funds to mental health charities. He’s extensively increased his involvement ever since joining the Lakers in 2009. He raised $651,006 by raffling off his 2010 NBA championship ring and earning the NBA’s J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award in 2011. World Peace has testified numerous times before Congress on behalf of the Mental Health in Schools Act, which would raise $200 million in grant funding to 200 schools. Last year, World Peace also earned recognition at the Voice Awards on behalf of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

RELATED:

Metta World Peace releases children’s book

Steve Clifford to become Charlotte Bobcats’ head coach

Phil Jackson chooses Bill Russell over Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant as greatest

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

Even at 33 years old, Metta World Peace still acts like a child.

The Lakers forward wore a Cookie Monster T-shirt to his exit interview with general manager Mitch Kupchak and coach Mike D’Antoni. World Peace made a cameo appearance on Nick Jr’s “Yo Gabba Gabba.”. Plenty of his interviews involve World Peace spouting off gibberish for the sake of making people laugh.

So it’s hardly surprising that World Peace just released a children’s book titled “Metta’s Bedtime Stories.” The back of the book’s cover reveals the bedtime stories include the following titles, “Tomorrow,” “Reach for the Sky,” “One Wish,” “Mud in My Bed,” and “I’m Afraid of the Dark.”
Continue reading →

Lakers assistant coach Steve Clifford will become the Charlotte Bobcats’ next head coach, according to league sources.

The contract hasn’t completely been finalized, the source said. But Clifford will have two guaranteed years with a team option on his third season worth around $6 million in the 2015-16 campaign.

Clifford was originally planning to visit with the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday in what would’ve been his second interview for the team’s head-coaching position, according to a league source. But Clifford was open to any head coaching position, according to someone familiar with his thinking.

Clifford’s departure from the Lakers marks another shift in which Mike D’Antoni’s coaching staff has drastically altered since the end of the 2012-13 season. Lakers assistant coach Eddie Jordan took the Rutgers’ men’s basketball position shortly before the NBA playoffs started. Mike D’Antoni informed both Bernie Bickerstaff and Chuck Person they would not be retained a week after the Lakers’ first-round playoff exit to the San Antonio Spurs. And Lakers players development coach Phil Handy joined Mike Brown’s coaching staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

D’Antoni currently has his brother, Dan, and Darvin Ham assistants. Some possible replacements could include Alvin Gentry and Nate McMillan, though both hirings would hinge on whether they would receive head-coaching positions. Gentry, who worked with D’Antoni as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns, is considered a coaching candidate for the Clippers. McMillan, who was an assistant with D’Antoni with Team USA, is also considered a coaching candidate for the Clippers. Regardless, D’Antoni doesn’t plan to fill all the vacancies considering he prefers a smaller staff than Brown employed before the Lakers fired him following a 1-4 start.

Brown hired Clifford, and was one of five assistants retained when D’Antoni took over following a 1-4 start. Clifford first started out in the NBA ranks as an advance scout for the New York Knicks (2000-01) before moving up as an assistant coach (2001-03) under Don Nelson. He then worked as an assistant for Jeff Van Gundy with the Houston Rockets (2003-2007) and for Stan Van Gundy with the Orlando Magic (2007-2012).

RELATED:

Phil Jackson chooses Bill Russell over Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant as greatest

Kobe Bryant featured in NBA Playoffs promo

Lakers mailbag: Tackling offseason questions

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