RealGM

Kobe - Injured, won't return until mid season.
Nash - Old. Fighting injuries. Average at best given his age
Superman - GONE!

2013-2014 starting lineup:

G Nash/Blake
G Meeks/
F Artest
F Clark/Jamison
C Gasol

They are really F-ed for this upcoming season. ESPECIALLY if Nash continues to fight injuries and can't return to his old form (which unfortunately for him is likely given his age).

Artest is old as well.

Gasol will have plenty of opportunity to do well, and Earl Clark may get a chance to step up, but other then that.

...too bad we don't have their pick for 2014. But that 2015 pick (protected 1-5) could be great.

I wouldn't be surprised if Kobe was back sooner than mid season. He's gonna work his ass off to make that the case. Although having him back won't make the team that much better.

Didn't Clark get signed elsewhere?

Yep, the Earl of Clark is with the Cavaliers now.

D'Antoni and Nash were our secret weapons deployed within the Lakers organization to destroy it from the inside.

Like the Cold War and the use of "plants" we had to send our brave patriots to the Soviet Union of Los Angeles.

lol, lakers

Kaman will lead the Lakers to the promised land. Don't worry guys.

Kaman, Pau, Metta, Kobe, Nash - that's a great line up!....Oh wait, it's not 2005.

Good. **** 'em. Let 'em crash and burn into a thousand years of irrelevance. Let their fans suffer. Let them cry out in hysterics with no direction, consumed by delusional fantasies to console themselves from their fate.

GOOD.

D'Antoni : "Nice work Steve, mission accomplished for 12-13."

Nash : "Yeah, but why stop now? Imagine if we added on an old, slow, injury prone bigman to replace Dwight..."

D'Antoni : "I like your thinking, exactly what we need to further ruin my system. That Caveman dude sounds perfect."

Nash : "Nice, lets get er done. Just like old times."

Don't celebrate just yet. With our luck, they will be bad enough to somehow steal Wiggins from us.

I can see it. Lakers comes 10th in the West and manages to pick #1 in the 2014 draft.

Im pretty sure that team was pretty bad pre-dantoni. But dantoni will get all the blame. Honestly i put the blame on kobe. He pushes everyone around him away. You reap what you sow.

Kobe is a toxic person and its catching up to the lakers.

Sorry im not in the bandwagon its dantonis fault. But on a side note its nice to see the lakers bad and no longer a desirable destination. Lakers fans are so use to getting Anything they want. Welcome to reality laker nation.

I just hope they don't get a good draft next year.....Do we root for them to win games this next season?

Not only is Kobe injured but its reasonable to infer that D'Antoni is possibly at fault for playing him 40 minutes a game towards the finish line last year.

The Lakers are apparently gonna amnesty so take him out of their line up as well

And I think Kobe's gonna be back by the season opener. He said as much and I expect him to do it cause of his competitiveness. Latest I can see him coming back is thanksgiving. No later than that IMO.

Either way they better hope Pau has a great season next year and that Gasol-Nash pick and roll works. Pau has plenty of incentive too since this is his contract year.

phrazbit wrote:Not only is Kobe injured but its reasonable to infer that D'Antoni is possibly at fault for playing him 40 minutes a game towards the finish line last year.

Yeah, Bill Simmons tweeted and commented about D'Antoni running him into the ground, but Kobe later tweeted "You think anyone else decides when I come out of the game?" and I believe that.

Not that having no control makes D'Antoni look any better. I honestly just don't think he has much control over Kobe (I'm not sure anyone ever has....Phil tried at times and Kobe would revolt in games and playoff series).

I don't think many coaches would be successful with Kobe right now, unless they had the perfect roster to complement Kobe.

I often wonder how it would have worked had the Chris Paul trade gone through because Kobe would not let Nash run the offense....I kind of doubt he would have let Paul do it either which would have basically made Paul FAR less valuable.