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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Perhaps partly because Dwight Howard is out of the picture, perhaps partly because Pau Gasol is far healthier than last season (OK, mostly because Howard is out of the picture), Los Angeles Lakers head coach Mike D'Antoni has made an about-face from his initial coaching instincts when counting on Gasol's services.

Remember when Gasol was benched late in games last season? Or relegated to sixth man status? Or positioned on the perimeter when he was on the court and encouraged to attempt the most 3-pointers of his 12-year career?

Not the case anymore. Just three days into training camp, D'Antoni has already named two definitive starters while Kobe Bryant is out: Gasol at center and Steve Nash, his longtime pupil, running the point. And expectations are high for the former four-time All-Star in the middle.

"When your knees hurt, it’s not easy to play," D'Antoni said after practice Monday, referring to the 33 games Gasol missed a year ago because of chronic pain in his knees. "I think he feels better and when he feels good, I think he’s going to be great. Keep your fingers crossed because hopefully he’ll have his best year ever. He’s still young enough, he’s only 33."

D'Antoni wasn't finished with the praise yet.

"I think he has at least five more good years, real good years, in him," D'Antoni said.

With Gasol's role firmly entrenched, D'Antoni is turning his sights to a five-man group of Jordan Hill, Chris Kaman, Wesley Johnson, Shawne Williams and rookie Ryan Kelly, to a lesser extent, to determine who will be his partner in the Lakers' starting frontcourt.

It's a diverse crowd. Kaman is the biggest of the bunch at 7-foot, 265 pounds, but he brings with him the ability to consistently hit the from the midrange. Hill is known as an energizing garbage man who plays defense and works the boards, but he spent the offseason working on his outside shot. Williams and Kelly are strictly stretch fours. Johnson is more of a slashing wing who, like Hill, has worked to improve his outside shot to become more appealing in D'Antoni's system.

"Pau can play with anybody," D'Antoni said. "He makes anybody look good with his passing, so, you can play him with Jordan who is more of a runner and slasher, or you can play Kaman who is more of a catch-and-shoot kind of guy, so they’ll all blend in real well together."

D'Antoni said he would prefer to find a full-time starter at power forward by the Lakers' opening night against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 29, rather than shuffle the starting lineup as the season goes on based on matchups.

"I would rather teams have to match up with us," D'Antoni said. "(The) team that we put out there should be our strongest team and we’ll figure that out. It could happen, but I would like to have everybody know their role and feel comfortable in it. Not some days start, some days not. It might happen, but I don’t know."

It's hard to read the tea leaves to handicap the power forward race based on D'Antoni's comments so far.

On one hand, D'Antoni has stressed the need for defense coming out of the position, so Hill could be considered to have the advantage, yet D'Antoni said Hill has been, "Little rusty, little tired like everybody, but good."

The coach has complimented Kaman's versatility in terms of being interchangeable when being on the court together with Gasol, however Kaman starting means that seldom used second-year player Robert Sacre would become the team's back-up center, which would be a major leap from the bench role he played last season.

Johnson has a lot of upside, but very little experience at the position. Williams had success playing under D'Antoni in New York, but was out of the league altogether last season. Kelly hasn't even been able to practice with the team yet during training camp as he continues to work out on the anti-gravity treadmill while recovering from foot problems.

"At this point, we're still determining what the lineups will be," Kaman said. "We've had three practices and everybody is kind of jumping the gun a little bit. Let things happen and see how that goes. Who knows what the lineup is going to be? Who knows if we go small, big? It just depends on the teams and the day and how coach is feeling about certain things."

No matter who wins the starting job, D'Antoni is hoping the pool of players can make up for the absence felt from Howard's departure.

"These guys have other strengths," D'Antoni said. "Dwight is a very good player, obviously, and we would play a certain way. This way we’ll play a little bit more wide open, a little bit different but that remains to be seen. The biggest thing on the defensive end, we just got to collectively do the job."

When we last left the Los Angeles Lakers, a painful season was mercifully being put to an end at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs.

But the past is the past. A new season is right around the corner. Hope springs eternal, right?

A lot has changed in Laker Land in the five months between the Spurs series, which ended in a 21-point loss to complete the sweep on April 28, and when training camp opens up Saturday. Most notably, the will-he-or-won’t-he game the team played with Dwight Howard ended with the Lakers stranded on the dance floor as Howard made his Texas two-step to the Houston Rockets. Beyond that, L.A. said goodbye to key contributors Metta World Peace, Antawn Jamison and Earl Clark, and hello to a handful of hopeful replacements in Chris Kaman, Nick Young, Jordan Farmar and Wesley Johnson.

With that said, it’s time to count down to training camp. Let's take a look at the 10 storylines to keep in mind as the Lakers open up the 2013-14 season.

1. How will Kobe Bryant open up the “last chapter” of his storied career?
Seemingly whenever Bryant’s Achilles tear was brought up this offseason, one would point to Bryant’s age (35), his amount of career minutes logged (54,000 and counting between the regular season and playoffs) and other players to be decimated by the same injury (Chauncey Billups, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Elton Brand, etc.) to analyze Bryant’s chances of returning to form, but then couch all that with a statement along the lines of, “But I wouldn’t bet against him.” The speculation will end soon enough. Beyond the perfunctory questions of when Bryant will actually return to the lineup and how much playing time he’ll receive, there’s the more meta cloud of mystery as to what type of approach Bryant will take once he is back. Did all this time away from the game change him? Will he still be the player with individual iron will who demands his teammates to follow, or will he be more willing to meet them halfway? If the Lakers struggle, as ESPN.com’s NBA panel suggested, how will Bryant respond to potentially playing on a noncontending team for the first time in nearly a decade? After tapping into the fountain of youth for his “Vino” resurgence the past couple of seasons, does he have anything left for an encore? It’s sure to be fascinating.

