The Los Angeles Lakers' Swift Demise

I can't watch.

Laker fans know the nationwide acrimony for their purple and gold heroes, well aware that LA “gets every call” and “complains way too much” and “acts entitled on the court.”  So Laker fans are more than prepared for the jubilation that accompanies an embarrassing Laker playoff exit like this year’s, at the hands of the long-time also ran Dallas Mavericks.

Laker haters are probably wondering how this feels to Laker fans, to finally have the shoe on the other foot.  Truthfully, it’s not all that surprising.  Sure, Laker fans have a certain assumptive air to them, but that comes with LA’s perennial success.  However, when you look at how the Lakers achieved so much, you see why this fall to Dallas isn’t exactly shocking.

Over the past four years the Lakers have indeed played entitled for long stretches: lazy, indifferent, selfish, and flawed all in maddening fashion.  But they always found a way to overcome their own gluttony, to survive and advance.

Yet this year, something was different.

Jason Kidd - Shot Blocker Extraordinaire

The first barrage of criticism will land at Kobe Bryant’s feet.  It has to; he’s the leader of this team.  The argument that Kobe has simply gotten too old will surely be a popular one batted around sports media over the next few weeks.  Yet Bryant still averaged an elite 25 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds per game over the regular season, and saw just a slight dip in that production in the playoffs (23, 3, and 3).  Those are still the numbers of a man who can lead a championship team.

Pau Gasol will also get heaps of blame, and perhaps a good portion of it is deserved.  His regular season numbers dipped from 18 points and 10 rebounds to around 13 and 8 in the playoffs, and he couldn’t guard Dirk Nowitzki to save his life.  He wasn’t good against the Mavericks, but talk of trading him away because of a single bad stretch of games is nonsense.  Still in his prime at just 30 years old, he’s already helped Los Angeles claim two NBA titles.

The real culprit for LA’s downfall was their puny bench production.  Every game of the series Dallas found big-time punch off their bench, while the Lakers’ reserves could hardly muster a jab.

Another reason for the quick dismissal of LA was what everyone said would be the Lakers’ advantage in this series, their size.  Instead of imposing and dominant, the Lakers looked clumsy and slow.  They got dominated by the penetration of the quicker Mavericks guards, who time after time waltzed through the lane and found wide open shooters at the three point line.

The bottom line really is, the Mavericks played team basketball for every minute of this series, whereas the Lakers relied on individual play.  The Mavs were coolly efficient.  The Lakers looked clunky and disorganized.

A Cloudy Future for the Purple and Gold

How can the Lakers retool and keep their championship window open?  It won’t be easy.  LA has no money to spend on the open market with long term contracts committed to Bryant, Gasol, Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, and Ron Artest.  Even the contracts of Steve Blake and Luke Walton won’t be easy to move.  And of course, there’s the departure of the greatest coach of all time, Phil Jackson.

Making trades seems to be LA’s only way to really revamp their roster.  The rumor of the day is that Bynum will get dealt for Superman Dwight Howard, but that would require a huge leap of faith on the Magic’s part.  Orlando would have to be fairly certain Bynum can hold up long-term, and I’m not sure what would give them that indication.  Perhaps adding Odom could sweeten the deal, but we’ll still have to wait and see on those proceedings.

Even if LA acquired Howard, they’d still have the enormous hole at point guard that was exposed all year long.  Derek Fisher may walk out the door with Jackson, and even if he doesn’t, Fisher lacks the quickness, distribution skills, and penetration ability to remain a starting NBA point guard.

The Lakers also need to get more athletic in general.  Artest really has no foot speed left and is more of a bruiser than a true one-on-one defender at this point in his career.  One thing that did show in Bryant’s play this year is that he needs an athletic wing defender on his team so that he isn’t dually stressed scoring on one end and defending a great player on the other.  Plus, the Lakers’ most athletic player, Shannon Brown, is likely headed out the door in free agency.

The ideal situation for LA would be to acquire Howard and somehow shed the salaries of Artest, Walton, and Odom.  That seems like a bit of a pipe dream though given that Howard may be much harder to pry from the Magic than people think, and long term salaries of aging players like Odom, Artest, and Walton aren’t exactly hot commodities on the open market.

If LA is stuck with virtually the same team heading into next year—Gasol, Bryant, Odom, Artest, and Bynum—they won’t be a championship contender.  That’s not because those five guys aren’t good enough, but because they no longer fit together well enough to make up for their lack of a point guard and perimeter athleticism.  With the likes Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Kevin Durant romping around the league, LA has to find a way to get quicker, faster, and younger.  Gasol and Kobe are still fine championship pillars, but the rest of the pieces on this team need to move if the Lakers are to once again sit atop the mountain.

--from Adam

(images from espn.com)