By The Associated Press

Published: Wednesday, October 3, 2012, 8:48 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, October 3, 2012

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Although Steve Nash has a Ph.D. in the pick and roll, he's spending this month as a freshman in Princeton.

The Princeton offense, that is. After 16 seasons, the Lakers' new point guard is learning a new way to play.

The Lakers are incorporating elements of the ball-movement schemes known as the Princeton offense into their game plan this fall, and Nash is largely in charge of making sure it works fluidly.

Along with new teammates and a new city, it adds up to a busy October for a sharpshooting playmaker who's not coasting on his credentials as one of the greatest pick-and-roll artists of his generation.

“It's going to be a big transition for me, but one I'm excited to take on and be open-minded about,” Nash said. “I think that the beauty of this team is that we have a lot of guys that can make the defense pay. If we play together and we space the floor and we read and react, we can be a difficult team to cover.”

Eddie Jordan, the veteran coach who joined Mike Brown's staff as an assistant last month, is working with Nash to make it happen. Jordan is watching every offensive drill in the first few days of training camp, consulting with Nash and Kobe Bryant while correcting missteps by Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace and Dwight Howard.

“I don't think it's something that we'll really have to struggle through,” Bryant said. “It's a pretty seamless transition. ... I kind of relate it to the first year that Phil (Jackson) came here and put in the triangle offense. You had a lot of players that had high basketball IQ, and we just picked it up right away.”

The Princeton plan has similarities to the triangle offense, particularly in its read-and-react mentality. Triangle veterans Bryant and Gasol already recognize much of what they're supposed to do.

Brown realizes he's taking a risk by installing the Lakers' third new offense in three years but believes they can make it work.

“There's going to be some aspects of what we did last year involved in the offense,” Brown said. “But there's going to be some Princeton things that Steve Nash will have the ability to go to — with certain ball movement, or a pass, or a player movement or a hand signal. We feel like all the pieces of it really flow, and we're looking forward to seeing how it turns out.”

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