2. What will a full training camp do for Mike D’Antoni?
"This year we should start off finding and solving some problems in October and in September when you watch guys play and [find out] what's their tendencies, and then you formulate your ideas and you try to get it going by November," D'Antoni told ESPN 710 in August. There were excuses built in from the start of D’Antoni’s tenure with the team last year, from the disadvantage of taking over a team that was 1-4 in the regular season following an 0-8 preseason to a roster that included a starting point guard with a broken leg (Steve Nash), a backup point guard with a lingering abdominal strain (Steve Blake) and a starting center still rehabbing a major back injury (Howard). Not to mention D’Antoni was coming off knee replacement surgery of his own when he took the gig and facing the fallout of being the guy the franchise chose over Phil Jackson. He’ll go into this season with a roster that better fits his style of play, a clean 0-0 record and more manageable expectations from a fan base that is no longer thinking championship or bust.

3. Who will make the team?
The Lakers have 11 guaranteed contracts for next season in Bryant, Nash, Blake, Young, Kaman, Farmar, Johnson, Pau Gasol, Jodie Meeks, Robert Sacre and Jordan Hill. They have also signed Shawne Williams, Elias Harris, Marcus Landry, Xavier Henry and Ryan Kelly as camp invitees. How many out of those five will make the team? The most who can make it is four, as the maximum number of players allowed on an NBA roster is 15. The Lakers will indeed likely open the season with a 15-man roster according to a team source, with several of those players on partially guaranteed deals that become fully vetted only if they stick around the team later in the season. Williams already has a partially guaranteed deal, according to a league source, so you figure he would put the roster at 12 (D’Antoni recently raved about him in an interview with Time Warner Cable SportsNet). And Elias Harris also has a partially guaranteed deal, according to the L.A. Times, so let's say he's No. 13. From there, who out of Kelly, Landry and Henry will be the odd man out when it comes to cut day?

4. Who wins the backup point guard job?
Yes, Blake will turn 33 this season, while Farmar will only be turning 27. And yes, Farmar has proved to be a championship-caliber player in L.A., helping to capture two rings before leaving as a free agent in the summer of 2010, but let’s not diminish what Blake is capable of. The 11-year veteran was at his best when the Lakers needed him the most last season, averaging 12.6 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.0 assists while shooting 40.7 percent from 3 during eight games in the month of April when L.A. made its playoff push. There could be plenty of time for both of them if D’Antoni is committed to cutting down on Nash’s minutes, but on nights when Nash receives a lot of burn, either Farmar or Blake will find himself riding the pine.

5. How long before the next Phil Jackson rumor pops up?
As long as Phil Jackson doesn’t have a job with another NBA team, his presence will continue to swirl around the Lakers like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. His name was already linked to the failed Seattle ownership group, the Brooklyn Nets, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons in the past year, but none of that has quieted the calls by fans for him to return to the Lakers in some capacity (and consulting on a scripted television series about the team for Showtime won’t be enough). With the Jeanie Buss-Jim Buss relationship continuing to be played out in the public eye, it’s doubtful we’ve heard the last of Jackson when it comes to the team he coached to five championships.

6. Can Kurt Rambis get these guys to play defense?
In a move that is still somewhat puzzling considering D’Antoni’s natural motivation to remove himself from Jackson comparisons, Rambis was brought in as an assistant coach this offseason. While D’Antoni hasn’t made any delineations as to which one of his aides will responsible for what next season, Rambis’ defensive mind will surely be explored to help the Lakers start to find a way to get stops. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency last season, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. In a word: dreadful. Now, without the services of two former defensive player of the year award winners in Howard and World Peace, the Lakers will try to figure out a way to improve in that all-important end of the court.

7. What does Pau Gasol have left?
After he turned in a masterpiece of a Game 7 in the 2010 NBA Finals with 19 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks, it’s been pretty much all downhill for Gasol. In the 2011 season he fizzled in the playoffs as Jackson’s “Last Stand” season went up in smoke. In the 2012 season, he was demoted in the pecking order as Mike Brown tried to develop a system around Andrew Bynum. And last season, D’Antoni felt compelled to go through Howard rather than Gasol to appease the impending free agent, not to mention that the Spaniard’s health was an issue during the entire campaign. With Bynum and Howard out of the picture and Gasol's body supposedly in good shape after he took the summer off from international competition for the first time in a long time, can he return to the form that made him a four-time All-Star and two-time champion, or will the 2013-14 season be a continuation of his rapid descent?

8. Will history be made?
Bryant enters the season with 31,617 career points, placing him fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. The next name ahead of him? None other than Michael Jordan, sitting 675 points away with 32,292 career points. If Bryant can maintain his 25.5 points per game career average, it will take him somewhere in the neighborhood of 27 games to catch MJ. Nash enters the season with 10,249 career assists, putting him fourth on the all-time list. He is just 85 assists away from Mark Jackson for third. If he can distribute dimes at his 8.5 per game career rate, it will take him a mere 10 games to move up the ranks.

9. Will there be a Howard hangover?
By most estimations, having Howard in Houston will help clear the chemistry in the Lakers' locker room and allow the team to start fresh with a much-needed attitude adjustment. But what happens if the Rockets soar to the top of the Western Conference standings and L.A. is left with a roster devoid of rim protectors? The prevailing sentiment from Laker Nation after Howard skipped town was “good riddance,” but will regret creep up if a healthy Howard has an MVP-type season for Houston? Will everything that went down with Howard haunt the franchise in the way that the vetoed Chris Paul trade still lingers around the Lakers? Or will Howard wear out his welcome with the Rockets in the same fashion he did with the Lakers and the Orlando Magic?

10. How will those new jerseys look?
Being a fan isn’t just about analyzing the rotation and cheering for what the players do on the court, it’s about having an opinion on how they look while they’re doing it, too. It’s not all serious stuff. Paul Lukas of Uni Watch recently ranked the Lakers’ jerseys as the No. 2 best kit in the league, just behind their rival Boston Celtics. It’s tough to mess with a classic look like that, but the Lakers are giving it a try, introducing a black alternative “Hollywood Nights” uniform as well as a white, short-sleeved jersey. If that wasn’t enough new wardrobe possibilities, the NBA is considering allowing players from the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets to put nicknames on the back of their jerseys, which could lead to a “Black Mamba” No. 24 uniform down the road.

