So far, so good for Artest fitting into the Lakers' offense

In other Ron Artest news, there isn't any. There was the interview-in-his-underwear thing and the confession that he used to get his cognac on during halftime as a Bull, but the opening weeks of his opening season with the Lakers have, outwardly, been uneventful. (Then again, the image of him sipping brandy, wearing a smoking jacket and sitting in a red leather chair beside a crackling fire in the United Center home locker room didn't come out for eight or nine years, so let's talk again in 2017.)

He has not gone off yet. No surprise. Artest does good first impressions, before the focus begins to drift, and there is particular interest in getting this one right after spending seasons imagining the possibilities as Kobe Bryant's wing man. Besides, he was a pretty good citizen in Houston in 2008-09, with some obligatory nuttiness but nothing close to the troublemaker some have wrongly portrayed.

The actual fitting-in issue was on the court, anyway. Few focused on the real potential conflict of a notorious ball pounder stepping into a triangle offense, which is based on passes and movement. Let's just say, as every team on the resume knows, that's not always his thing.

Dribble. Dribble. Dribble. Dribble. That's the Artest the Lakers had to be concerned about.

A quarter of the way into 2009-10, though, coach Phil Jackson notes Artest is making a smooth transition to a system some arrivals have needed a full season to grasp. Teammates praise his ability to quickly adapt. The statistical evidence is that Ron-Ron, while dropping from 17.1 points in the one Rockets campaign to 12.6 in the first 20 games in Los Angeles, is on an early pace for a career best in assists and has gone from shooting 40.1 percent in Houston to 43.1.

Oh, yeah. And the Lakers are 17-3, fifth in scoring (even with Pau Gasol missing 11 games) and 12th in shooting.

"He likes to pass the ball and we like him as a team player," Jackson said. "He gets a little bit too involved in playmaking and not enough in offensive opportunities, we think, at times."

"Ron has a great feel for the game and he's a student of the game," Lamar Odom said. "He has a really high IQ. He did a good job at dissecting everything that Trevor [Ariza, the predecessor at small forward] did and putting himself in that place. You might have to ask Ron, but for me watching Ron, it's been easy."

Ron was asked, and he dismissed any adjustment period as "pretty easy." There were, he reminded, the 2½ seasons in Chicago, where Tim Floyd and Bill Cartwright, an Artest favorite, also used the triangle. Plus, he's a lot more experienced now and in a locker room with strong leaders who will hold him accountable.

"Even coach Jackson noticed it," Artest said. "He noticed that I was picking things up. Sometimes, there's just certain things they have to explain to me, just things I haven't done. There's a lot of things I haven't done in the triangle. But for the most part, I knew most of the terminology.

"It's really just getting used to the players. Just the players. That was the main thing. The triangle as a whole and the players. Just getting used to playing with Kobe, getting used to his rhythm. That was the hardest part -- getting used to his rhythm. Once I got used to his rhythm, I knew how to fit in my rhythm."

Artest, always an able ballhandler, is third on the team in assists, slightly behind Odom and Bryant. He is not as 3-point happy.

Look who's become efficient on offense.

It won't get a lot of notice if boxer shorts continue to be his wardrobe of choice, as was the case when Artest went on Jimmy Kimmel Live in November. But the transition is going well. Just check back in eight or nine years to find out for sure.

Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here.

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