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Mark Willard and Arash Markazi break down expectations for Kobe Bryant this season as he recovers from surgery on his Achilles.

At the Los Angeles Lakers' media day on Saturday, a few reporters showed up to ask about Kobe Bryant's Achilles (and high-diving skills), Pau Gasol's knees and a host of other topics.

Among the highlights:

• Bryant says he is "feeling good," and while there is no timetable, he's easing back into basketball activity. He also spoke to ESPN 710 -- listen to it here.

• Pau Gasol said Saturday he will not be available for the start of training camp as he continues to recover from offseason procedures in both knees, ESPNLA's Dave McMenamin reports. Listen to Gasol's interview with ESPNLA 710 here.
• Mike D'Antoni talks about the surgery he had right before accepting the Lakers' head coaching job and why this year will be different. Listen here.
• Steve Nash is ready to move on from last's year's disappointing season. Listen here.

Also speaking Saturday to ESPN 710: Jordan Hill (listen to what he has to say here), Steve Blake (interview here), Ryan Kelly (heard here) and Wesley Johnson (his thoughts here).

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak doesn't expect Kobe Bryant to try to play a particular way in order to make the Lakers more attractive to free agents next summer.

"Kobe is not going to play to lure somebody to Los Angeles," Kupchak said Wednesday, addressing the press in advance on Saturday's media day. "He’s going to play to try to win games. If the way he plays helps lure players to Los Angeles, then so be it. But trust me, in January, February and March, that’s not what he’s thinking when there’s a game being played."

The Lakers have a massive amount of cap space stored for the summer of 2014 when they figure to be major players on the free agency market.

Whether Bryant is the one doing the recruiting or not, the Lakers will have to start to bring in fresh blood as their three best players -- Bryant (35-years old), Steve Nash (39) and Pau Gasol (33) -- are all far closer to the end of their careers than to the beginning.

Kupchak does not seem too worried about getting those players, whoever they might be, to come to L.A. despite the fact that the team was unable to convince Dwight Howard to stay earlier this year, and despite the fact that executive vice president Jeanie Buss' memoir, "Laker Girl," suggests the relationship between she and her brother, fellow VP, Jim Buss has been strained.

"I don’t think [the book] would have anything to do with [free agency]," Kupchak said. "The Lakers and Los Angeles remains a destination place for athletes of any sport. This is a wonderfully supportive fan base in Los Angeles. It’s a vibrant city and the franchises that have been here, our franchise has been one of the best if not the best, once it came here in 1960. We’ve always figured out a way to bring players and put competitive and championship teams on the court. Those things don’t change."

What has changed is the Lakers' philosophy on doling out lucrative, multi-year contracts to role players as the team attempts to adjust its business and basketball practices under the rules of the NBA's current collective bargaining agreement.

"The worst thing you can do is be burdened with contracts that are $6-7-8 million a year that go out 3-4 years and you have just kind of average players," Kupchak said. "Then you’re really kind of stuck in the middle -- you’re not going to get a good draft choice and you’re not going to have financial flexibility. So, in our opinion, we’re set up probably as best as we can be set up for the future."

That set-up involved stacking the 2013-14 roster with a bunch of players whose contracts all expire at the end of the season. That could create an environment full of players who are motivated to play for their individual numbers in order to make themselves more attractive when free agency comes around, but Kupchak did not seem worried about that scenario.

"I think players look at it as an opportunity," Kupchak said. "And they clearly get guidance from their agent, but I’m sure their agents are saying, ‘Listen, if you play well in Los Angeles, they have all this cap room and financial flexibility a year from now. This is a great opportunity for you.’ In years past, when we were so far over the cap, I’m sure a lot of agents said, ‘Even if you play well, they’re only going to sign minimum [contract] guys.’ But I don’t think that’s the case. I’ve talked to a bunch of agents and I think they feel this is a good spot for players."

He better hope so. If not, then Bryant's recruiting pitch might be necessary. The last thing the Lakers want to have happen is to clear all that cap space and not find anybody worth spending it on.

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.

Michael Beasley was waived by the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday, putting the talented, yet troubled, 6-10, 235-pound former No. 2 pick on the market.