Pretty much any fan of the Los Angeles Lakers will tell you that the last three seasons haven’t been very fun, with the 2012-13 season falling much closer to painful than joyful on the experience scale.

“We were stacked and it was an epic failure,” said Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and Lakers super fan, Flea, in a recent podcast with LandOLakers.com. “For me, it was the most disappointing Lakers season of all time and not even close to any other season.”

From the embarrassing ending to Phil Jackson’s final campaign, to the uninspiring Mike Brown era (L.A. topped 100 points just 24 times in the 71 regular-season games he coached), to the utter disaster of last season, the return on investment of time, money and emotion spent by Lakers fans has not resulted in any sort of payoff.

I know what that life’s all about, having grown up as a Philadelphia sports fan. Losing and frustration and disappointment come with the territory.

If I went into every season with a championship-or-bust mentality as a fan, I would have given up watching sports a long time ago and probably would be really into cooking shows and have some random additional skill, like being able to play the piano.

But, I kept watching and I keep watching. And even though there’s been only one Philadelphia championship in my lifetime (the 2008 Phillies) and I have that Jerry West in me where I hate to lose more than I love to win, I have conditioned myself to still be able to find enjoyment as a fan in a season, even if there is no ring at the end.

Now, the Lakers have 16 championships in their history, compared to just five for the three major pro sports teams in Philly (three for the 76ers, two for the Phillies and zero Super Bowl wins for the Eagles … I’m not an ice hockey guy). So that fact alone might naturally lower my expectations. But is being a Lakers fan all about rooting for rings and nothing else?

What if those expectations were removed? What if you forgot about the history for a second and, instead of focusing solely on the team’s quest for No. 17 or Kobe Bryant’s fight for No. 6, you took in each game for what it is? What if a loss in January wasn’t a referendum on how the team could potentially perform in June, but rather something the team could learn from in February?

Take my Eagles, for instance. Have you seen them under Chip Kelly? I came into this season thinking that an 8-8 record would be pretty much their ceiling after a dreadful 4-12 mark last season. Two weeks into it and they’re 1-1, so that’s right in step with my instincts. But there is nothing mediocre or ho-hum about how they got to 1-1. If I wanted to view everything in the specter of their Super Bowl chances, then I could focus on how they almost let a 26-point lead disappear against Washington and how they were 7.5-point favorites at Lincoln Financial Field in Week 2 and lost to San Diego.

But if I forget about Lombardi for a second, I can appreciate what’s going on here. Back-to-back 30-point games? Last season, the Eagles scored 30 or more in just one game all season -- a 38-33 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. LeSean McCoy putting up 184 running yards in Week 1, Michael Vick collecting 428 passing yards in Week 2 and DeSean Jackson hauling in 297 receiving yards over two games? This is silly stuff. And wildly entertaining. And all I could ask for as a fan.

So, how about it, Lakers fans? What if Mike D’Antoni gets these guys to reach the 110-115 points per game that he promised at his introductory news conference? What if there is chemistry and growth and a few upsets along the way -- both from the Lakers beating a team or two that are better than them and falling to a few inferior opponents?

The knee-jerk reaction from some of you I’m sure will be, “Well, we had ‘Showtime’ already AND we won.” And you’d be right on both counts. But even though this season’s Lakers will be wearing the same purple and gold uniforms as those teams from the 1980s, everything else has changed in the NBA they’ll be competing in. You can still honor the past without making it an unrealistic standard you hold the present to. Plus, it’s all about context. Comparing this aging Bryant/Steve Nash/Pau Gasol-led team to Magic Johnson/Kareem Abdul-Jabbar/James Worthy in their prime isn’t a fair fight. But comparing it to the squad that had an injured, unhappy Dwight Howard on it last season? Or to the team that slogged up and down the court under Brown? It would have to be better than that, right?

I called up Paul Coro, who covers the Phoenix Suns for the Arizona Republic and got on the beat one month after D’Antoni got the job as head coach of the Suns. How did Phoenix fans accept the 7 Seconds or Less era?

“When he took over the team, [there] was kind of free rein because there wasn’t any expectations,” Coro said. “Everything about it was great. They were winning beyond anybody’s imagination. They were doing it in a way that was innovative and thoroughly entertaining. It just blew people away how much fun it was. Immediately, they had big crowds -- sellouts early in the season. I think they ended up starting a sellout streak that carried on for a few years. It was nothing for them to be up in the 110-120 [point range].”

Albeit the Suns have never won it all, having lost to the Chicago Bulls in the 1993 Finals and to the Boston Celtics in 1976, so you could say that they never knew what it was like to root for a championship team like L.A. The point is, though, that those D'Antoni Suns teams were worth it for the fans. They were memorable. They were thrilling. They were fun.

A healthy Bryant, Nash and Gasol, with additional playmaking from guys like Nick Young, Jordan Farmar, Wes Johnson and Steve Blake, plus Jordan Hill and Chris Kaman playing big down low and Jodie Meeks and Ryan Kelly or Shawne Williams spreading the floor outside can be fun, too.

I'm excited about watching the next Eagles game. Do I think this will be the best season ever for the Birds? Nope. But they could surprise me. It's a nice feeling.

Wouldn't it be nice to feel that way about the Lakers again?

On March 18 of last season, Darius Morris didn’t get into the game until the last three minutes of the Los Angeles Lakers’ blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns. Coach Mike D’Antoni stuck to a seven-man rotation on the second night of a back-to-back, and Morris didn’t figure into his plans.

Two days before that, Andrew Goudelock was playing for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers and picking apart the Lakers’ D-League affiliate, the L.A. D-Fenders, with 33 points and 12 assists in a 15-point win.

Five weeks later, Morris and Goudelock made up the Lakers’ starting backcourt for Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs. They put up an admirable effort -- Goudelock finished with 20 points and three steals, Morris had 24 points and six assists -- but the Spurs still embarrassed the Lakers, winning by 31 points on the Lakers' home floor.

