Naturally, it wouldn't be a proper offseason for the Los Angeles Lakers without trade rumors up the wazoo gripping our attention. The latest rehashes a trade possibility that was opened last draft, and those of you with long memories likely realize that it involves Andre Iguodala. On the eve of the draft, the Lakers had a possible deal that would have sent Lamar Odom and Luke Walton along with a pick to the Sixers for Iggy. Needless to say, that would have been an amazing coup for Mitch Kupchak. Odom was utterly terrible this season away from L.A. and Walton's lack of basketball utility has been all but cemented for quite a while. Iggy, meanwhile, is one of the game's finest two-way players, an elite defensive talent who can do basically everything: shoot from range, slash to the basket with his amazing hops, set up the offense with his very underrated passing for a wing, and shut down the opponent's perimeter threat all at the same time.

And now according to Hoopsworld's Alex Kennedy, the Lakers plan to get involved in these discussions again. Kennedy doesn't mention any names specifically, but an educated guess would put Pau Gasol at the forefront of the trade package. After the Lakers' fall in the second round, Gasol has been labeled the most likely scapegoat for the Lakers' failures and essentially every media outlet in existence has essentially determined that he's on the way out. In a possible Pau-Iggy swap, more players would have to be involved because the salaries don't match and the Lakers likely would want to offload pieces like Metta World Peace (redundant with Iggy in town), Josh McRoberts (mediocre year, superfluous if Jordan Hill is re-signed), and Steve Blake (bad contract, poor play). What Philly would be willing to give up is a fair question, as it depends greatly on the mindset of their FO. Lou Williams, who would almost certainly decline his option and enter free agency this summer, might be had via a sign-and-trade, or Thaddeus Young or Elton Brand might be available should Philly value Pau very highly, although that appears unlikely.

Iggy is the right kind of player the Lakers should be targeting if Pau is being used as a trade chip, however. The athleticism deficit and lack of dynamism on the wing outside of Kobe Bryant is one of the team's most pressing concerns and Iggy fills that in a big way. As a guy who had to carry much of the burden of running Philly's offense and still acting as the primary defensive stopper, Iggy would likely fare better if he got to play off both Kobe and Andrew Bynum and both would benefit from his presence in return. Among the fantastical scenarios being tossed around throughout Laker Nation right now, dealing for Iggy would be a sound move and definitely kick off the offseason on the right note for the Lakers.

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To say that Game 2 was a disaster would be underselling what it means for the Lakers. True, a series doesn't really begin until a road team wins, but that platitude looks far less relevant when the Lakers have to play a back-to-back against a bunch of young legs, and were just beaten in a game during which they really tried to win. The Lakers gave away a seven point lead in the final two minutes in just about the worst way possible: repeatably shooting themselves in the foot. It would be one thing to be beaten by heroics from Kevin Durant, but it is especially disheartening when your own failures are to blame. For the previous 46 minutes, the Lakers brought the requisite effort required to rebound from their Game 1 annihilation and take control of the series heading back to L.A. You simply can't give anything away to a team as good as the Thunder, and the Lakers provided them with a bigger gift than anything they did in the first round against Denver. If the Lakers are going to come back in this series, the most likely method is simply by taking the next four games in a row: get momentum at home, beat the Thunder in OKC, and finish them in Game 6. The sheer improbability of that statement is fairly evident on its face.

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• The defense -- If anything will keep the Lakers in this series, it was the kind of defensive effort they brought on Wednesday evening. For the first time in a long while, the Lakers were actively forcing turnovers via players getting in the passing lanes or from pressure being exerted on ballhandlers off the pick-and-roll. Good hedges were being made, penetration deterred, and the defensive boards taken care of for the most part. Mike Brown deserves tremendous credit for making his defensive acumen, long an informed ability rather than a visible one, apparent on the court after OKC's shellacking of the Lakers' defensive schemes in Game 1. No doubt OKC will adjust, but as we noted from the start of the series, the lack of frontcourt scorers OKC possesses gives the bigs great freedom in helping on perimeter players and only Serge Ibaka has somewhat hurt the Lakers in this regard. It may not be enough to stave off a defeat in this series, but a similar defensive effort as in Game 2 at least gives the Lakers a fighting chance for the remainder of the playoffs.

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The problem with yesterday's utter annihilation is fishing for notes of optimism amid a huge cloud of negativity, and frankly, it's pretty difficult. The obvious conclusion to draw is that the Thunder are simply better than the Lakers, which is hardly outlandish. They executed better, had far more energy and played to their strengths in a focused and determined manner. You could say that a lack of rest for the Lakers and quite a bit of it for the Thunder was a key factor, but that is one that will persist for the entire series because the NBA has seen fit not only to not give the Lakers a whole lot of rest, but schedule a pair of back-to-back for the Lakers' stand at Staples Center, hardly an ideal solution for an older team. The shooting numbers for the Thunder look unsustainable, but for the most part, they were attempts taken in the flow of the offense and most of them were open for that matter. Altogether, the Lakers are simply going to have to manufacture reasons in Game 2 to help their fans see any light at the end of the tunnel. At the moment, there is precious little to indicate that this is one that the Lakers have even a puncher's chance in.

