Phil Jackson likes to think outside of the box: it’s been proven time and time again during his storied coaching career, it becomes apparent while reading his new book Eleven Rings, and it’s proven once again in an excellent interview he recently did with Sam Anderson of the New York Times.

In the wide-ranging interview, Anderson lists the interesting changes that Phil would like to see in today’s NBA:

The court should be lengthened and widened, he said, to accommodate the athleticism of today’s players. Timeouts and commercial breaks need to be cut back to restore the sport’s natural flow. Refereeing is a mess: they should stand closer to the action the way they did in the old days, so they can see the fouls better. They also need to find a way to control illegal contact: defensive players holding, offensive players pushing off (“LeBron James,” Jackson said, “has the best ‘off’ arm in the game”). James Naismith, Jackson said, invented basketball as “anti-football,” a sport in which brute violence would be replaced by free-moving fluidity, but excessive contact has destroyed that fluidity. Also, today’s players are allowed to cheat when they dribble: they routinely put their hand under the ball, which gives them far too much control. As a result, the game has become much more dependent on dribbling, less on motion and passing and teamwork. Over all, Jackson thinks the N.B.A. should aspire to be more like soccer, which has managed to remain a global juggernaut without corrupting the sanctity of its game. (“Although their jerseys are a mess,” he admits.)

All of these ideas make perfect sense, as did Phil’s suggestion last week to end the Hack-A-Player strategy.

If the NBA should listen to anyone, it should be Phil. Not only has he been around the game for a long time, but he’s been successful pretty much all of the way. His ability to see things from a different point of view is invaluable, so the league would be wise to let him have some input while he isn’t employed by one of their franchises.

SEE ALSO:

Lakers 2013 draft and trade rumors update

VIDEO: Phil Jackson on The Jay Leno Show

Fan Voice: Lakers should make tweaks and bring back the same core

Yesterday, we told you about a rumor via Sam Amico: apparently, the Los Angeles Lakers are looking to move up in the draft via trade.

Today, Steve Kyler of HoopsWorld said on Twitter that he hasn’t heard anything about the Lakers looking to move up in the draft – in fact, they’ve apparently been very nonchalant about the entire process, even passing up the opportunity to interview prospects face-to-face:

The problem is, free agency doesn’t begin until July 1st, while the draft is on June 27th. Of course, Howard could give the Lakers a verbal commitment before free agency begins, but I think that’s doubtful seeing as he’ll likely want to listen to other teams before making his final decision.

Kyler also revealed that the Lakers have apparently been telling people that they’ll have six roster spots open this summer:

The Lakers would then proceed to fill in the six roster spots by either re-signing their own free agents – Earl Clark, Darius Morris, etc – or signing other free agents using the mini-MLE or minimum contract deals. They can also trade for more players, of course, which is the harder option.

Whatever the Lakers choose to do, there will likely be a fair bit of action near the end of June and the beginning of July as the team attempts to revamp the roster, despite their limited resources.

The Los Angeles Lakers have big decisions to make this off season: do we bring back the same team or do we move forward with changes? I’m one of the people who is okay with small changes. I think they should keep the same core group of Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard, Steve Nash and Pau Gasol.

Last season was a year full of injuries. It was a freak accident type of season – Murphy’s Law was in effect from start to finish. I think the same team needs to take another crack at it.

Most would disagree, but why not? The Lakers need to come back because they owe it to themselves and to the city of Los Angeles. This is not a situation you run from, it’s a situation you face head on and these current Lakers deserve a chance to face it. In my opinion, a healthy Laker team with no injuries would have walked to the finals this year and won a championship.

Lakers head coach Mike D’Antoni didn’t get a chance to coach a healthy Lakers squad; I think he should be back too and be given a chance to coach an injury-free team next season to see how good he really is. Most fans would disagree, but he never really had a chance and the injuries that happened this season were not his fault. He had a short rotation to work with due to having his guys get hurt all year long.

So, let’s see what a full and healthy Laker squad can do in the 2013-14 season. If the same core group is brought back next year, I still feel that they can win the NBA championship.

This was an article by Mike Nasri. You can follow him on Twitter here: @LakersLDynasty

Lakerholicz.com’s Fan Voice allows you, the fans, to share your views with the rest of the Lakers community. Interested? Click here to contact us.

Last night, Phil Jackson was on The Jay Leno Show to promote his new book, Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success.

During the interview, Phil talked about the Lakers, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and more. Check out the full video below.

Phil Jackson’s latest book Eleven Rings: The Soul of Success comes out on May 21, 2013. Click here to pre-order it from Amazon.

