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Ask the NBA expert: Ira Winderman |
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Right now there are only two players on the roster — Bryant and Bynum — who could be classified as defensive forces on the Lakers. Bryant is an outstanding one-on-one defender as well as a team leader, but he can’t do everything. Bynum is raw, but he’s learning fast, and he likes to swat shots. Trevor Ariza is about the only other Lakers who has a knack for defense, and he’s only above average.
The Lakers don’t have a Bruce Bowen. They don’t have a James Posey. They don’t have a Shane Battier. And they sorely need a guy like that. What they do have was enough to get them through the West, but it may not be enough to do that next year.
If they stand pat, they’ll lose to the Celtics again next year. In fact, if they stand pat, they might not even get that chance again.
It would also be ideal to get another scorer, someone like Gilbert Arenas. That probably won’t happen. Arenas is way too pricey, and the Lakers are well over the salary cap thanks to the Gasol deal. But the Lakers’ scorers — Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, as well as some of the younger bench types like Sasha Vujacic (a restricted free agent whom the Lakers will likely re-sign), Luke Walton, Jordan Farmer and erratic starter Vladimir Radmanovic — did not come through under the harsh spotlight amid the Celtics’ harassment. If the Lakers can’t acquire a gun, they have to hope the ones they have shoot better next season.
Odom could be on the trading block. But that depends on whether the Lakers penalize him for his showing in the Finals, or appreciate him for his efforts leading up to the meeting with the Celtics. In the fall he will enter the last year of his deal, which will pay him over $14 million for 2008-09, so the team will have to decide soon. And if the right deal presents itself — for a big, tenacious defender, for instance — the Lakers might just say goodbye to their expensive and enigmatic forward.
You can be reasonably sure that the Celtics won’t have the same team next year, either. There are a slew of promising contenders in the NBA, and general manager Danny Ainge knows that they’ll all be gunning for anything wearing green next season. He’ll improve the Celtics for no other reason than Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce will demand it.
The Lakers therefore have to respond both to the 39-point thrashing they absorbed, and to anything the Celtics do in the offseason.
And while the Celtics’ big three will urge Ainge to beef up an already stout roster, what do you think Kobe will do? Remember that he can still opt out of his contract after next season. If he sees that the Lakers did not act to fill obvious needs after losing to the Celtics, he may erupt again and declare that his days as a Laker are over — only this time he’ll have leverage because he can be a free agent.
The difference is defense. The Celtics were consistent at it. The Lakers weren’t. And they need to be, or else they’ll never get to where they want to be, which is where their rivals are now.
On top.
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