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Mark Willard and Arash Markazi break down the importance of the Lakers finding an identity and developing chemistry this season.

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

LOS ANGELES -- Shawne Williams was just another draft bust that had been discarded by the league when he arrived on Mike D'Antoni's and the New York Knicks' doorstep in September 2010.

"I gained my respect for Mike was when I first got to New York," Williams told ESPNLosAngeles.com at Los Angeles Lakers training camp this week. "We had a meeting and he told me a couple things. I won't put that out in the public, but he told me some things. He told me the truth. And I respect him for that."

What did D'Antoni tell him? What do you say to a former first-round draft pick who had already been charged with possession of marijuana, possession of a stolen handgun, and in a separate incident, misdemeanor drug possession for allegedly selling a codeine substance?
What message did D'Antoni have for someone who had already worn out his welcome with both the Indiana Pacers and Dallas Mavericks and became such a persona non grata that he was out of the league completely for the 2009-10 season before arriving in New York?

"I remember," D'Antoni said. "I told him I didn't want him. Because that's what happens in this league sometimes, you get labels on guys. I didn't know him, only what I read, what I saw, what I heard. So I'm thinking, 'Why do we need to go down that path again?' "

The honesty was something Williams, a 6-foot-9 forward with deep range who had been relying more on talent than mental toughness, needed to hear.

It humbled him.

For the first 18 games of the 2010-11 season, Williams sat on the Knicks' bench, racking up DNP after DNP. When he finally got a chance to play, New York went on an eight-game winning streak, with Williams making 15 of the 28 shots he put up during the tear.

"Eighteen games in, I got a shot to play and I ended up doing alright and I was playing ever since," Williams said. "To me, I just feel like Mike's system is a great system. He's a great coach. He respects players. He knows how to coach players. And that's basically it. That's just my guy. I like him as a coach, a person. That's just it."

For D'Antoni, the feeling is mutual.

"When you get to know the guy, he's nothing like the perception," D'Antoni said. "He's one of the most stand-up, nicest, coachable and skilled players that I've ever coached and I'm hoping. He's been off a couple years, so that is what it is and he still has to fight perception, but he's one of those guys that plays a lot better than people think."

"Sometimes this league is a revolving door"

Williams' lone season in New York with D'Antoni has proved to be the glory days of his career so far. Williams averaged 7.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in just 20.1 minutes per game that season, while shooting 40.1 percent on 3-pointers.

He signed with the then New Jersey Nets after the lockout and never found his niche, shooting just 28.6 percent from the field in 25 games. The Nets traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers at the end of the 2011-12 season. Portland bought out his contract for 2012-13. Williams was out of the league, again. And fell back into trouble, again. This time he was arrested for possession of both marijuana and codeine cough syrup.

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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."

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Ever since the Lakers tried to trade him to Houston in a three-team deal to acquire Chris Paul back in Dec. 2011, Pau Gasol has often felt like he's been on borrowed time in Los Angeles.

The trade rumors have swirled so much in the last couple of years that the four-time All-Star has taught himself to avoid fretting about the future and rather thrive in the present.

"I’ve learned to live my life on a daily basis and try to have fun in the process," Gasol said after the first of the Lakers two practices Sunday.

That doesn't mean the media thinks the same way.

On just the second day of training camp, Gasol, who is in the final year of his contract with L.A. set to pay him $19.3 million this season, was asked about the possibility of staying on with the Lakers after 2013-14.

"If the team is interested, they will approach me and at some point there will be some kind of meeting," Gasol said. "But I’m not sure when or how. I think it’s going to depend on how I perform during the season. The better I perform, I’m sure the more interested they will be to try to sign me, I guess."

Gasol averaged a career-low 13.7 points last year, his 46.6 field goal percentage was the worst mark of his 12 seasons in the league, and his 8.6 rebounds per game was his lowest average since 2007-08.

However, things are already looking up for the former two-time champion. After saying he would not participate in the Lakers first practice of training camp Saturday, Gasol decided to give it a go.

"I did pretty much everything, just the last drill I was out of," said Gasol. "I went through the whole practice pretty successfully."

Gasol, who underwent a procedure known as the FAST technique (Focused Aspiration of Scar Tissue) in May to address the tendinosis in both of his knees, is still being somewhat cautious -- he sat out the first session of the Lakers' two-a-day Sunday -- but is committed to getting back on the court.