The Lakers started the season with a Hall of Fame-bound backcourt of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, backed up by a D’Antoni favorite in Steve Blake and a pure, space-the-floor shooter in Jodie Meeks.

They ended it with two former second-round picks playing close to 40 minutes apiece in a playoff game.

Even with the rash of injuries the Lakers experienced last season -- trainer Gary Vitti said it was the worst string of bad luck he’s seen in his 20-plus years with the team -- the Lakers clearly had to address the guard position in the offseason.

Part of that process was upgrading from Morris (who remains an unsigned free agent after L.A. cut ties with him) and Goudelock (who signed a one-year deal to play in Russia after shining with Chicago’s summer league team).

Here’s a look at how the Lakers’ depth chart at guard should shake out next season:

1. Kobe Bryant

Even as a 35-year-old coming off of Achilles surgery and entering his 18th season in the league, Bryant is still the sun the Lakers' planet revolves around. He’ll be looked to to jump-start the Lakers' offense, whether in scorer or facilitator mode (hopefully more of the latter), and instill the belief that L.A. can actually accomplish something in 2013-14 outside of jockeying for draft lottery status. While Bryant will still surely play more than any other guard in the Lakers' lineup next season (when he's ready to return from his injury), it will be up to D’Antoni to manage his minutes better than last season. Bryant played 38.6 minutes per game in 2012-13, including an average of 45.6 minutes in his final seven games leading up to the injury. Just like the sun sets, Bryant and D’Antoni will have to figure out a way to pace themselves, perhaps by borrowing a page out of Gregg Popovich’s book and sitting Bryant on the second night of back-to-backs like the Spurs often do with Tim Duncan.

2. Steve Nash

Not only is Nash older than just about every player in the league -- he’ll turn 40 during the season -- he’s older than some of the top executives, as the Denver Nuggets hired 36-year-old Tim Connelly to be their general manager in the offseason and the Suns, Nash’s former team, brought on 33-year-old Ryan McDonough as their GM. Nash has already proved to be an ageless wonder, however, and as long as he can put his hip and groin injuries behind him, he will be relied upon to run D’Antoni’s offense the way the two hoped could have happened last season. Just like Bryant, however, there should be a minute cap for Nash. He averaged 32.5 minutes per game last season with only Blake providing consistent relief. The addition of Jordan Farmar, who at 26 is nearly a decade and a half Nash’s junior, will make it easier to cut into those minutes.

3. Jordan Farmar

Once upon a time, Farmar left a Lakers team that had won back-to-back championships because he didn’t want to continue to play behind an aging point guard in Derek Fisher. This time around, Farmar is joining a Lakers team that suffered back-to-back early exits in order to -- wait for it -- back up an aging point guard. Despite that, it seems like a natural fit for Farmar to return to the Lakers and play in a system that is better suited to his dribble-drive game than Phil Jackson’s triangle offense ever was. He will play both the 1 and the 2 at times and could really show his value if Bryant misses any portion of the season while still in recovery.

4. Steve Blake

Blake is the incumbent here, but it will be difficult for him to maintain his primary backup spot if Farmar comes in and performs to the best of his ability. The good news for Blake is there will always be time for him and his brand of hard-nosed, on-ball defense, and if D’Antoni gives Bryant and/or Nash the second night of back-to-backs off, there could be major minutes to be had. Plus, D’Antoni told ESPN 710 radio in Los Angeles that he plans to play an 11-man rotation. If the coach follows through with that plan, there will certainly be a role available for Blake.

5. Nick Young

Young has played shooting guard for the majority of his six-year career, but the Lakers think he’s capable of playing small forward. “Nick’s size, ability to create his own shot and athleticism make him a versatile player who will give our lineup multiple looks on the floor,” GM Mitch Kupchak said in the news release announcing Young’s signing mere minutes before the team used the amnesty clause to waive Metta World Peace. So, while Young will inevitably get some time at guard, he’ll more than likely be the team’s starting 3 when the season opens up.

6. Jodie Meeks

Meeks’ role will likely be hit-or-miss -- he’ll stay in when he’s hitting his shots and sit when he’s missing them. Like Blake having his value challenged by the addition of Farmar, Meeks will have to fight against becoming redundant with the addition of Young.

7. Xavier Henry

Henry, a former lottery pick by New Orleans in 2010, has the right frame at 6-foot-6 to play swingman, but hasn’t gotten the rest of his game together enough to stick in the league yet. Henry has a training camp invite with no guaranteed money, according to a league source, so his first priority is making the team, let alone cracking the rotation.

Granted, the 2012-13 season was pretty crummy for every Los Angeles Lakers player, but consider the plight of Jodie Meeks.

After two and a half solid seasons in Philadelphia, where Meeks established himself as a valued contributor on playoff teams, the sweet-shooting guard signed with L.A. at a discount with the hopes of winning a ring.

While he witnessed his teammates go down left and right with injuries as the season wore on, Meeks fortunately avoided any health problems. With Kobe Bryant out with a torn Achilles tendon, it was Meeks who was on the court at shooting guard in Bryant's place in the regular-season finale against the Houston Rockets, driving baseline and throwing down a game-sealing dunk in overtime to secure L.A. the seventh seed in the postseason.

But whoever was holding the purple and gold Voodoo doll spared Meeks only for so long. He suffered a third-degree sprain in his left ankle in the Lakers' opening playoff loss to the San Antonio Spurs, ending his season three games sooner than his team did after the Lakers' decimated roster was swept by the Spurs.

"It was really bad timing," Meeks told ESPNLosAngeles.com in a phone interview from his offseason home in Atlanta on Monday. "I was very frustrated just because, selfishly, I was like, ‘Man, I can get as many shots as I want now and I can’t even play.’

"I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to kind of showcase what I could do on a more productive level because the guys were hurt."

As this upcoming season approaches, all Meeks wants is that opportunity again.

