Who's running the Lakers?

Plain and simple, the LA Lakers need a point guard. As their roster stands today, they have two players with very little experience slated to play that position. They also have two guys that are capable of making plays from other positions in Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. While a team that runs the triangle offense can run it through a point forward, much like the latter Bulls dynasty did with Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc, a roster needs more than a few play makers. Those Bulls teams had five guys that were capable of running an offense and making plays: Pippen, Kukoc, Michael Jordan, Ron Harper and Randy Brown. The Lakers just have their big two, and then two other guys that might be able to step up and play a larger role in Luke Walton and Tierre Brown. Sufficed to say, they need more than that. Every great team has a number of guys that can start the offense and one that does it consistently. Lamar Odom could be groomed into that role, the way Pippen was, allowing him to share the point with John Paxon on the first three championship teams. But, Odom isn't ready for that yet. He's a great second point, but not ready to be the primary one so, the Lakers need a point guard, plain and simple.

But, point guards don’t just fall out of thin air, as Lakers GM Mitch Kupchack might hope. As it stands right now, no team in the league is in worse shape at that position than the Lakers. Most teams have at least one reliable point, many times two or three. The Lakers have none, so they need one. But how does a team that has none, and has only a few assets to trade and little money to sign anyone acquire somebody to fill that completely empty void? Well here’s how, so listen up Kupchack.

There are a few veteran point guards that seem to be available on the market. Former Laker Derek Fisher would make a lot of sense for the team. He knows the offense and could come in and immediately make an impact. The only downside is that he has a long-term bloated contract, one the Lakers should seriously consider taking on. Another player who’s similar in upside and downside to Fisher is Cleveland’s Eric Snow. Both have similar contracts to that of Vlade Divac, who may be retiring, but still is in the last year of his contract, making him valuable trade bait. Devin George is also in the last year of his contract and could be used as a piece in a trade. Trading Divac and George for Fisher and Snow would give the Lakers some serious back court depth and would likely be enough to keep the team headed in the right direction.

One has to wonder though if a blockbuster trade is really something more along the lines of what the Lakers need. After all, it was a blockbuster trade that put them in this predicament. So here is that blockbuster trade: the Lakers send George, Divac, Chris Mihm, Slava Medvedenko and Andrew Bynum to the Magic for Grant Hill, Tony Battie and Jameer Nelson. This trade gives the Magic three expiring contracts, and two legit big men to pair with a young Dwight Howard. It also allows them to keep Steve Francis as the point guard, a move that makes sense for the franchise. While the Lakers have to give up a lot, they do get something very good back in return. This trade gives the Lakers everything they need, instantly. It may leave them a little thin in the front, but there are a lot of veteran big men available at this stage in the game. The Lakers would be able to start Nelson, Bryant, Hill, Odom and Brown. This would give them a really solid rotation that could play a number of different ways within the triangle, and running and gunning it, as the Suns do. Sure, its a risk to take on a player like Grant Hill, but its not as big a risk as trading Shaq. Hill gives the Lakers a third scoring option and another playmaker. Nelson will be a very good pointguard very soon. If Hill can stay healthy, as he did last season, this trade could put the Lakers back into contention.

It may not take a blockbuster trade for the Lakers to find a point-guard, but it will take something. There’s no way that this team is going to be headed to the playoffs anytime soon without somebody guiding them in that direction. Plain and simple, the Lakers need a point guard.