Lakernoise

Lord knows I don’t want to saddle Luke Walton with any sort of “savior” label as he prepares to return to the Los Angeles Lakers bench after weeks of nursing a back injury.

After all, it’s going to take time and patience for Walton to work his way back in. He’s only played two dozen games this season and has been out since just before the All Star Game.

But when he resumes playing next week and if he’s able to round into form, Walton should improve a lot of things for Phil Jackson’s team.

The Lakers’ bench was decidedly exposed against the New Orleans Hornets in last night’s loss, and Walton should add considerable strength there. He’s had his highlight moments defensively, but it’s the execution of the triangle offense that should improve substantially with Walton on the floor.

Improving that execution should help the bench keep better control of tempo, which means they have a better chance of holding their ground, of not losing leads.

Walton’s presence should also help in forward Ron Artest’s adjustment to the triangle’s nuances and challenges. Walton will give Jackson more options in terms of lineups, particularly in the second half.

With Artest in the lineup, Bryant has gotten far less time on the wing himself, and as Bryant explained to me earlier in the season that has changed his relationship with the offense itself.

Bryant added that he doesn’t mind this. In fact, he said the addition of Artest has made things more interesting for him, given him fresh and different challenges this season.

Mainly, it has meant that Bryant gets the ball in different places than he did last year. That can be good and bad. Getting the ball as a guard means he’s operating higher and further way from the basket. It can mean there are fewer opportunities for him to work “behind the defense” because he is not on the wing.

With Walton on the floor with Bryant, perhaps that means the star will be able to return to some of his comfortable spots in the offensive execution.

Bryant has long shown an ability to turn all kinds of things that could be negatives into positives, and that appears to be his mental approach this season as well.

Bryant pointed out for reporters that because of the addition of Artest this year, the Lakers have changed substantially as a team, simply because it takes time for any player to learn and adjust to the triangle. The classic example of this is Ron Harper, who struggled for most of two seasons with the Chicago Bulls trying to learn the triangle. When he finally did, Harper became a key component of the Bulls, as he later was for Jackson’s first two championship teams with the Lakers.

So it’s only fair to allow Artest his time to learn and adjust, thus the help that Walton can bring in his return is key.

If the Lakers win the title again this year, they’ll win it differently than they did last year, Bryant recently observed.

That’s because last year they won the championship with some elevated execution of their offense.

This year Artest means the Lakers have a chance to develop as a good defensive team in the playoffs, although that obviously still remains a work in progress.

With Walton back, the execution of the triangle also should improve. Make no mistake, if the Lakers are going to win the title in June, they’ll have to improve dramatically, as they did over the course of last year’s playoffs. Walton’s personal improvement was a big part of the team’s progress.

There’s also the enthusiasm Walton brings to the task. He’s an upbeat person. His teammates like him. He’ll bring those tremendous mental positives to the team’s relationship with the offense, just as he always has.

In fact, even during his time on the injured list Walton found a way to emulate triangle offense guru Tex Winter, who has been sidelined himself for almost a year while recovering from a stroke.

Walton has donned a suit and sat amongst the coaching staff, furiously scribbling notes during the course of the game, then communicating what he sees to teammates during pauses in the action.

That, of course, has long been a role filled by the tenacious Winter. Obviously, Walton has been more diplomatic in delivering his observations to teammates than Winter, who was known for his brutally frank corrections of players.

As a player, Walton will confine his contributions to all the subtle things — the reads and passes and cuts — that make Jackson’s triangle teams so special, and secondary players such as Walton so crucial to the big picture.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.