ShareThisBy GREGG PATTON
The Press-Enterprise
Thursday, May 03, 2007
The Los Angeles Lakers walked off the floor Wednesday night and into who knows what?
But whatever this team looks like when it reassembles next fall, it ought to be better than this _ a struggle to make the postseason and an early exit from a first-round series they could not make competitive.
Their Game 5 loss was gutsy, but, in the end, just a prideful effort that fell short. The previous time the Lakers came to Phoenix facing elimination in Game 7 a year ago, they barely showed up and lost by a mile and a half.
This time, with the odds significantly steeper against them, they showed the kind of grit and purpose that has been lacking lately.
They made the Suns work for it. There would be no early celebrating in the US Airways Center at the Lakers' expense. That the game went to the final minute and ended 119-110 would have to serve as consolation.
It was a respectful way to go out, for sure, but nothing more.
The expected happened. The Suns advanced. The Lakers are all about next year. In fact, they have been for a while. People have been talking about what's ahead since the first two games of the postseason _ if not before that.
Whatever patience there was among the Lakers faithful seems to have vaporized over the past few months. Hard to believe that in January the team was hobnobbing with the Western Conference elite.
Lamar Odom, Luke Walton and Kwame Brown actually looked like a semi-cohesive unit around Kobe Bryant. Happily, the Lakers also had second-year, teenage center Andrew Bynum playing ahead of schedule. His flashes of athleticism made him one of the most-coveted young players in the league, the one guy opposing general managers tried to pry away from Mitch Kupchak as the trading deadline approached.
Of course, that seems like light years ago. Injuries to Odom, Walton, Brown and Vladimir Radmanovic _ and a schedule that got nasty _ turned the Lakers to mush.
In Brown's absence, Bynum was pushed into the fray, and the fray exposed him. He is, indeed 19 years old, and very much still a project.
By Wednesday night, the January Lakers were irrelevant. Odom gamely pushed his banged-up body, but his damaged left arm made every free throw and layup a chore. His 33 points and 10 rebounds were a testament to his toughness and value. Too bad it may have to be his farewell, if the Lakers are going to have a new star in his place next year.
Odom preferred focusing on the better times.
"We looked good," he said of the initial success the team had. "Then there were injuries, and more injuries. It kept the team apart.
"We had our ups and downs. It's too bad we started with the ups."
Walton echoed his sentiments, insisting the team doesn't need a dramatic makeover.
"People should look back at what we were capable of," he said. "We were playing like the Suns _ passing the ball, everyone involved. But it's up to management. They'll decide whether to keep us or send people different places."
He conceded that change figures to be in the air, though.
"Obviously, playing in LA, and you lose in the first round, that doesn't make it," he said. "People expect championships."
That's it, isn't it? The grace period is over. It's been three years since the Lakers turned the franchise into Kobe-or-bust. Bust is knocking at the door. No one is OK with mediocrity from the Lakers. It isn't in the organization's genes.
Every time you turn on the radio or read a blog these days, someone else has Minnesota's Kevin Garnett on his way to LA. It's a nice dream, if you're a Lakers fan. Let's suppose, while we're fantasizing, that the Timberwolves would agree to move him, and move him to another team in the West, and that KG would approve.
Realistically, of course, if the Lakers were to acquire a big-name partner for Bryant _ Garnett or anyone else in his class _ it will cost them. To match a salary, Odom is the most likely to go. To get an all-star, Bynum will have to go, too.
It's time.
The Lakers need help now. The Kobe Window probably stays open another four years or so. Waiting for Bynum makes sense if you're anyone but the Lakers. This is a beast of a franchise that needs feeding now, not later.
The January Lakers were a mirage _ a team playing at the top of its game, taking advantage of a friendly early schedule.
The May Lakers are banged up, for sure, but more like the real thing. This is a franchise running in place.
First-round farewells are getting old. What LA needs is something very new around Kobe.
It's hard, but necessary. Shake it up.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Laker Revitalization
The first mistake by the Laker organization was to get rid of Jerry West, which led to the second mistake, getting rid of proven center, Shaq. That is not to say that I would have preferred Shaq over Kobe. I would not. But it is to say that Jerry West would have done better to assuage the blend of dominant personalities.
Addtionally, we have seen this organization suffer through a various assortment of mediocre supporting casts - save Walton - around Kobe, as there arguably was also around Shaq and Kobe in pursuit of their 4th ring, which accomplished, would have done alot to keep peace in LA.
That is where Jerry West comes in as a manager. He without question has always had an eye for exceptional talent and the savvy as a business man to put a workable, cost efficient, deal or trade to acquire the talent. Lets bring Jerry back!
Let's go after Kevin Garnett, even if it costs the likes of Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom, and lets move on from there. Kobe has a good 4 or 5 yers left. Let's make the best of it!
Laker REALIZATION must come first.
Mr. Brown, I agree with you. But the franchise has to recognize Kobe's shortcomings. While I agree with your diagnosis, we should also remember that the Lakers got to the Finals despite a year filled with huge distractions brought on by Kobe Bryant. If Shaquille O'Neal were not on that team, they wouldn't have made it past the first round then.
The bottom line is that Kobe is immature, is not a leader, and cannot command the respect of his teammates AS a teammate. The team either needs to rein Kobe in or let him loose. Never in their history has one player so dominated the team in a negative way.
At least when Magic put his foot down, the team either got better (Riley for Westhead), or at least, didn't get worse (Byron Scott for Norm Nixon).