With the Los Angeles Lakers lacking a proven small forward on their roster after using the amnesty clause on Metta World Peace, it's only natural to wonder if Beasley might be a good fit in purple and gold.

Here are four questions to consider before that can happen:

1. What is the waiver process for Beasley?

Beasley was owed $6 million by Phoenix in 2013-14 and $6.25 million in 2014-15, but only $3 million of his '14-15 deal was guaranteed. Beasley agreed to a $7 million buyout with the Suns, according to Sports 620 KTAR in Phoenix. If any team out there chooses to claim the remaining $7 million on his contract, they'll retain Beasley's rights. That's unlikely to happen.

The way this usually works is a player clears the 48-hour waiver process and then the bids come in, with teams free to use their mid-level, mini mid-level or biannual exception to try to entice Beasley to come on board. The Lakers do not have any of those exceptions available to them. They used their entire mini mid-level exception on Chris Kaman and do not qualify for the biannual exception because of their luxury tax situation, so all they could offer Beasley is a veteran's minimum deal worth approximately $1 million.

There is a chance that a team like Philadelphia, which has not yet met the minimum salary requirement for the 2013-14 season could take on his full salary to meet that basement level, but Philly could just wait to sign other free agents to account for the approximately $10 million in salary it has to acquire without bringing in someone like Beasley with his off-court background into its young, impressionable locker room.

2. Will the Lakers be interested in Beasley?

As one source familiar with the Lakers thinking said, "There's a reason why Phoenix cut him." Even though Beasley is just 24 years old and has career averages of 14.1 points and 5.2 rebounds in just 26.4 minutes per game, it was his arrest on suspicion of marijuana possession in August that seemed to be what ultimately pushed Phoenix to go in another direction.

However, Beasley had off-court issues before this summer and that didn't stop the Lakers from pushing hard to get him in the 2011-12 season. Twice that season, the Lakers thought it had deals in place to acquire the lefty forward from Minnesota, and twice those deals fell through, the second time just seven minutes removed from the trade deadline.

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak has shown in recent seasons that once a player catches his interest, that impression doesn't fade easily. Kupchak said that the Lakers had designs on acquiring Steve Blake for years stemming from an great pre-draft workout with the team in 2003. They finally got Blake in 2011. The same goes for Nick Young. Kupchak came close to getting Young for years before having it all come together this summer.

3. Should the Lakers want Beasley?

In a word, yes. Even though the team made some savvy pick-ups with potential in Young, Wes Johnson and Elias Harris to try to fill the void at small forward left by World Peace, none of them are proven players at that position. And yes, Kobe Bryant is just about as good at playing the three as he is at the two at this stage of his career with all the post moves he's developed, but Bryant's health for this season is still very much in question.

Getting Beasley at the minimum for 2013-14 would not only allow the team to keep the financial flexibility for next summer that it so covets, but it would give Mike D'Antoni another offensive weapon to work with. This is a guy who has a career high of 42 points, a guy who once put up 22 points and 15 rebounds in a playoff game, a guy who has a 34.5 percent career mark from 3, but has shot 36.6 percent or better from deep in three out of his five career seasons.

Don't discount the appeal of Beasley's ability to shoot it, either. The Lakers drafted Ryan Kelly in the second round primarily for his ability to stretch the floor with his long-range accuracy, but the team has been discouraged by the rookie's progress during the summer, according to multiple league sources. The Lakers doubt that Kelly, who missed summer league while recovering from multiple foot procedures, will be ready for the start of training camp.

Beasley could fill out a couple check marks of what the Lakers are looking for.

4. Should Beasley want the Lakers?

This answer isn't as straight forward. While Beasley has already made approximately $25.9 million in his time in the NBA, according to BasketballReference.com, he did have to agree to give up a guaranteed $2 million over two years in the Phoenix buyout. He could make that money back and then some by signing with a team that offers him the mini mid-level exception of $3.2 million. If he signs with the Lakers for the minimum, he loses $1 million. That might seem insignificant when you've already made $26 million, but $1 million is $1 million, especially for a player whose future in the league is far from certain.

So, financially maybe the Lakers aren't the best fit for Beasley.

However, style of play wise, L.A. could be perfect for him. Not only are D'Antoni's open-court sets suited for his game, but Beasley had his best season as a professional while coached by Lakers assistant Kurt Rambis when he was the head coach in Minnesota in 2010-11.

