Lakers' offseason -- A+

Before I start, I stand by one of my previous columns stating that the Los Angeles Lakers made a bad deal when they traded Shaq for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant.

With that said, I am very impressed with the Lakers' off season plan and how well they have implemented it.

Consider that last year, they were relying on Kobe, Shaq and a whole bunch of nothing and they made the finals!

That team, brought back this year, had no chance of beating Dumar's boys. That fact led the Lakers to go and build around their young superstar, Kobe Bryant.

The plan was simple. 1. Assume Kobe is going to beat the charges. 2. Fire Phil and trade Shaq. 3. Convince Kobe this is his team. 4. Sign Kobe to a long-term extension. 5. Build a team that can pass, is young, and will defer to Kobe.

The Lakers accomplished steps one through four, but their fate hinged on how well they accomplished step five.

In the last month, the Lakers have traded Shaq and acquired Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant.

They signed former center, Vlade Divac, and recently traded Gary Payton and Rick Fox for Marcus Banks, Chucky Atkins and Chris Mihm.

At first glance, it seems like a mess of players to sort through, but once analyzed, you realize the Lakers went out and accomplished step five of their plan and then some.

Projected lineup for 2004-2005 is as follows:

C. Vlade Divac PF. Lamar Odom SF. Caron Butler SG. Kobe Bryant PG. Chucky Atkins

PF. Brian Grant PF. Luke Walton SG. Kareem Rush SF. Devean George PF. Brian Cook PG. Marcus Banks C. Chris Mihm SG. Sasha Vujacic

The projected lineup is 13-men deep. Read that again -- 13-MEN DEEP.

The only players with more than 10 years experience are Vlade Divac and Brian Grant, and both of them are serviceable big men. Heck, Vlade can still rebound and pass with the best of them.

The young depth on this team is staggering.

Vujacic, Mihm, Banks, Cook, George, Rush and Walton are all young talents who have yet to emerge.

Think about this, all are former first round picks, except for Walton, but he should have been, as his performance in the playoffs proved.

Eight first round talents on the bench, who else can boast that kind of potential from their reserves?

The starting lineup is loaded as well. We have already established that Vlade can pass, but we left out that Atkins, Odom, and Caron are all quite skilled at it as well. Odom is a player who was once compared to Magic Johnson while in high school.

In a recent ESPN the Magazine article, he has said that he has no problem deferring to Kobe as the second option. Becoming Pippen to Kobe's Jordan, downright scary.

This team is very similar to the lineup Jerry West has put together in Memphis. It is young, deep, and has a multitude of interchangeable parts. That Memphis team won 50 games last year in the mighty West. The only difference between the two teams is that Memphis does not have a Kobe Bryant, a top-five player in the league, a guy who has averaged 30 points a game in a season, a guy who has won championships, a guy who has hit big shots when it counted. They don't have a franchise player.

That single difference is what makes this Lakers team so tantalizing

This Lakers team is last years Memphis with a go-to guy.

Maybe they won't win the title this year, but they will, very soon.

You can see more of Stephen's writing at http://www.thesportmanagementnetwork.org or discuss this article with the author at http://smasters1.proboards31.com/index.cgi