Phil Jackson faces media September 25, 2009. (AP)
Phil Jackson met with media on Friday at the Lakers training facility in El Segundo. It was his pre-season "State of the Team" oration.
He spoke about goals for training camp that starts Tuesday and the top priorities for his coaches.
Number one on the hit parade is integration of Ron Artest into Trevor Ariza's old slot on the floor.
Jackson said: "We want to try and make this transition to Ron Artest seamless; get our players back to playing at a level at which they can approximate the chemistry they had on the court at the end of the season."
With the addition of Artest, Jackson believes the team is better, at least on paper: "Trevor didn't need as many shots. Ron will be doing more things offensively, be more of a focal point. But we hope that it doesn't take away from the fact that he's the defensive player we've wanted over the course of the last couple of years, be a stopper, which Ariza was."
One of the other immediate challenges for the pre-season? Shuffling of coaching duties after the departure of Kurt Rambis.
Jackson said he thinks he will spend more time with the big men, something that had been Rambis' specialty. The other coaches will have to pick up Rambis' responsibilities as somewhat of a defensive coordinator.
He is happy starting out with a healthy Andrew Bynum who told the coach he's ready to rock n' roll all the way to the All Star game. Jackson would be happy if the young center stayed healthy enough to continue his maturation as a player.
Bynum will have to earn his way into the group that's on the floor at crunch time however. "I have a group on the floor that I know can finish ball games", said the coach. "I'm pretty comfortable with that group. With Trevor gone there's a spot for somebody to step in and finish games. That's what's important to me."
If you thought Jackson wouldn't weigh in on the subject of his players' use of Twitter or YouTube and the latest celebrity tie-in with the impending marriage of Lamar Odom to one of the Kardashian's you'd be wrong.
"There is a certain amount of privacy we have to demand from them so that our business doesn't become street business. These guys are professionals, they'll understand that." However, Jackson made it clear he would place restrictions on the use of the social media networks.
With respect to Lamar's fast-tracked marriage, Jackson said he was happy for his star and joked that with the ceremony occurring a mere two days prior to the start of training camp, "We're going to give him a really good honeymoon." Ah, young love!
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