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Can an NBA team lose two players who had been honored as the league's top defenders and, in the process, become a better defensive unit?

That’s what the Los Angeles Lakers are trying to find out.

Gone is their best rim protector in Dwight Howard, off to Houston. Gone, too, is their best perimeter stopper in Metta World Peace, off to New York.

Now the Lakers will find out if less is more.

Not that L.A.’s defense was any good with the services of the three-time defensive player of the year in Howard and one-time DPOY winner in World Peace, anyway. The Lakers were tied with Brooklyn for 18th in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing opponents to score 103.6 points per 100 possessions. Even with Howard patrolling the paint, L.A. ranked 22nd in the league in opponents’ field goal percentage inside of five feet, according to NBA.com Stats Cube (59.8 percent), and even with World Peace’s notoriously quick left hand, the Lakers were 26th in steals per game, generating just 7.0 a night.

“Their defense never really gave them a chance to win,” newly hired Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “It was very erratic at best. In a lot of ways, when you bring in a lot of players from a lot of different systems, it takes awhile to get everybody connected and on the same page, how you have to defend a myriad of offensive NBA sets and you have to defend talented offensive people, it takes all five guys. They’ve got to be connected, and they’ve got to make the correct decisions at the correct time, and for the Lakers last year, it was clear that they just never really got connected on that end of the floor.

“You could see throughout most of their games, guys would turn their palms up to the sky, and it was like, ‘Is that my responsibility? Is that your responsibility? Who was supposed to do what?’ So, we’ve got to do a much better job of getting them so they can cover each others’ backs at that end of the floor.”

The reason that Rambis is back with the Lakers is not only because the team lost its two most talented defenders in Howard and World Peace, but because it lost its two most defensive-minded assistant coaches in Chuck Person, whose contract was not renewed, and Steve Clifford, who became the head coach in Charlotte.

Rambis, who assumed a defensive coordinator-type role in the final two seasons of his last run with the Lakers when Phil Jackson was head coach, said that Mike D’Antoni isn’t giving him the same label.

“(D’Antoni) said that all assistant coaches will be involved in all areas in our initial conversation,” Rambis explained. “Not that we have etched everything in stone, but to come back as a defensive coordinator, you can talk to Mike about whether there’s going to be any sort of designation on that. By my understanding, there isn’t going to be, but he just kind of wants all of the gaps to be covered so everybody is responsible for working with players and being involved in practices and being involved with games. But to have myself associated with the defense, that means that area is going to be covered.”

The Lakers have had a precipitous decline on the defensive end. After they held the Boston Celtics to just 79 points on 40.8 percent shooting in their Game 7 win in the 2010 Finals, their last three playoff appearances have ended in ugly fashion. First the Dallas Mavericks shot a blistering 46.2 percent on 3-pointers during a four-game sweep in 2011, amid Andrew Bynum decrying the team’s “trust issues” on the defensive end. Then the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 100 or more in three of their four wins against L.A. in their 2012 second-round series. Finally, in last season's first-round sweep by San Antonio, the Spurs shot a combined 53.0 percent from the floor in Games 2-4 after figuring out the Lakers' D that held them to just 37.6 percent shooting in Game 1 of the series.

“They never got connected defensively,” Rambis said of the 2012-13 season.

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Jordan Farmar, a former UCLA standout, checked in with the "Mason & Ireland Show" about why he walked away from big money in Turkey to come and play for the Los Angeles Lakers again. Farmar also talked about how much he has improved his game and how he can contribute.

Click here to listen to the full interview.

Ironically, it was Phil Jackson who may have best summed up Mike D’Antoni’s first season as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Mike hasn’t had a chance in L.A., he really hasn’t,” Jackson said back in May while appearing as a guest on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," after audience members booed the mention of D'Antoni's name.

And that was before Dwight Howard left for Houston, making it clear on his way out the door that he would have preferred Jackson over D’Antoni as the Lakers' head coach.

D’Antoni has been maligned by some Lakers faithful for the team's disappointing 2012-13 season, and perceived by many to be at least partially responsible for Howard's departure. And although he replaced Mike Brown five games into last season, plenty of Lakers fans feel he actually replaced Jackson, since the 11-time champion had interviewed for the job before D’Antoni did back in November, and seemed to have landed it until a notorious late-night call from Lakers management informed him otherwise.

But grumbling aside, D'Antoni remains in the job, and has the backing of the front office heading into the 2013-14 season. Executive vice president Jim Buss and general manager Mitch Kupchak believe that the coach’s flexibility in the second half of last season was a key factor in the team finishing 28-12 and want to give him a full training camp and a healthy roster in 2013-14 in order to show what he can do.

Several times last season, D’Antoni paraphrased Winston Churchill in describing his approach to the Lakers' ups and downs, “When you're going through hell, you put your head down and keep going, and that's what we're going to do.”

The pressure of a $100 million payroll that was built to be a contender and was struggling just to play .500 ball was persistent and intense. The Lakers are hoping that Howard’s departure will perhaps act as a sort of pressure release valve heading into the upcoming season.

“Expectations should be lower and I think that will ease the pressure on him,” said a source familiar with the Lakers front office’s thinking.

“I think every year's fun,” D’Antoni recently told Fox Sports when asked how grateful he was to have a traditional offseason to prepare his team. “Coaching's fun, so I'm not complaining the other way, but this is a lot better. Some of the best times are training camp and getting your ideas in how you'd like them.”

None of Churchill's grim determination there.

Late last season D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com, “We're not running anything that I would normally run,” but the moves the Lakers have made since Howard left for Houston have been more in step with the system for which D’Antoni is known.

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Whenever he’s been asked about the Los Angeles Lakers’ biggest needs this offseason, Kobe Bryant has repeated the same two buzzwords: length and athleticism.

As their three best players -- Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash -- age, logic dictates that the Lakers’ rotation could use an extra dose of spryness. As last season showed, the Lakers were simply too old and unathletic to compete for anything more than a bottom playoff seed despite possessing as much top-heavy talent as most contenders.