Mitch Kupchak said it himself during his exit interview: the activity and chatter around the league beings heat up as the NBA draft in June approaches.

Officials from teams are gathering at the draft combine in Chicago right now, and naturally, the rumor mill is beginning to churn.

According to Sam Amico, the Los Angeles Lakers are among the teams looking to move up in the draft and nab a lottery pick, possibly by trading Pau Gasol:

The Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks are said to be two such teams, with both supposedly exploring the idea of improving their draft position.

As for the Lakers, their lone pick doesn’t come until midway through the second round (No. 48 overall). But, as usual, they’re supposedly willing to trade big man Pau Gasol in attempt to get younger. That may mean obtaining a pick, a younger player and a contract.

Again, all of this is just speculation at the moment, and it may result in nothing at the end. And goodness knows, these are the type of discussions among GMs and execs that will take place all the way through the draft.

While this is said to be a fairly weak draft, it’s always hard to gauge how good a draft class is straight away, and Amico has even said that the Cavaliers’ GM told him this group looks stronger than originally expected.

The Lakers have explored moving Gasol for younger, cheaper parts for a while now, and you can’t get much younger and cheaper than a rookie, so such a move would make sense, especially if an established player was received in the trade, too.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have obviously had interest in Pau for some time, though since they’ve changed general managers (David Kahn was replaced by Flip Saunders earlier this month) it’s unclear whether the T-Wolves still covet the Spaniard. However, big man fan Rick Adelman will be staying on as coach, so the interest in Gasol could still be there.

The Wolves are projected to have the ninth pick in the draft – plus they also have a D’Antoni-like player in Derrick Williams to dangle in a trade – so Minnesota may be a team to keep an eye on as the draft approaches next month.

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As we all know, Kobe Bryant is a huge soccer fan, so it’s not surprising for him to release a shoe that’s heavily inspired by a soccer boot.

Here’s what Nike had to say about it, via SLAM:

The KOBE 8 MAMBACURIAL fuses key design attributes of basketball and soccer shoe uppers and includes a number details borrowed from the Nike Mercurial Vapor IX. The striking Fireberry colorway is taken straight from the soccer boot and applied to the Nike Engineered Mesh upper of the latest Kobe Bryant signature shoe. Oversized white “NIKE” script appears on the medial side of each shoe, and an electric-lime Swoosh shifts from the side to just over the toe. “Mambacurial” is notated on the backside of the tongue, and the upper rests atop a grass graphic and translucent green rubber outsole.

“Soccer boot design has influenced my shoe in the past but the KOBE 8 MAMBACURIAL brings it full circle,” Bryant says. “It’s great to see powerful design come together across sports.”

Kobe Bryant and Nike Basketball give basketball fans the chance to familiarize themselves with soccer inspiration with the KOBE 8 MAMBACURIAL. The shoe is now available at select retailers globally and at nike.com. In North America, the shoe will be available June 7.

Here’s some photos of the shoe, courtesy of Nike:

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With Metta World Peace reportedly intending to opt-in to his $7.7 million contract for next season, it’s not all that surprising that the Los Angeles Lakers are hoping that Metta will decline his player option and becomes a free agent, as Sam Amico reports:

As for World Peace, he turns 34 early next season (Nov. 13). He’s not nearly the defender he once was. He’s erratic offensively. His contract calls for a player option of $7.7 million next season. The Lakers are privately hoping he declines it and tries his hand at free agency.

If Metta does opt-in for next season, the Lakers will most likely amnesty him. While this will help them avoid the luxury tax penalties, which are said to total around $30 million just for MWP’s contract, the Lakers would still have to pay Metta his $7.7 million. Where as, if Metta opts-out, they don’t owe him a penny.

Amico also reports that Devin Ebanks, Antawn Jamison and Jodie Meeks won’t be back with the Lakers next season:

If the Lakers can trade Gasol, and World Peace walks, they could have something. Everyone on their bench can be had for cheap – and reserves such as Devin Ebanks, Jodie Meeks and Antawn Jamison (who should’ve retired three years ago) won’t be back.

Ebanks and Jamison were expected to walk this summer, but Meeks’ status was more unclear as he has a team option worth $1.5 million. Meeks did have bright spots throughout the season, but he found it hard to be a consistent offensive threat every night.

If Amico is right, the Lakers would have to find another shooting guard to replace Meeks, either by free agency or trade. L.A. could do with a decent shooting guard just in case Kobe Bryant isn’t ready to play on opening night.

