Eddie Jones seemed like the perfect elite roleplayer for those Lakers, not as good of a shooter as Glen Rice, but he was younger by three years, he could attack the basket, he was an elite defender, and he declined much more slowly than Rice did since he was still very effective for Memphis at age 34.

I won’t question it too much given that the Rice trade won them a ring, but depth became a problem near the end of the Kobe Shaq era, feud aside.