Category: Los Angeles Lakers Blog

Kobe Bryant has been searching for spacing and freedom and flow on offense, for a way to counter defenses bent on sagging and suffocating him on the floor. Even before the Los Angeles Lakers delivered him point guard Steve Nash, Bryant had raised an idea with coach Mike Brown about the possibility of employing a distant cousin to the triangle – the Princeton offense.

So there was Brown and Bryant in a side room in a Las Vegas gymnasium during Team USA’s training camp in early July, listening to Eddie Jordan detail the offense’s intricacies, laying out how Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would benefit with and without the basketball. Here was an old-school Ivy League blueprint daring to be a solution for the Showtime Lakers’ issues.

Jordan happens to be the foremost Princeton authority in the NBA, the heir to architect Pete Carril, and that’s an immense part of why the Lakers are moving toward an agreement to hire Jordan as an assistant coach. Jordan sold his vision of the offense to a most willing subject, and ultimately Bryant departed for these Olympics convinced that the Lakers have a sound plan of action for the 2012-13 season.

— Reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports

The Princeton is similar to the Triangle in some ways. And it may seem odd that the Lakers are switching to an offense that doesn’t utilize traditional point guard play just as they’re bringing on the best traditional point guard in the league.

But Jason Kidd and Chris Paul have been MVP candidates running the Princeton, and Nash is a better shooter than either of them. Pau Gasol‘s passing skills are also a perfect fit for the Princeton, where the big men are often handling the ball in the (high or low) post.

— Reported by John Schuhmann of NBA.com

The Los Angeles Lakers have re-signed free agent forward Jordan Hill, it was announced today by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Hill, who was originally acquired by the team on March 15, 2012 as part of a trade with the Houston Rockets, appeared in seven regular season games last season averaging 4.7 points and 4.4 rebounds in 11.7 minutes. In 12 postseason games, Hill averaged 4.8 points and 6.3 rebounds in 18.1 minutes.

A 6-10 forward/center out of the University of Arizona, Hill was originally selected by the New York Knicks with the eighth overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.  Acquired by Houston as part of a three-team, nine-player trade midway through his rookie campaign, Hill has appeared in 158 games during his three-year NBA career, averaging 5.3 points, 4.2 rebounds and 0.6 blocks in 14.6 minutes.

The Los Angeles Lakers have added experienced depth at the forward spot.

The team today signed free agent forward Antawn Jamison, it was announced by General Manager Mitch Kupchak.

Jamison, a 6’9” 235-pound forward out of North Carolina, has averaged 19.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 985 career games (858 starts) over 14 NBA seasons with Golden State, Dallas, Washington and Cleveland.  Drafted by the Toronto Raptors with the fourth overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft before being traded to Golden State in exchange for college teammate Vince Carter, Jamison averaged 19.0 points and 9.9 rebounds in three seasons at UNC.  In his final season with the Tar Heels, Jamison averaged 22.2 points and 10.5 rebounds, while earning AP Player of the Year, the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith Men’s College Player of the Year Award.

Ranked in the top ten on the NBA active leaders list in both points (8th/19,246) and rebounds (10th/7,740), Jamison was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year for the 2003-04 season as a member of the Dallas Mavericks and is a two-time NBA All-Star (2005, 2008).

Last season, Jamison averaged 17.2 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 33.1 minutes in 65 games with the Cleveland Cavaliers, ranking 26th league-wide in points per game.  Jamison also joined Dirk Nowitzki as the only player in NBA history to accumulate at least 19,000 points, 7,000 rebounds and 1,000 three-pointers made over his career.

Jordan Hill, a late-season bloomer for the Los Angeles Lakers last year, is set to sign a deal with the team after a protracted free-agency courtship.

Hill will sign a two-year deal worth “a little less” than $8 million, a league source told ESPNLosAngeles.com on Friday. Hill’s decision came down to the Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves, with Hill accepting less money to stay in L.A., according to the source. The contract also includes incentives that can increase his overall compensation.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak made one of his first calls at the start of free agency on July 1 to Hill’s agent, Kevin Bradbury, but for a variety of reasons — the Lakers’ pursuit of Dwight Howard and Hill receiving attention from other teams among them — it took nearly three weeks to strike a deal.

— Reported by Dave McMenamin of ESPN Los Angeles