Even if Bryant does return in time for the start of the season, he is still coming off an Achilles injury and will be 35 when the 2013-14 season tips off, so having a solid shooting guard on the roster to give Kobe rest throughout the year wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

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Metta World Peace and Twitter were made for each other. Ever since the Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs, Metta has been entertaining his followers with a series of crazy tweets. Some provide comedy, while others give us some basketball insight: the majority are funny, though.

Last week, MWP was having trouble with the names of the players on the Golden State Warriors, while this week, his in-game tweets became very strange.

On Tuesday night, Metta took to Twitter while the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers were playing in Game 4 of their second-round playoff match-up. Here’s a few of my favorite tweets during from game.

Metta arrived on Twitter fairly late into the contest when the Pacers were beginning to run away with the game. Where had MWP been all this time? Whale fishing, of course:

Once again, Metta was talking about number 14 on the Knicks: Chris Copeland. Metta has referenced Copeland a number of times this post-season, calling him a “potential game changer” in his next tweet.

The Knicks were getting hammered and were on their way to being down 3-1 in the series, yet Metta felt that the Knicks were better on paper:

Maybe MWP was onto something? Maybe boy band analogies were the way to go: the Pacers were looking like ‘N Sync, so how about the Knicks?

Anyway, Metta soon got bored of the boy band talk and went in a completely different direction. Fast food:

The burger talk suddenly halted when Metta’s favorite player was getting ready to enter the game. He even had a new nickname for Copeland, courtesy of the Jacksons:

And then, before he knew it, the game was over and the Pacers won. To celebrate, Metta went straight to YouTube and tweeted out a link to ‘N Sync’s greatest hits:

In all seriousness, Metta’s tweets are entertaining and give us something to talk about during these Laker-less times. MWP might not be back in a Lakers uniform next year, but as long as he’s still on Twitter, we can all have a good chuckle from time to time.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are worth a lot of money across the board.

Earlier this year, Forbes revealed that the Lakers were worth $1 billion as a franchise. Sports Illustrated have now put out a list of their own, reporting that the Lakers have three of the Top 50 highest earning sports stars in the United States.

Kobe Bryant came 4th in the list, with an estimated $46.8 million heading his way this year. Bryant will apparently earn $19 million just from endorsement deals alone.

Dwight Howard is next up at 31, with a total of $21.9 million said to be heading his way in 2013. As SI points out, Howard was expected to attract a plethora of endorsement deals after being traded to Los Angeles, but he’s only earning $2.4 million. SI‘s advertising experts say that Howard’s “bad attitude in recent years has hurt his marketability” – would that marketability be hurt even more so if he left the Lakers for yet another team this summer? Quite possibly.

However, if Howard decided to stay in L.A, he may see his public perception return to being positive like it used to be. LeBron James saw a similar backlash from the public after “The Decision” in 2010, but his “marketability” is now at an all-time high as he has risen to the 2nd highest paid sports person in America.

As for Pau Gasol, he came in at 37 thanks to his $21.1 million income this year, which includes $2.1 million worth of endorsement deals.

The Lakers and the Miami Heat were the only two NBA teams to have three of their players on the list, with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh representing South Beach.

Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. came first on the list for the second year running with a $90 million income.

SEE ALSO:

Clippers to make a run at Dwight Howard?

Kevin Garnett to ask for a trade to Los Angeles?

James Harden hints that he’s going to recruit Dwight Howard to the Rockets

When Phil Jackson agreed to help out with the Detroit Pistons‘ coaching search this off-season, it seemed like a sure thing that one of Jackson’s ex-assistant coaches would get a shot at the job, and it appears they will.

Brian Shaw is being lined up to interview for the head coaching position, according to Hoops Rumors.

Shaw is currently an associate head coach with the Indiana Pacers, who appear to be advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals relatively soon. The Pistons will have to wait until the Pacers’ season is over to interview Shaw.

It’s not surprising to see Shaw being considered for the Pistons job seeing as Phil is assisting with the coaching search. Although, Shaw is a good coach in his own right, so if he lands the job it won’t all be down to the Zen Master.

Phil stressed on Twitter recently that he’s helping out Detroit as a favor to their owner, Tom Gores, and it doesn’t seem as if Jackson’s association with the Pistons is going to be permanent. Phil is apparently holding out to find a situation that fits him perfectly, with an executive position within a franchise reportedly being his perfect job at this time.

SEE ALSO:

Clippers to make a run at Dwight Howard?

Kevin Garnett to ask for a trade to Los Angeles?

James Harden hints that he’s going to recruit Dwight Howard to the Rockets