Controversy and drama has reached the point of ridiculousness. I no longer enjoy reading rumors and reading about all the drama in general surrounding the Lakers. There has been nothing but negative commentary surrounding the franchise since the end of last season and enough is enough. The point of this story is to present every possible option for our future:

1) Bring in an all star to appease Kobe and give the Lakers some hope of winning a championship. Sure this sounds easy but this is an extremely difficult task. Our only trade assets realistically are Andrew Bynum, Lamar Odom, the expiring contracts of Kwame Brown and Maurice Evans, and young point guards Jordan Farmar and Javaris Crittenton. But what players are even available on the market to consider trading for? Jermaine Oneal seems like a possibility. Is Ron Artest available? Would the Nets be willing to part with Richard Jefferson? Is AK47 still wanted? How happy is Shawn Marion in Phoenix? Does Mike Bibby want to move about 400 miles south? Is Gasol still secretly available? You have to believe that if the Lakers are willing to listen to offers for Kobe, other franchises are willing to listen to offers for their players.

2) Trade Kobe… But what do we trade him for? Young potential stars? Veterans with expiring contracts? A combination of the two? When I look at the Kevin Garnett trade, I still feel that Minnesota is now in a place that no team wants to be. It is known as a deep hole. Can they get out of this hole? Sure they can, but it will take years to do it. I cant imagine that they will rebuild faster than Chicago did since the departure of Jordan, Pippen, and Phil Jackson, and even that took almost ten years. Do we Lakers fans really need to pray for good draft picks for the next ten years? Lets say we get lucky and Chicago decides that they are willing to part with their future to try and win now with Kobe and Ben Wallace, actually, scratch that, Paxson is no Kupchak, he’s far too smart to go for that. Lets assume we decide to trade Kobe, we are left with two simple options: a. we want young potential talent with some cap relief, or b. we want an all star to continue to build around today (ie. Dirk or Jermaine).

3) Interesting fact, the above two options are not our only ones! Lets not forget, we can still make trades. Does anyone remember the random success of the 2004 Pistons? A group of five starters that no one knew anything about suddenly destroy the entire leastern conference and then continue to demolish the Hall of Fame loaded Lakers. Lesson learned: with proper coaching, dedication, and camaraderie, mediocre or slightly above average role players can become extremely successful. Yes, those guys are paid big money today, but what was the team salary when they won the championship? The Lakers have a solid option with their other players. Surely someone is willing to take on the expiring contract of Kwame right before the trade deadline, look for a deal in February. Surely there is a team interested in Lamar Odom that can send back something useful, perhaps a package from the Knicks? We all know a million teams would bite on Bynum. A young point guard perhaps for a solid power forward? Why not pull a few little trades just to mix things up? Brian Cook for Luther Head? Why not try to get Walter Hermann from the Bobcats? How about Carlos Arroyo? The Tony Parkers and the Manu Ginoblis are still out there for a cheap price, its all about who takes them on and who develops them. Kudos to the Spurs as they seemingly year after year find another cheap asset.

Over the last few years, the Lakers have had the opportunity to learn an extremely valuable lesson from the other teams in the NBA, they have a team with several good shooters and an all star facilitator that can penetrate any defense, all we truly need is for the supporting cast to actually knock down their jumpers. I think the closest team to compare to us is the Cavs who have Lebron stuggling to make things happen based on the fact that no one on his team can knock down an open jumper, thus the reason the Spurs swept them last season. Bruce Bowen guards Lebron, and everyone else rests on the defensive end. It is unfortunate that the Lakers are not in the Eastern Conference, but I’m not worried, soon enough we will dominate the West either way.

BUT…

Lets not forget a very important fact; the Lakers have only missed the playoffs twice under Jerry Buss. Kobe must win, but obviously Buss doesn’t accept failure. I would be surprised if this entire dilemma comes to and end with the Lakers being the losers. Somehow, I have got to believe that we will once again make the playoffs and make far more noise than expected.