Not only that, but the Lakers have had success in recent seasons in salvaging guys' careers who were rich in talent, but poor in opportunity (think Shannon Brown, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Hill, Earl Clark).

And the opportunity should be plentiful in L.A. at small forward.

Will the Lakers make the playoffs this season?

It’s a key question of the offseason, but it’s one usually answered with more questions. Is Kobe Bryant healthy? Is he the same Kobe? Are Pau Gasol and Steve Nash actually on the floor? Is Phil Jackson involved somehow?

With so many unknowns, the consensus has been that the Lakers will miss out on the postseason this year. In a recent ESPN.com panel, the Lakers were not only pegged to miss the playoffs, but were ranked 12th in the Western Conference.

It seems a little unsettling -- particularly to Kobe -- if only because the shift from known entity to wildcard happened so quickly. While it’s difficult to predict where a team with so many question marks will finish, we can look at the precedent set by teams of a similar makeup and style.

Healthy or not, maybe the only thing that’s safe to assume right now is that the Lakers will be a below average defensive team.

The first (and biggest) reason for that is the loss of Dwight Howard. Although he was far from the one-man defensive anchor he was in his Orlando days, Howard still had a positive impact defensively last season, as the Lakers allowed 5 more points per 100 possessions when Howard was off the floor than they did when he was on the floor. Last year was a poor defensive effort by Howard’s standards, but it was still among the league’s best.

Maybe losing a great defensive player could be overcome on its own, but let’s not forget that the Lakers ranked 20th in defensive efficiency last season with Howard. It’s also tough to ignore that Mike D’Antoni has only coached one above-average defensive team (better than 15th in defensive efficiency) in ten seasons, or that Pau Gasol and Steve Nash are both now a year older. New additions Nick Young and Chris Kaman aren’t exactly renowned for their defensive prowess, either.

Add all that up, and it would be somewhat of a miracle for the Lakers to finish above 15th in defensive efficiency this season. Assuming that miracle doesn’t happen, where does that leave the Purple and Gold?

A look at the offensive and defensive efficiency marks for the playoff teams of the last decade is a good starting point.

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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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On Thursday night at the Nokia Theatre, there was an event called Kobe Up Close. The details: Jimmy Kimmel was going to interview Kobe Bryant for an hour, they were selling tickets for anywhere from $25 to $200, and all proceeds went to fight homelessness through Kobe and Vanessa Bryant's charity organization, which is partnering with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to help serve underprivileged families in Los Angeles.

Grantland »

Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak covers the health of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash, Dwight Howard's departure from Los Angeles, Mike D'Antoni, Phil Jackson, Jeanie and Jim Buss and more. Listen

The NBA's 2013-14 season schedule was released Tuesday afternoon and there are plenty of intriguing games for Los Angeles Lakers fans to circle on their calendars (or enter reminders in their smart phones).

Here's a quick breakdown:

THE START

The Lakers tip things off playing in one of the three nationally televised games on opening night, Oct. 29, at home against the Clippers. They go upstate to play the Warriors the very next day, the first of 19 back-to-backs on the season. L.A. comes back to Staples Center for their next two games, hosting the San Antonio Spurs on the Nov. 1 and then the Atlanta Hawks on Nov. 3.

DWIGHT TIME

The Lakers travel to Houston to face off against Dwight Howard and the Rockets on Nov. 7 in just their sixth game of the season. You think that will give Kobe Bryant any motivation to be ready to play by late October? Howard will return to L.A. to hear the boo-birds on Feb. 19 in the Lakers' first game after the All-Star break.

FAMILIAR FACES

Former Lakers head coach Mike Brown (along with Earl Clark and Andrew Bynum, if he's healthy) will come to town on Jan. 14 when the Lakers host the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lakers also travel to Cleveland on Feb. 5 in the middle game of a three-game trip that ends Feb. 7 in Philadelphia when Bryant will have yet another Philly homecoming.

Metta World Peace will surely receive a warm welcome from Lakers fans on March 25 when he returns to L.A. with the Knicks on March 25.

The Lakers will get their first look at Brian Shaw coaching the Nuggets on Nov. 13 (the first of two times next season when the Lakers play the second night of a back-to-back in the Denver altitude) and Shaw and Co. come to L.A. on Jan. 5.