Even with Dwight Howard and Earl Clark bolting in free agency, the Lakers’ core frontline of Gasol, Jordan Hill and new offseason signee Chris Kaman is formidable. The same, however, could not be said about the Lakers’ perimeter crop until a few signings last week.

The additions of Nick Young, Jordan Farmar and Wesley Johnson pale in comparison to some of the franchise-altering moves of other Western conference teams, but that misses the point. The trio is a solid upgrade over the Lakers’ perimeter options last season, which should be cause for optimism given L.A.’s limited cap space and means to improve.

None of the backcourt signings make the Lakers a contender, let alone a lock for the playoffs, but each player adds a skill or two that the Lakers’ role players lacked. Plus, since all three are on veteran’s minimum contracts, there is little risk involved from the Lakers’ side. If anything, the Lakers got great value given the reasonable likelihood that each player outperforms his price tag.

Here’s a look at each of the Lakers’ perimeter pickups and how they fit with the roster:

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Over the last week, Lakers headlines have been dominated by issues like Kobe Bryant's shin, otherworldly rebounding from Andrew Bynum, a string of quality performances from Metta World Peace, and the implications of a 20-point loss to Phoenix and a 14-point win over San Antonio, both with The Mamba wearing a well-tailored suit. Such talking points would always feel trenchant, and with the playoffs lurking, the urgency is magnified tenfold. In the meantime, another notable development has surfaced almost entirely absent of hype. Compared to the previously mentioned story lines, under-the-radar status for this trend is understandable, but it nonetheless shouldn't be mistaken as trivial.

Quietly and by any measuring stick, Steve Blake, who's suffered through a largely disappointing season, has played two very good games in a row.

From a statistical standpoint, his numbers are much improved. Over the last two games, he's averaged nine points (53.8 percent from the field/60 percent from deep), 3.5 assists, 2.5 rebounds, and .5 turnovers in 28.5 minutes. The stats aren't necessarily eye-popping, but they're perfectly fine from a backup point guard. And against the backdrop of his overall April splits (5.4 ppg, 41.4 FG, 41.2 3pt, 3.0 apg, 1.3 rpg, 1.1 TO), they're practically a revelation. While fellow reserve Matt Barnes has insisted the Lakers bench shouldn't be judged by scoring totals, this entire season has served as proof of how hamstrung the starters become without consistent support. In particular, Blake's cupboard has been bare. Nobody would reasonably expect a dude with a 6.9 ppg career-average to reinvent himself as a purple and gold James Harden, but some firepower off the pine is mandatory. For at least two games, Blake's brought a gun to a gunfight.

Blake's also managed to impact games beyond his numbers. In New Orleans, a pair of charges were drawn and he not only tracked down an otherwise certain turnover, but managed to huck the ball while airborne to Ramon Sessions. The possession ended with Barnes scoring at the rim, but Blake enabled the basket, even as the only principal who didn't enter the box score on the sequence. Against the Spurs, he prevented a fast break by hustling back on transition, squaring up Stephen Jackson and getting his mitts on the ball. Slowed by Blake, Jackson had to take the ball out, and the ensuing possession came up dry.

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As part of a continuing series, NBA players share how growing up in L.A. shaped their games.

For Arron Afflalo, competition is second nature. It's been on display ever since he was 8 years old, fighting on the court with everyone from opponents to teammates. This spirit was born in Compton. Afflalo moved there from Inglewood to live with his dad at age 11 and the experience shaped him as a player and a person. That he's been more successful at the NBA level than many expected is the result of a hard-nosed attitude developed right here in Los Angeles.

Andy Kamenetzky: Which parks were you a regular at when you first began playing?

Arron Afflalo: I played at Jesse Owens Park when I was about 6 years old. That's when I had my first Little League game. I would [also] play in the Compton area. I would play at Campanella Park. I would have games at Compton High and Centennial High and Dominguez.

And Victoria Park in Carson off Avalon. That's where I started playing with Slam N Jam, a familiar AAU program that was really big growing up. That's [also] where my father used to play at night in a men's league. I would go up there and play on the side courts as he played with the older guys. I would have my own little games there on the weekend.

AK: What was the atmosphere like?

Afflalo: I was young, so I was just competitive and energetic for the game of basketball. I didn't know how how much influence the environment itself was having on me or my game. But once I did get to the national AAU atmosphere, I realized playing in my neighborhood gave me a certain edge or way of playing and looking at the game. I started playing in Vegas and other areas in which the kids were just different.

AK: What kind of edge?

Afflalo: Just that competitive edge. I guess kids from that area were shaped different because of their upbringing, rather [than] kids from the Carson area, or the Compton area, or the L.A. area, or Inglewood area. I think the combination of my love for basketball combined with having to put forth that competitive spirit at such a young age shaped who I am and how I continue to progress to this day. I would say 8 years old is when I remember becoming that ultra-competitive and really striving to win.

AK: In Compton, you first lived at Rosecrans Blvd. and Central, and then Richland Farms, which is more, relatively speaking, rural. What were those experiences like?

Affalo: My initial move there was different, because even though I was [from] Inglewood, I was still very young, so I hadn't really been exposed to having to be on the streets or anything some kids deal with. When I moved to Compton, it was a humbling experience, but it kind of heightened my awareness of who I was as a person and how to function. I thought that was good for me going to Centennial, because some kids there don't have a choice but to grow up in the projects or be out on the streets and develop a certain toughness about them to survive.

That wasn't the case for me. Both my parents were around. I just so happened to grow up in that city. In respect to them, I had to adjust my ways of living life. Not being so competitive and fighting everybody I see. Becoming more of a humble person.

AK: I had no idea Richland Farms even existed until reading about your background.

