ANAHEIM, Calif. - Welcome to Lamar Odom's starting-lineup limbo, Andrew.
Unless Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol find a flow on the floor together soon, Bynum could begin the regular season on the Lakers' bench.
"It has been mentioned," Lakers consultant Tex Winter said of the coaching staff's internal discussions. "We played pretty well last year without him."
If Lakers coach Phil Jackson were still toting that cane around, he'd have spent most of training camp pointing it up at Bynum and Gasol, both 7-feet tall, and what they have been doing wrong as a twin-tower tandem.
"Right now, they're very clumsy; they're not working well together," Jackson said Monday. "We've got a group that played very well together last year. There are some things that we have to discuss and see how long we drag this out - or how quickly we facilitate it, because I think we have got the ability to play exceptionally well if we use all our skill players."
Said Winter: "The complexion of our team changes considerably when you're playing Gasol and Bynum together. That's going to be a real project to work that out so both those guys can play up to their potential and really show what they can do."
The slow start of the big boys was driven home by the decision not to start Bynum on Tuesday night in the Lakers' exhibition loss to Utah at Honda Center. Gasol started at center - which was a surprise to him during this intense power-forward tutorial - with Derek Fisher, Kobe Bryant, Trevor Ariza and
Odom the other starters.
Bynum viewed it as Jackson just trying to push for more from him.
"I think it has gone well," Bynum said. "I think he's trying to motivate people. I think I'm fine."
That's essentially true. So one week into training camp, Bynum and Gasol aren't Astaire and Rogers - or Robinson and Duncan. This really shouldn't be viewed as a major disappointment for the Lakers.
Last season, Jackson didn't dwell or count on Bynum's anticipated return partly because the coach foresaw a whole lot of trouble melding Bynum to Gasol in the frontcourt. Now it hasn't come that easy because it isn't easy.
Both big guys are used to being the first to go challenge a shot, but both can't go first anymore.
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