MARQUEE MATCHUPS

The Lakers host LeBron James and the two-time defending champion Miami Heat on Christmas Day and foam fingers probably won't be handed out at the door this time. The game is at 2 p.m. PT on ABC. The Lakers play in Miami on Jan. 23.

They go to OKC to play Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook (and Derek Fisher) on Dec. 13 and play the Thunder in a rare home-road two game series on March 9 in L.A. and March 13 in Oklahoma City.

ROAD ARENAS

Their annual trip to the Mecca of Basketball at Madison Square Garden is Jan. 26 when they face World Peace and the Knicks and L.A. goes to the place that has been a thorn in its side for the last decade -- the Rose Garden in Portland -- on March 3.

RIVALS

L.A. plays the Clippers on three other occasions after opening night -- Jan. 14 ("road" game), March 6 and April 6 (another "road" game). They travel to play the stripped-down Boston Celtics on Jan. 17 and the guys in green come to L.A. on Feb. 21.

ROAD TRIPPING

The Lakers' longest road trip is seven games -- at Phoenix, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Orlando and New York -- spanning from Jan. 15-26. Their second-longest is a four-game trip through Oklahoma City, Charlotte, Atlanta and Memphis from Dec. 13-17.

THE FINISH

The Lakers have a brutal six-game stretch to close out the regular season, which could prove challenging if they find themselves on the playoff bubble. It starts with a road game against the Clippers, followed by three games at home against Houston, Golden State and Memphis and ends up on the road in Utah and in San Antonio.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ pitch to try to convince Dwight Howard to stay started long before billboards sprung up around L.A.

Some six months before the billboards appeared, in positioning Howard as the franchise's future, the Lakers put Pau Gasol in the past, and often, on the bench.

“We did have a free-agent market last year we had to be aware of, and you make certain arguments based on the future,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “Whether they’re right or wrong, that’s the reality of it, and we went that way, but it was never meant to be a slight to (Gasol) or never meant to be that he was the cause of our problems.”

While health certainly had something to do with it -- Gasol’s knees, feet and head (a concussion) caused him to miss 33 games last season -- Gasol was aware of the ground shifting beneath him as the Lakers gravitated towards Howard.

“It was at times frustrating because of the reality of that specific situation,” Gasol told ESPNLosAngeles.com in a phone interview from Barcelona. “Obviously the franchise wanted Dwight to stay and everyone, or a lot of people, tried to make him comfortable and please him at times.”

Now, with Howard out of the picture, the Lakers’ Plan B is to go back to Plan A and make Gasol the team’s primary option down low.

“There was just a lot of factors last year that won’t come up this year,” D’Antoni said. “I even told (Gasol), you make decisions based a lot of times on the future that probably, if you were just doing the competitive, basketball thing, the decision would have been something else.”

The decision going forward, at least for next season (with Gasol in the last year of his contract and the Lakers set to pay him $19.3 million), is to go back to orbiting around the four-time All-Star.

“I expect him to have the best year he’s ever had coming up,” D’Antoni recently told ESPN LA 710 radio.

Whether that’s just lip service or not may be up to Gasol.

“I’m excited about next season,” said Gasol, who is still recovering from the procedures he underwent in May to alleviate tendinosis in both of his knees. “I’m going to work really hard to get myself in the best shape that I can and hopefully my body will react well. The main thing is if I can start healthy and stay healthy. And the rest, with my skill set and the team that we have, everything will happen well. But, it’s just a matter of being healthy and wanting it and working hard. I’m committed to having a great year and I hope our team, we have a great year together. So, great expectations for next season individually and also collectively.”

He’ll have the starting point guard, Steve Nash, on his side to help those expectations from going the way of Dickens’ Pip.

“I thought the games that Pau and I played together where Dwight didn’t play, I thought we really played well together and the offense really flowed,” Nash told ESPNLosAngeles.com. “So, I’m not concerned about that. That’s going to be great.”

