Good Enough to win 70?

     Any Lakers fan will tell you how disappointing the last two season have been for the Purple and Gold. In 2011, the Lakers were good enough to three-peat, just fell short to an extremely streaky Dallas Mavericks who went on to win the trophy. The following season, the series against the Thunder marked the first time since the 2007 First Round Playoffs against the Phoenix Suns the Lakers entered a Playoff match as an underdog, and went ahead and lost. This past NBA shortened season, too, for every Lakers fan was the most difficult to watch since that team in 2007 that featured Luke Walton, Vladimir Radmonivic, Chris Mihm, Smush Parker, and of course, Kwame Brown won 42 games and made that first round exit as a 7-seed.

       Last season's team did of course fall victim of circumstance. It all began the day before the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was to be signed by all other 29 NBA owners (minus the New Orleans Hornets, of course, at the were owned by the NBA). The Lakers had agreed to trade for Point Guard Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets in a three team trade that would have sent Pau Gasol to Houston and former Lakers Forward Lamar Odom to the Hornets. The NBA quickly vetoed this trade, and minutes before CP3 boarded a plane headed to Los Angeles, was told to return to Hornets training camp. Shortly after this, Lamar demanded to be shipped off to play somewhere else, and Pau Gasol never recovered from the constant looking over his shoulder and wondering when the day would come if he was going to be reassigned. The additions the team did make were very Laker-less deals, picking up old contracts and former B-Talent in the likes of Troy Murphy, Jason Kapono and Josh McRoberts. They also had an adjustment to make in the coaching staff. Hall of Fame Coach Phil Jackson and his Triangle Offense had retired the season before, and the Lakers hired Mike Brown to be the new guy in charge, who has a defensive mentality, a system that isn't common for most of the core that still remained in Lakerland. Throughout the season, few changes were made. Lakers Point Guard Derek Fisher was shipped off to be replaced by youth, and the Lakers put their trust in Point Guard Ramon Sessions. They would also make a small trade to pick up PF/C Jordan Hill and SG Christian Eyenga. Needless to say, the Lakers put it all out on the floor and finished with 41 wins, well enough to obtain the 6th best record in the NBA, 3rd best among the Western Conference. Then after a tough first round match-up against George Karl's Denver Nuggets lasted 7 games, the Lakers would face the heavily favored Oklahoma City Thunder who would finish them off in 5 games.

    Every Lakers fan will tell you that two of those games could have gone either way, and LA could have potentially won the series, but they are ignoring the game one beat down of 30 points, and the escape they had to make just to win game 3. In a best-of-seven series, the better team wins every time. Most Lakers fan entered the summer mad and confused. The first place to point the finger was at first year coach Mike Brown. Next they had to decide which player of the big men would ultimately need to be shipped out of town, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol, or both. Fingers were then aimed towards management, again questioning weather or not Jim Buss was making good moves for this team. The Lakers started off Free agency making a splash, signing Antwon Jamison and Trading for Steve Nash. About a month later, the questions were finally answered. It would be bye bye Bynum, and hello Superman! Dwight Howard's four months of drama would finally come to an end as a four team deal would send him to Los Angeles and have Andrew Bynum sent off to play for the Philadelphia 76ers. The next day the Lakers would add Jodie Meeks to the roster.

    Four additions that made a lot of noise in the NBA already this off season. It took a team that was in distress over a 3-seed, which many NBA franchises may never accomplish, into a legitimate Championship contender. Many writers are still giving the edge to the Thunder. Here's why that doesn't work. The Lakers have the most dominate back court on the planet, and arguably ever. Two time Most Valuable Player Steve Nash and 2008 MVP Kobe Bryant are two different leaders who have decided to mesh their talents into one dynamic force for the best of the team. The Front court was already tops in the league last season, despite losing former 6th Man Lamar Odom to  Dallas in December. This summer, they resigned Jordan Hill, who did nothing other than come out of his shell last season when traded to Los Angeles and put up very Lamar-like numbers in the late season, post season run for the Lakers. Pau Gasol still remains on the team, and it will be up to the coaching staff to incorporate his game into the offense this season, as last season he had a drop off in his career averages, despite not losing much talent wise. They upgraded from the second best Center in the League to the Best, most dominate Center the League has seen since someone else named Superman wore Purple and Gold from 1996-2004. Jamison will also come off the bench and provide star bigs with proper rest to allow everyone to play at the top of their games all season long. Many teams worry that Steve Nash cannot guard the "premier" Point Guards the league has to offer, and perhaps they are right. Nash is a Chemist Offensively, and has never been stellar on Defense. Even if star players such as Tony Parker, Russell Westbrook, Stephan Curry or Chris Paul blow past him on the ball, they have to meet Superman and Gasol under the basket and hope their ball won't end up 6 rows in the crowd after they are rejected.

   It will be nearly impossible to create a full four quarters of offense in the paint against this team, which will cause most teams to rely on hitting jumpers every night. The Lakers also hired Assistant Coach Bernie Bickerstaff  who will incorporate the "Princeton Offense" to this Lakers team which consists of getting the ball up the floor and taking their shot within the first 8 seconds of the shot clock, forcing teams to run. With an aging Nash and Bryant, the Lakers now have some help back court with Chris Duhon who can come in for Nash for 10 minutes a game, as well as Jodie Meeks, who will have lots of room to shoot the long ball when Nash finds him open in the corner. Some younger Lakers such as Andrew Goutelock, Darrius Morris and Devin Ebanks have a year more experience under their belts.

   The formula is set. After a few weeks together in training camp and a few games together, the Nucleus should come together. Even with the uncertainty of when Howard will join the team, the rest of the team should be able to keep things together. This team can contend without Howard, but will be very fortunate when he returns. In 1996, the Chicago Bulls won 72 games and are known as the best basketball team to ever play the game. Former Coach Phil Jackson has said that he would never work a team that hard again, and a large part of the success that year was due to being located in the Midwest, where they would not have to travel on long flights to go from city to city. The talent on this team is up their with those of MJ, Pippen, Rodman and Co. Don't expect 73, Laker fans. It won't happen yet. 70 is possible, but don't count on it. The prize is not in the total amount of wins come April, but rather the hardware that comes in June.

Chad Herscovici