It’s More Like an Extreme Makeover

The Lakers are r-r-r.... Oh, I give up.

OK, how’s your, uh, transition going?

There’s a word the Lakers don’t use, besides “Shaq” or “Phil.” Coach Rudy Tomjanovich calls it “the R word.” Whatever it is, General Manager Mitch Kupchak says they’re not doing it.

It’s rebuilding, which they began when they traded Shaquille O’Neal, who still had two or three good seasons left, seeing as how he wanted five guaranteed, and told Coach Phil Jackson to go with him, however politely.

They not only don’t say the word, they’re sensitive about it, and not only because they have seats to sell at even higher prices. It’s three seasons until the summer of 2007, when they have enough salary-cap room to make major changes, and they can’t sit around in the meantime, dreaming of saviors.

In fact, they really aren’t rebuilding ... they hope.

They think rebuilding is what the Chicago Bulls did when they blew up their dynasty and went back to square one. That was six seasons ago and the Bulls are still at square one, so it’s obviously no cinch.

“We don’t think we are,” Kupchak says. “Our take is we have a competitive young team that will hopefully improve as it matures. And we have flexibility, immediately and in the future, with a chance to get under the cap in 2007.”

It’s true. They have a great young player and several good young ones, so they’re already at square two, three or four.

Nevertheless, owner Jerry Buss didn’t trade last season’s team for this one because he thought it was better, even if it is younger, cheaper and gives them more flexibility. They’re either rebuilding, er, reloading, or the good times are over.

Hope springing eternally, they thought without those millstones, O’Neal and Jackson, they could become an entertaining running team again and win 55 games.

Unfortunately, that turned out to be the Phoenix Suns.

The Lakers are the team with eight new players on a 48-win pace, at No. 8 in the West, still trying to figure out how to get Lamar Odom the ball often enough, close enough to the basket, to get his 14-point average up to 18 or 20.

Odom says he wants to. Tomjanovich says he wants him to. Then Kobe Bryant gives the ball up all night against the Golden State Warriors, taking 12 shots, and Odom is still their No. 4 scorer, getting 13 shots, seven fewer than Caron Butler, two more than Brian Cook and Chris Mihm.

Nevertheless, there’s a bigger question than whether the Lakers are playing too much outside in, rather than inside out (yes).

How good can they be?

Personally, I’d say they need a major piece to contend for titles, as opposed to finishing No. 5-8 with the mantra that gives half the league a reason to go on: Anything can happen in the playoffs.

As far as titles go, the playoffs run to form. Only one champion in the NBA’s 56-year history didn’t finish in the top four in its conference.

(For you die-hard optimists, it was Tomjanovich’s 1995 Houston Rockets, who were No. 6.)

If the Lakers don’t climb into contention in the next season or two, Plan B is going under the cap in the summer of 2007.

This is no cinch, either. With $35.5 million on the books in the salaries of Bryant and Odom, Cook becoming a restricted free agent that summer and rookies with guaranteed contracts arriving in 2005 and 2006, they’d have to contain costs (no deals past 2007) and dump some money too.

They wouldn’t be doing this for Yao Ming or Amare Stoudemire, who may or may not be there. They’d be doing it to put themselves in position for whoever turns out to be there in 2007 or 2008.

That’s how Jerry West landed O’Neal, saving cap space while he rebuilt, er, retooled, after Magic Johnson retired in 1991, before Jerry found Shaq on the market in 1996.

There was no assurance O’Neal would be there when West began saving up. It took an unexpected change in the collective bargaining agreement in 1995 to turn Shaq from a restricted free agent to an unrestricted one.

Now the Lakers, like their fans, are waiting to see which way this goes.

They have two seasons, until the summer of 2006, when Butler will be a restricted free agent and Mihm’s contract is up, before they have to start making hard choices. By then, they’ll know more about this group than they do now.

Free agency isn’t a sure thing, but they can’t count on getting lucky, either. They got Johnson with a draft pick awarded three years before when the New Orleans Jazz signed Gail Goodrich, but there’s no compensation anymore.

They got the No. 1 pick that became James Worthy for Don Ford, but madcap Cleveland owner Ted Stepien is gone.

The draft is now a guessing game, so anything can happen, like getting Bryant at No. 13. Or maybe someone will donate a star who makes them crazy, as when Washington sent Chris Webber to Sacramento for Mitch Richmond.

However, unless this team grows into a contender or a lightning bolt changes the equation, that leaves free agency.

They’re still the Lakers, so cap space means something. The Bulls fell in love with themselves while ruling the ‘90s and didn’t realize it, but they had such a player-hater reputation the stars wouldn’t touch them with a stick.

The Lakers were built on stars like O’Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain, who yearned to come. It wasn’t just because the weather was nice, but because the flamboyant Jack Kent Cooke, the gambling Buss and the haunted West always played for greatness, not mere respectability.

The Lakers have two great assets, a young star and their standing as the No. 1 NBA destination. Everything else remains to be determined.

Whatever they’re doing ... renovating?