Despite the Lakers being swept out of the playoffs to end last season, Gasol was playing his best basketball of the season at the finish. Gasol shot 50 percent or better from the floor in eight of the Lakers’ last 11 games in the regular season (L.A. went 9-2), and he registered three triple-doubles in a six-game span from April 12-26, becoming the first NBA big man to do so since Chris Webber had three in five games in Feb. 2005, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

“To me, it worked well when we started playing a little more inside-out instead of outside-in,” Gasol said. “One, we slowed the game down a little bit adjusting more to our personnel and our roster and then when there was better ball movement, whether if it was through the post or through the elbow or pick-and-rolls, when there was better ball movement we played better and our defense was better. We had better defensive balance, and things worked out better, so it is something we need to keep in mind.”

D’Antoni said next season he plans to go through Gasol down low, to give him opportunities at the elbow where he’s “devastating” and to have him run pick-and-rolls where Gasol can either receive the pass for his own scoring play or be positioned to make the next pass -- ideally, either a kickout or a lob -- to find an open teammate.

The coach also thinks that Gasol and newly acquired center Chris Kaman will be a natural fit together in the starting lineup.

“I just see them kind of blending in together pretty easily,” D’Antoni said. “A lot easier than it was last year (with Howard), let’s put it that way.”

Now, after three coaches in the past three seasons and after being bumped in the pecking order for both Howard and Andrew Bynum, Gasol will take up the task of reminding everyone that he can be more than just one of the game's most skilled big men.

"You don’t get to be one of the best by just being talented or skilled," Gasol said. "There’s certain things you also need to do in the game defensively, being physical and decisive out there. Being a presence. Those things are also very important. Talent and skill don’t mean that much if you don’t play as hard as you can or you don’t do other things because there are a lot of talented players in the league.

"To be one of the best, that’s actually what I’m going to work for again."

You may have heard about Steve Nash “trying out” for Inter Milan, the Italian soccer powerhouse competing, along with seven other teams, in the Guinness International Champions Cup starting next week. The tryout, which isn’t a real tryout, is among many promotional events scheduled in the lead-up to the tournament.

Nash sat down for an extended one-on-one with Grantland a few hours before the tryout to discuss his basketball philosophy, the Lakers’ future, the Spurs’ near championship, Dwight Howard, and lots more. What follows is an edited transcript of our chat.

Full interview »

It has been an interesting offseason for the remaining active members of the famed NBA draft class of 1996.

Marcus Camby, the No. 2 pick that year, was traded from New York to Toronto -- the team that selected him way back when -- and was summarily waived when he made it clear he had no desire to bookend his career with another run with the Raptors. The Houston Rockets snatched the 39-year-old Camby up on a one-year deal once he was available.

Ray Allen, the No. 5 pick, is still basking in the glow of his championship run with the Miami Heat, made possible thanks in large part to his already-legendary corner 3-pointer late in Game 6 of the Finals. The 3 tied the game, and the Heat, of course, won in overtime and then won Game 7.

Jermaine O'Neal, the No. 17 pick, signed a one-year deal with the Golden State Warriors. Derek Fisher, the No. 24 pick, signed a one-year deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder, and a source close to the five-time champion told ESPNLA.com that Fisher plans to retire after the season.

And speaking of retirement, what about that Los Angeles Lakers backcourt full of '96ers?

Kobe Bryant, who like O'Neal is younger than the rest of his classmates because he joined the league straight out of high school, told multiple media outlets he plans to play three more years, and even stretched that timeline to three or four more years during an interview while on a Nike-sponsored trip to Brazil.

As for his backcourt mate, Steve Nash?

"I don't really want to think about it," Nash told ESPNLosAngeles.com during a phone interview from New York on Tuesday. Nash was in the city to promote the Guinness International Champions Cup and had a "tryout" with soccer team Inter Milan as part of the event. (From the way Nash described it, it was more like when Garth Brooks was in spring training with the San Diego Padres than a serious audition.)

"I want to concentrate on this season and have a great season, and then next year I'll worry about next year. After that, there's a chance I could keep playing, but I'm totally open to not playing or playing again, and I don't really want to predict. I just want to concentrate on the now and worry about the future when it arrives."

The fact that Nash, 39, is running around a soccer pitch and even considering extending his career further into his 40s than the two years remaining on his contract is an encouraging sign for the veteran who missed 32 regular-season games plus two playoff games last season because of a fractured fibula in his left leg followed by lingering nerve discomfort.

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