Afflalo: Richland Farms is nothing out of the ordinary. It's just an area where there's more land to the houses. You have your inner-city area in Compton, where the houses are stacked. It's more of a city-type feel. You have your project areas. And you also have certain areas where the homes, maybe back in the 50's and the 60's, had ample land in the back. My dad bought a home over there. You'll see horses and chickens and things that you wouldn't expect. That you hear in rap videos. (laughs)

You literally go one block and you're back in the city. Literally. It's not like it's an isolated area. It's just a function of the land that comes with some of the houses over there. It's a lot of older people that have gardens and horses and things like that in the back yard. But you literally cross the street, you're in an area that's nothing like it. I used to run up and down my street dribbling the ball and a horse would come trotting by. Obviously, people were allowed to have chickens over there, so you'll see chickens just crossing the street. And it's only in that area.

AK: You and your dad were extremely close growing up. How did that relationship shape you as a player?

Afflalo: My dad has always been around. As has my mom, but especially my dad in terms of me enjoying the game of basketball and growing as a man. I don't believe raising me was a job at all. He loved basketball as much as I did, and because of that, it was easy to take me to practice. Watch games with me. He can kind of enjoy basketball and live it through me just as I would learn about life from him. It was just a good partnership.

AK: How good a player was he?

Afflalo: He was good. I mean, he didn't go to any D-I school or anything like that. He had a different type of upbringing. But he was good. He could shoot. He could jump. He was competitive and a lot of things [about my game], I get from him. Definitely my shot. He taught me how to shoot. I used to shoot with my elbow out, cocked it from the side when I was little. I was 11 or 12 when I got old enough to starting shooting above my head. He changed my form, so I feel like I have a pretty nice shooting stroke and touch. That definitely came from him.

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ESPNLA.com's Dave McMenamin has the news:

"...[Trey] Johnson, a late-season call-up by the Lakers from the D-League last year, signed a one-year deal with Teramo Basket of the Italian League on Wednesday. Johnson's agent, Mark Bartelstein, told ESPNLosAngeles.com that his client's contract does not include an opt-out clause to return to the NBA should the lockout be resolved in time for the league to hold all or part of the 2011-12 season..."

Johnson lit up the D-League last season, averaging 25.5 points and 4.5 assists a night, and impressed L.A.'s former coaching staff both in training camp and through his late season cup of coffee. He's a hard-working kid who probably deserves a shot to stick in the league. He's also incredibly smart to take a guaranteed deal with a solid team in an appealing location. It's one thing for Deron Williams to ink a deal with Besiktas in Turkey, or Jordan Farmar to sign in Isreal, both with opt-out clause. Johnson is a guy with absolutely no guarantee of making the Lakers or any other roster heading into an NBA season that, quite frankly, may not take place.

Waiting around does him no good, and an opt-out isn't a luxury he can necessarily demand. While we spend a lot of time (for obvious reasons) looking at where the big stars might go, it's the dudes at the other end of the food chain likely to jump at the first-and/or-best available opportunity abroad.

Player to player, the impact on the season, assuming it happens, is minimal. Still, if enough of the Trey Johnson/Sonny Weems/Sasha Vujacic's of the world head overseas, at least in theory it could drive up the demand, and therefore the price by a few bucks, on other players who might otherwise have been available for the league minimum. If so, that could be problematic for cap strapped teams like the Lakers, hoping to fill as many holes as possible with limited funds.

As part of a continuing series, NBA players share the various ways growing up in L.A. shaped their games.

Darren Collison grew up in Rancho Cucamonga, a suburb of the Inland Empire, which is about 35-40 miles from Los Angeles. However, it might as well have been 140 miles, considering the difference between these worlds. Whether socioeconomically or in the quality of basketball, Collison witnessed firsthand the dichotomy while regularly commuting to inner-city games. Nonetheless, he stepped up his game to match the competition and helped elevate Etiwanda High School and the entire Inland Empire as a legitimate roundball force. Collison eventually hit the larger stage of UCLA and Los Angeles in general, but at heart, remains a kid from the I.E. When deciding the location for his first camp, he naturally chose Etiwanda, his "basketball birthplace."

Andy Kamenetzky: Where did you grow up playing?

Darren Collison: Actually, when I started playing basketball, it was in the inner-city L.A. My mom used to drive me down to the L.A. inner-city to play with some of the guys in travel ball. So that's when my game first started to grow. I don't know specifically [where we played]. But all around Los Angeles. From Hawthorne to Leuzinger [High School] to Inglewood. Little kid tournaments. That came to seem like the place where I started playing because the competition at Rancho wasn't as good.

I remember meeting the coach at Rancho. He had a travel ball team and he would always take his kids down to L.A. to play in tournaments every weekend. And I mean, every weekend from Friday to Sunday, playing like, three games a day. We'd go down there to L.A. and showcase our skills against other kids in the inner city.

AK: I guess that's when you realized Rancho is a different world than L.A.

DC: Yeah, it was a completely different world. You're playing with kids that didn't necessarily have things you had. All they had was basketball. They would do whatever it takes to be successful on the court. Some of them didn't have good grades. Some of them was just playing to stay out of trouble. But for the most part, that competition helped me as a basketball player to get better.

AK: Did it take a while to adjust to those differences and become comfortable?

DC: I wouldn't say [I was] uncomfortable, because growing up playing and the reason my mom would take so much time for me to play down there, I knew how important it was. And it was fun. So it wasn't uncomfortable. It was fun playing down there. But it took a long time to adjust to the skill level. The guys from the inner-city were way better than the guys that weren't in the inner-city. I knew I had to work on my game to get better if I wanted to compete with guys like that.

AK: Was there an adjustment to physicality or anything?

DC: Part of it was physicality. The other part was just playing that hard. There's a difference between kids where everything is given to them and you don't really have to work hard and kids that have to work hard while they're young because nothing is given to them. When it comes to on the court, there's a big difference between that. I think a lot of those kids in the inner-city, they had a lot of family issues and the basketball was their way of getting away from all that. They had an extra motivation of playing hard and actually being better.

AK: Was there a specific moment when you realized you had to step up your game to compete?

DC: The thing about inner-city basketball, even when we were young kids, the gym would be packed like you were at the top high school games. There were tournaments and games where we'd play against inner-city teams. They'll score on these fancy moves and you got the crowd in the stands going crazy. We're like nine, 10 years old, little kids just trying to play the game. That's when I realized it's real up there. The competition is totally different. The atmosphere is totally different.

