Sports: End of an Era

I should have seen this coming, right at the beginning of the playoffs.

As I type this, game 4 of the Dallas-Lakers series is only about half done. But the Lakers as we know them are already all the way done. As a Lakers fan, this is a painful period right now; it was a long, messy rebuilding following the departure of Shaq in 2002, but they got to three Finals appearances and two championships. But Magic is right: this team needs to be blown up, to one degree or another, during the offseason (not an easy task, with a lockout looming).

How did we get here? The Lakers didn't have a great regular season this year, but they didn't last year, either. I think that Bynum's good health and dramatic improvement covered a lot of decay in the rest of the team, however. Then came game 1 against the Hornets, a team that they beat decisively in the regular season, have good matchups against across the board (except for a big one vs. Chris Paul), and didn't even have their second best player available. They lose game 1 on their home court. Ridiculous. The Lakers managed to take the series 4-2, but they should have won it much more convincingly.

Then came the Mavs, the team that everyone in the West wanted to play. I'll admit, Dallas has proven that they are far better than everyone thought. However, they are just as old and slow as the Lakers, and have no legitimate offensive weapons beyond Dirk Nowitzki; yet the Lakers made them look like the Phoenix Suns of a few years ago. If the Lakers were still a motivated and confident team, they would have beaten the Mavs in 6 games, tops. Now they are being humiliated in a sweep.

Let's take a look at how the individual players performed. Kobe was unable to bump up his game a notch, as he did last year (regular season: 27 ppg, postseason: 29 ppg), and in fact his numbers dipped a little bit. Beyond this, his performance was erratic, scoring under 20 points in four of nine games (not counting game 4 against the Mavs, of course). He seemed to play hard consistently, which is no surprise, but perhaps did not help his teammates by taking over and then pulling back almost randomly. Pau Gasol has been a huge disappointment this postseason. He also bumped up his numbers during the playoffs last year, but this year has scored 5 points less per game (13 from 18) and shot much worse (42 from 53). He seemed very passive if not unwilling way too often as the team's second best player.

On the other hand, while Bynum faded in last year's playoffs (largely due to an injury he tweaked), this year he did his best to make up for Gasol's drop in production. He still looked passive at times, but more than ever he was quite assertive, and could simply dominate games for stretches at a time. Odom had a spectacular regular season this year, and was rewarded with the 6th Man of the Year award. However, he took a tumble similar to Gasol's, and it was quite obvious that he was the first Laker to give up in today's game 4. As I and many others have said it countless times, when Odom plays well the Lakers are almost impossible to beat. When he doesn't... beware.

Where do the Lakers go from here? They can't get rid of Kobe; first of all, he's arguably the team's best player ever (up there with Magic), and second of all he has an enormous contract (3 more years, +$25 million/year) that, frankly, is above his value to any other random team. The Lakers best hope for him is that he agree to a fundamental transformation of his role on the team. Pau Gasol also has 3 years left on his contract, hovering a little under $20 million/year. His stats (this postseason aside) have remained remarkably consistent. While he isn't, and will never be, a dominant player, he is about as good of a second option, or partner in a double-headed monster, as you can ask for.

Bynum... hmm, looking at his stats, it appears that I was wrong about him being better OR healthier this year than last. He still had a decent year, but hovers between 10-15 ppg and a little under 10 rpg. He's got 2 years at ~$15 million/year left on his contract. Odom came up with a great offensive year in '10/11, after a few down years, with 14 ppg on 53% from the field. He's got 2 years left on his contract, $8-9 million/year. Other notable salaries: Artest (3 years, $7 million/year), Walton (2 years, $6 million/year), Blake (3 years, $4 million/year), Fisher (2 years, $3.5 million/year).

As a final retrospective analysis, Artest's numbers slipped noticeably, even from last year; he's about the same age now as Gasol and Odom. Fisher is also slipping, but considering he's 36 now it's not a surprise; perhaps defensively it's the most noticeable. For the two new Lakers, Barnes had a little drop in production, though he was injured for nearly half the year, and Blake had a miserable year.

The biggest consideration is that Kobe is going to be a Laker for the rest of his career, which has both advantages and disadvantages. In order to get a significant new addition or two, the Lakers must give up at least one of their next three best players: Gasol, Odom, or Bynum. I think it's pretty obvious who this should be: Bynum. He has quite a big salary, and every year has an injury of some kind. He is quite a bit younger than the other two, but again, the next few years at least (3? 5?) will still have Kobe as the team's foundation. Sadly, the Lakers have some players that are practically dead weight, and will just have to make the best of what they can (Artest, Blake).

Getting young, athletic guards is priority #1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 for the Lakers. The fact that Dallas exposed Blake, Fisher and Brown with its "amazing" lineup of Kidd, Terry, and Barea is completely unacceptable. Unfortunately, I'm not sure there are many available PGs, but the Lakers must do something. Use Bynum as the trade chip. To me, the Lakers should shoot for Gasol (C), Odom (F), Artest (F), Bryant (G), and *new guard* (G) as their starting lineup for next year - assuming Bynum is gone for a PG or two. Sign some veteran big guy like the other contenders have been doing (particularly Boston) to give Gasol a little backup. Fisher can stay on as the backup point guard, and they can dump Brown (great athleticism, absolutely no skill). Try to develop Johnson and Ebanks for the bench, and get Walton some more action.

The Lakers' dominance, in the Kobe era, is obviously and irredeemably broken. However, they have the potential to remain competitive for several more years - IF they finally address the guard position. The Lakers basically signified their content with their roster last summer by signing Blake and others instead of just one good PG. These playoffs proved that was a mistake. Time to see if they can make the moves to keep alive the chance of another championship during the Kobe era.