Shaq’s Return Inspires a Look Into the Future

Wednesday night was one of the few times you’ll see the Lakers look better without Shaquille O’Neal than they did with him.

Coach Phil Jackson had a good feel for the way things were going, and didn’t try to wreck it by playing O’Neal more than he had to in O’Neal’s return from a three-week absence because of a strained right calf. For one night, O’Neal had little effect on the Lakers’ fate as the rest of the squad produced a 96-82 victory over the Seattle SuperSonics.

No one’s foolish enough to think that the key to another championship would be to tie O’Neal to a chair in the locker room.

The looming, delicate question for those above Jackson to decide is at what point will O’Neal’s effect be permanently diminished, at what point will his chunk of the payroll far outweigh his contributions on the court?

Most NBA observers still believe that if O’Neal is his big, bad self, the Lakers will be the team to beat this season no matter how many times Kobe Bryant has to fly to Colorado or how many games Karl Malone misses (at the moment you might want to bet the over on 40).

But there’s also 2006-07 and beyond to worry about. That’s when the Lakers could extend him beyond his current contract, and it’s one of the many subplots running throughout this season.

Ever-so-briefly -- before Bryant arrived at training camp and his sexual assault case became topic numero uno -- O’Neal’s contract extension slipped into the lead story.

The Lakers can pay him in the neighborhood of $20 million to $25 million a season after his current deal runs out in 2006. General Manager Mitch Kupchak started things off in October by saying the Lakers were in no rush to get the deal done. Then O’Neal turned the first exhibition game into a referendum on his cash during a sequence in which he hit a jumper, glared at owner Jerry Buss in his courtside seat, blocked a shot and bellowed “Now you gonna pay me?” on his way to the bench for a timeout.

It doesn’t come up much anymore. When it was mentioned to O’Neal before the Laker game at Utah on Saturday night, he just said he would let his agent worry about it. Then he took out his cellphone and called his agent.

Whenever a minor injury keeps O’Neal out of practice or games there are suggestions that there is a hidden agenda behind it. O’Neal didn’t like it when those innuendos were repeated in this column, and his agent, Perry Rogers, said it’s a foolish premise, since any time on the sidelines would actually be counterproductive to O’Neal’s contract leverage.

O’Neal has missed at least 12 games because of injury for three consecutive seasons (this year’s tally is 14). And he’ll be 32 in March.

The toe that bothered him throughout the 2001-02 season and required surgery before last season still doesn’t feel completely right. He recently got new orthotics for his shoes to aid his running.

And yet, at the start of the season he was as fearsome as ever on defense, blocking shots, snatching rebounds and even jumping out on screens. He was the Western Conference player of the week for the first week in December, when he averaged only 19.7 points.

“He really is prepared [for] making another run at a championship,” Rogers said. “That’s what he’s all about. He’s been clear about that. He hasn’t tried to take any shortcuts with that. This [calf] injury needed some time to rest. It was about him making sure that his body was ready to come back. That’s all that this has been about.”

Would signing the extension make him even better by putting his mind at ease?

“It’s not as simple as that,” Rogers said. “It’s really going to make sure that this makes sense for Shaquille going forward, and it makes sense for them going forward. What Shaquille is focused on is winning a championship.

“The timing of the extension is not the critical part. What’s critical is that the goals that Shaquille has for himself and for the team are met.”

There are issues of O’Neal’s surrounding cast, most crucially what will happen with Bryant. And the more money O’Neal takes for himself, the less salary-cap flexibility for the Lakers to surround him with good players.

O’Neal didn’t seem too stressed this week. It was clear that his return was imminent from his good spirits at Tuesday’s practice, when he ruminated on the greater meaning of the Lakers’ rash of injuries.

“Some things you just can’t question,” he said. “Like, you can’t question why two plus two is four. So don’t question it, don’t try to look it up. I don’t know who made it, all I know is it was put in my head that two plus two is four. So certain things happen. Why does it rain? Why am I sexy? I don’t know.”

He didn’t have as much fun Wednesday.

He looked out of position, winding up by the three-point arc on offense and defense. He watched rebounds sail over his head or bounce off his hands.

This was one of the few times the Lakers looked better without him. They trailed by seven points when he left with 3:05 remaining in the first quarter and they lead by 11 with O’Neal still on the bench midway through the second quarter. He had only seven points and five rebounds in 18 minutes.

The fourth quarter, which O’Neal missed entirely, was about as fun to watch as any quarter the Lakers have played this season. And it showed that sometimes individual agendas can help the entire team. With Derek Fisher (who hopes for a new contract himself), youngsters Kareem Rush and Luke Walton (who hope to stay in the rotation now that the regulars are coming back) and Horace Grant (who hopes to prove he’s really only 38, not 58), the lesser-known Lakers went on a 12-2 run in the first six minutes. Then Gary Payton, who always wants to burn his ex-team, came in and finished the SuperSonics off.

O’Neal still has his short-term and long-term goals. I’ve got the feeling another championship would pay off -- in more ways than one.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected]. To read his previous columns, go to latimes.com/adande.