Memo to Phil: Make It Work

For all their awesome size and sweeping glory, the Lakers’ current problems can be found in their smallest parts.

The eyes.

One of their three stars is not looking at the coach again.

The coach is not looking at him.

Their two other stars are glaring at each other again.

The coach is glaring at them.

With the trading deadline only 15 days away, every other player is looking over his shoulder.

While everyone in town thinks the answer is as plain as the purple glasses on Phil Jackson’s face.

Trade Glen Rice.

Return harmony to the team? Trade Glen Rice.

Reach their potential? Trade Glen Rice.

Get those Superstore clerks to turn off the darn floodlights during the games so it doesn’t feel like a shopping mall food court? Trade Glen Rice.

Interesting thing about the eyes.

During times of trouble, they wander, often not focusing on what is best, but what is easiest.

This is one of those times.

After more than a decade of looking everywhere else for quick fixes, it is time for everyone to change their focus.

And realize the answer is right here.

With this team. With this coach. With this organization.

If not now--with three of the best players in the game and arguably the best coach--then never.

This is not about being a huge fan of any particular Laker player.

It’s about being a huge fan of continuity.

The Lakers need exactly that, and precisely now.

Trade Glen Rice?

Your eyes deceive you.

There are 6 million reasons the Lakers should not trade Glen Rice.

That is the average number of dollars per year Phil Jackson is being paid to coach a team featuring three of basketball’s biggest stars.

So far he has done that brilliantly, turning a monument of underachievement into the league’s second-best record.

It is not too much to ask that he keep doing it.

Jackson was brought here last summer not to make trades, but to manage talent.

Jackson was the last piece, not the first piece, or the middle piece, or just another piece.

“To be honest with you, I think the talent is here,” Jackson said when he took the job. “The players on this team right now have the ability to move into that next step.”

Tuesday, one day after apparently sending a message by keeping Rice on the bench for the final 17 minutes of a win against Denver, Jackson didn’t sound so confident.

Do you need to make roster changes to win a championship?

“I wouldn’t admit it if it was true,” he said. “That’s not fair to the players we have.”

He added, “There’s not a coach in the league . . . even Mike Dunleavy in Portland . . . who wouldn’t say there was some guy out there they would really like to have on their team.”

Yet Jackson said he was sending no message by benching Rice, noting that, “It was only about winning ballgames.”

Then he added, “There isn’t a Santa Claus around here. You play the hand you’re dealt. I’m still happy with the players we have on this team.”

Confused yet?

The bottom line is, Rice’s lack of defense and inability to get his own shots doesn’t fit into Jackson’s championship vision.

But Rice is talented enough, and the coach is good enough, that Jackson can make it fit.

Heck, Del Harris could have won a title here too if they traded away his problem players.

It’s time the Lakers relied on somebody besides Jerry West to win games for them.

When talking about the potential of this team, Jackson was right the first time.

There are 17-13 reasons the Lakers should not trade Glen Rice.

Before last season’s trade of Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell for Rice, the Lakers were 14-6. Afterward, they were 17-13.

Midseason trades of star players in the NBA rarely turn into championships, particularly on teams with unconventional schemes like the Lakers.

“It takes a while to learn and adjust to this offense. . . . It’s been four months, and the guys who are here are just getting comfortable with it,” Rick Fox said. “It’s not something you can just walk into and say, ‘OK, I’ll just run down and post up.’ ”

Then there’s the matter of team chemistry, of particular importance in small groups in small locker rooms during the overheated postseason.

“When you get something new, you don’t really know what you’re going to get,” Fox said. “How will the new guy fit in?”

There are 16 reasons the Lakers should not trade Glen Rice.

Funny, but this same guy everybody is running out of town was running down the court for most of the Lakers’ 16 consecutive victories.

His presence created shots for Shaquille O’Neal, and space for Kobe Bryant. His scoring carried the team during stretches when neither man could.

So now that he has gone cold, he’s gone?

There are 41 reasons the Lakers should not trade Glen Rice.

That was Elden Campbell’s number. He was run out of town by those, including me, who thought he was a complete waste.

Maybe Campbell was.

And maybe Glen Rice (also No. 41) is really as selfish as his postgame comments would indicate.

But Campbell’s glaring void should teach everyone to ignore what they hear from the locker room, and believe only what they see on the court.

Who is one person who could have made these Lakers a championship favorite? Yep. Elden Campbell.

And who averages more assists per game than favored counterpart Rick Fox? Yep. Glen Rice.

There are 86.0 reasons the Lakers should not trade Glen Rice.

Dude works a mean free throw. His .860 percentage leads the team.

What the heck, somebody has to be available to shoot those technicals when Rasheed Wallace blows up in the conference finals.

There are 34 reasons the Lakers should not trade Glen Rice.

Sooner or later, it all gets back to Shaq. That 34 is his number, and this is his team, and he is happier when Rice is involved and around.

Maybe he simply wants a warm body separating him and Kobe.

More likely, he is smart enough to know that while Kobe is still developing, the Lakers need all the good options they can get.

Shaq is not the only one who wants Rice here.

Despite the recent drop in playing time, Rice also wants to stay.

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t win with me here,” he said Tuesday. “If somebody feels another way, I wish they’d let me know.”

As a footnote to those who think the Lakers should trade him simply because they will lose him as a free agent at the end of the year, look at it this way:

If the Lakers win the championship, he will have been a worthy rental, and they won’t mind if he gets his $14 million elsewhere.

If the Lakers don’t win a championship, it probably will be because he struggled, meaning nobody will give him $14 million outright. So the Lakers can still get something for him in a sign-and-trade.

The wearying saga of Glen Rice has bright spots everywhere.

All they have to do is look.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.

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On the Decline

A look at Glen Rice’s minutes and points per game throughout the season (Rice didn’t play Dec. 12 vs. Detroit):

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Games Minutes Points Laker Record 1-6 37.8 20.6 5-1 7-12 33.1 16.3 3-3 13-18 32.3 15.5 6-0 19-24 31.0 16.7 5-1 25-30 30.3 16.5 6-0 31-36 31.3 18.3 5-1 37-42 35.0 16.3 3-3 43-46 27.0 10.0 2-2

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