"It’s just a matter now of absorbing the load that I put myself through out there and going day by day," Gasol said.

Having Gasol in the mix has already been a boon for coach Mike D'Antoni. He said that Gasol picked up his offensive sets in "two seconds" and is excited about the versatility he will provide.

"In our system,” D’Antoni said, “Pau can play anywhere. He can play with (Chris) Kaman, he can play with Jordan (Hill), he can play with Shawne Williams. He can play with a stretch four or a big four. Whether he’s the four or the five doesn’t mean anything. Kaman can make the 15-foot shots, Pau can post up. Pau can make (the outside shots), Kaman can post up. So they’re a pretty good compliment."

The Lakers first preseason game is less than a week away, Oct. 5 against the Golden State Warriors in Ontario, Calif., and Gasol plans to be in the lineup for it.

"I would like to," Gasol said. "I’d like to play. I miss playing."

Gasol had his first summer off away from the game in years, sitting out of Spain's international competition as he rehabbed his knees. His teammate Steve Nash can see how the time off had an affect on Gasol.

"He looks excited and happy to be back and he looks re-energized so for me that’s huge because we know how good a player he is and if he’s mentally refreshed and free, the body will come," Nash said.

The fact that he wants to play in the preseason is a major turnaround from last year, when Gasol had to sit out of an exhibition game against the Utah Jazz because his body was already breaking down.

"I was already quite in pain," Gasol said. "I couldn’t really shake it off. It was something chronic that flared up and I couldn’t really get rid of it."

While it's still extremely early, Gasol's knees have already responded well to the first test he put them through.

"Not substantial," said when asked about any discomfort he felt two days into camp. "Not meaningful. So far, everything is how it was predicted."

Not that he spends too much time with predictions. Who knows how the rest of his time with the Lakers will play out.

"I don’t look at it as the last ride, but you never know," Gasol said. "So, that’s why you have to fully commit to the present, to the season and make the best out of it and see what comes out."

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).

The Los Angeles Lakers are bringing 6-foot-11 center Dan Gadzuric to camp, according to a source. Gadzuric, a former UCLA player, last played in the NBA in 2012 for the New York Knicks. In February, he joined a team in Venezuala.

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.

The Los Angeles Lakers announced Friday they have signed rookie forward Ryan Kelly.

The 6-foot-11 forward from Duke was selected by the Lakers in the second round of June's NBA draft with the 48th pick overall.

Kelly played four seasons for Duke and was part of a national championship team in 2010. During his team at the school, Kelly averaged 7.5 points and 3.7 rebounds. As a senior, he averaged 12.9 points and 5.3 rebounds.

Kelly did not play for the Lakers' summer league team because he was recovering from offseason foot surgery after an injury caused him to miss 13 games last season.

Earlier this month, ESPNLA's Dave McMenamin reported that according to multiple league sources, the Lakers were discouraged by Kelly's progress during the summer and doubted the rookie would be ready for the start of training camp.

Economist Tyler Cowen (He's "America's hottest economist," who was on TrueHoop TV recently talking about the end of the NBA's middle class), foresees a world in which NBA coaches work very closely with incredibly intelligent computers.

In fact, he says, it's happening already.

TrueHoop »

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed forward Marcus Landry, the team announced today. Per team policy, terms of the agreement were not released.

Landry, a 6-foot-7 forward out of Wisconsin, has spent time over the past three years with the Maine Red Claws and Reno Bighorns of the NBA Development League and internationally with teams in Spain, China, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. During his two seasons (2010-11 and 2012-13) with the Bighorns, Landry played in 84 games (83 starts) averaging 16.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 36.0 minutes.

Signing with the New York Knicks as an undrafted rookie free agent in 2009, Landry played for both the Knicks and Boston Celtics during the 2009-10 campaign, averaging 2.4 points and 1.1 rebounds in 6.1 minutes over 18 games.

The Milwaukee native and younger brother of NBA veteran Carl Landry was most recently a member of the 2013 Lakers summer league team, for which he played in all five games (four starts) and averaged 15.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 26.5 minutes.

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?

After two seasons in Turkey, former Lakers and Nets guard Sasha Vujacic is determined to force his way back into the NBA.

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Mark Willard and Arash Markazi debate what Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni must accomplish this season to remain the head coach in Los Angeles.

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