That's just how L.A. is. They enjoy watching basketball. No matter what the age is, they have respect for it. But I knew I had to get better at my game if I wanted to compete at that level and so to speak, not get dogged.

AK: On top of trying to make it in a place like Rancho, were there obstacles inherent with your size?

DC: The main obstacle was knowing the inner-city kids were the ones being looked at. Kids from my area, it wasn't known as a good basketball city. It just didn't have that recognition. They never had the opportunity, so once a couple of kids got put on the map as far as the Inland, more and more college coaches were going out there to do scouting. Now there's a lot [of players] from the Inland Empire. So I think that was the biggest obstacle right there.

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As part of a continuing series, NBA players share the various ways growing up in L.A. shaped their game.

For Washington Wizards guard Nick Young, who grew up in West L.A., the path to USC and eventually the NBA was anything but smooth. There were academic struggles. Failed SAT tests. Three different high schools (Hamilton, Dorsey, Cleveland). And at age 5, his brother Charles was murdered, a senseless tragedy that not only turned his family upside down, but later nearly derailed his high school basketball career before it got started. But due to Cleveland High School in Reseda, plus the help of concerned coaches (and, of all people, Jordan Farmar), Young got himself on track to eventually reach the NBA. This is the story of how L.A., in his words, "raised him" as a basketball player.

Andy Kamenetzky: Where did you grow up playing most of the time?

Nick Young: At Robertson Park. We would all get together, go up there. Cedric Ceballos played there. He grew up over there. Craig Smith. And also at Pan Pacific.

AK: What was the scene like? Atmosphere? Was there a lot of talking? Was it physical?

NY: It's a very small gym. It gets packed and it gets sweaty. A lot of trash talking. Mostly, there were a lot of guards. Back then, everyone wanted to be Iverson, man. But I was probably the tallest in my group, so I wanted to be like T-Mac and Kobe.

AK: Did that make you stand out, in terms of the way everyone else played?

NY: Yeah, but it also got my game better, going against littler people that could play defense and had handles and all that.

AK: Was there a particularly epic game or run at Robertson you'd describe as your "Robertson experience?"

NY: I'd say when I was about 14, I got a chance to really run with the older kids, the older guys. I got this one dunk and after that, I was playing with the older guys every day. That's when I started jumping more. My brother threw a lob and I caught it on somebody.

AK: Nobody expected you had those kind of hops?

NY: Nah. Back then I was just a goofy kid running around always talking trash, shooting while they were playing. The ball would get on the court, they'd get mad at me.

AK: What was it like going from playing with guys your age to mostly older players?

NY: That was fun. It was tougher. You couldn't call fouls as much, so everything you did, you just had to hold it in. That's when I got a chance to play with Craig (Smith) and all them. They had Trevor (Ariza) there. Evan Burns back then. (My brother) Terrell Young. A lot of different people.

AK: Were there any local guys you patterned your game after while growing up?

NY: I looked up to my brother Terrell. Everyone thought he was gonna go (to the NBA). That was my idol. Him and Evan Burns. My brother Terrell, everyone thought he was a park legend.

AK: How did the tragedy with your brother Charles' murder and the effect it had on your family shape basketball for you? Did it become an outlet? Or a mission? During the documentary "Second Chance Season," you mentioned feeling like the family savior.

NY: It started off as an outlet. I remember after the funeral and stuff, we went to go play at the YMCA. It was things like that. Just really stayed busy. Once I really got that season in high school, that's when I was like, "I could really do this. I'm gonna really take advantage of this right now."

AK: How much pressure was added by going in and out of high schools? Was there ever a point where basketball stopped feeling fun?

NY: No, not really. It's always been a game I liked. Even when I used to mess up in high school, every time I ditched, I went to the park. (laughs) Every time, for like two weeks straight, I'd just go to the park and reenact plays. Act like I'm this (specific) player. All the time. So I was having a vision, really.

I got caught when my mom rolled by on Robertson. I tried to hide and run back to school. I was already caught. There was a laundromat right up the street from the park. I guess she was doing some laundry. And on the way home she caught me.

AK: There was a period early in high school where your mom made you stop playing for a year. How tough was that?

NY: It was real tough. She had seen me ditching more consistently. She wanted me to do right in school, so that's when I transferred to Dorsey. I was gonna try out for that team, but the school, there was too much going on. There was too many gangs and all that up there. I just didn't feel comfortable. But I never told my mom that. I didn't want her to worry about me.

AK: These were gang members affiliated with the one involved with your brother's murder?

NY: Yeah. So, that's when I started going back to the park. She'd drop me off and I'd leave. The school, it just didn't sit right with me. Once they started realizing (the situation) and I started playing on this traveling team while I was ditching and stuff, it just happened that coach knew a coach in the valley. He said he'd get me on the team and they'd work to stay on me. And I was like, "All right." I just took a chance. So they checked me out of Dorsey and transferred me to Cleveland High.

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After reading Brian's postgame analysis, take in a few talkies...

Brook Lopez's 35 points obviously pop out in the box score, but from Lamar Odom's perspective, the center didn't "control" the game, which is why the Lakers were able to withstand his performance.



With the Clippers on deck for Sunday, Lamar Odom talked about Blake Griffin."Awesome player," gushed the southpaw. "Awesome entertainer. Awesome basketball player." The athletic freak has whipped the basketball community into a frenzy, but is he special enough to change the culture that is the Los Angeles Clippers? LO thinks the potential is there, but others beyond the likely Rookie of the Year will need to step up as well. Bottom line, without the requisite wins, this is mission impossible for Griffin regardless of how well he plays.

It's a familiar scenario for Lamar, drafted in 1999 by the Clippers with these same hopes. Punches weren't pulled about how "off the court" issues messed up his crack at the perennially impossible dream. But, as he noted, everything happens for a reason, and it's hard to criticize Lamar's career path.

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