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• Andrew Bynum -- Bynum was basically the only player who didn't embarrass himself in Game 1, and he no doubt felt liberated by the absence of hard doubles -- Russell Westbrook in particular looked tentative over whether he should do so -- and ability to work his craft against one defender. Injury or no, Kendrick Perkins didn't come remotely close to stopping Bynum, who is a far different beast than say Dwight Howard, to whom Perkins owes a good deal of his defensive reputation. Not only is Bynum harder to push away from the basket simply by virtue of sheer mass, he is hardly disadvantaged as Howard is by being farther from the low block due to his arsenal of fadeaways, sweet hook shots and up and unders. Of course, this meant that he touched the ball not nearly as much as he should, notably since the Thunder did not make it anywhere as difficult as Denver did to inbound the ball into the post. For the Lakers to have any shot in this series, Bynum needs to be someone that is constantly utilized on the low block, both from a schematic perspective and the fact that if Bynum gets remotely disinterested, the playoffs are basically over for the Lakers.

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As Dex nicely elucidated in his post following Game 6, tonight's game will be a key inflection point in terms of how the Lakers progress in subsequent seasons. The most likely culprit appears to be Mike Brown, but even past that, the very fabric of the Lakers' management strategy will depend on the outcome of Game 7. A key assumption made by the Lakers' front office was that despite the setback in Dallas last year, the Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum nucleus was one that could reasonably compete for a championship while the Lakers downsized and tried to deal with the realities of the new collective bargaining agreement. Should the Lakers lose in the first round against Denver, an ignominious fate for a team with such a large amount of top heavy talent, that assumption falls flat on its face. It was already a given that Pau Gasol is likely on his way out both to help fill the team with young talent and to relieve the Lakers of the need of paying an aging third wheel nearly $20 million a year, but a first round upset might propel the Lakers towards even more drastic measures. The utility of paying Kobe his massive salary comes into question, and while nothing is likely to come of that because of the sheer difficulty in finding a trading partner who can absorb Kobe's contract and send adequate talent back -- the Knicks, anyone? -- it at least will become a topic of discussion among the Laker executives.

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The effort deficit is nothing new. A viewer unfamiliar with the nuances of the Lakers for the previous few years would venture that blame lies at the feet of new coach Mike Brown, a calcifying core, or something similar, but when it really comes down to it, the Lakers are no strangers to not putting forth one hundred percent effort in the playoffs. If you still don't believe me, look at the 2009 matchup against Houston, during which the Lakers failed to put away arguably a worse team than this Denver squad in less than seven games. Whenever they felt like it, they could obliterate Houston and show the sheer difference in talent that existed between the two. Yet, the Lakers dropped Game 1 in L.A. and showed an embarrassing lack of effort in their two other losses in the series. This is not to say that this current iteration of the Lakers is the same as that '08-'09 team, which was for all intents and purposes, an elite squad -- third in offensive efficiency, sixth in defensive efficiency, 65-17 regular season record, and they really could have broken 70 if they cared to bring it on every night. The '11-'12 Lakers are nowhere near that rarefied level, but they are still a very, very good team and still think they can coast on their talent on most nights. It is something ingrained into the heads of the primary core players, transcends coach and system, and as such, is something that you simply have to accept with this team. A Game 5 loss in a closeout game is hardly the end of the world since the team still has two shots to right the ship, and as Chris noted in a piece six days ago, what ultimately matters in the end is that your team advances.

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• Kobe Bryant -- Of course, don't tell any of this to Kobe, who nearly brought the Lakers back from the brink on his lonesome. He hit insane three after insane three down the stretch in the fourth quarter and it seemed practically inevitable that the Lakers were going to come back -- that Sessions three looked so good out of his hands -- particularly since the Nuggets halfcourt game devolved into utter stagnation. On a night when practically every other Lakers player was devoid of effort or passion, Kobe's aggressive chucking was not only acceptable, it was necessary to drag the Lakers out of their funk. There were still sequences earlier in the game during which he made things unnecessarily difficult on himself -- his first shot was an airball after he double pumped on a wide open three pointer after all -- and he proved during the course of the game that he could get his own through simple catch and shoot plays off screens rather than nutty footwork combinations. All that noted, Kobe was the only shot in the only shot in the arm for the Lakers the entire game, and he came within inches of giving us a storybook finish to the series.

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By this time, it is fairly clear that the efforts of the Lakers' role players are the determining factor in any given game. With Denver so dedicated to stopping the interior game -- particularly Andrew Bynum, as you can read from Chris' piece earlier today -- other opportunities have opened up, and at least for the closing minutes of last night, the Lakers took advantage. With only an eight man rotation and such heavy minutes given to the starters, the Lakers don't necessarily need a high octane scoring bench similar to what Denver has, but they do need to make the shots they are given as part of the offense and work hard on defense. No one will confuse this unit with the last group to truly deserve the moniker "Bench Mob" ('07-'08), but seemingly year after year, Mitch Kupchak has filched someone in a trade that ends up filling an essential role for the Lakers in the playoffs, a development that has kept the Lakers' reserves afloat thus far this series. A continual lack of first round picks, payroll flexibility, and a train of poor free agent signings have not deterred him from finding a way to work things out.

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• Jordan Hill -- Ironically, the player who has best filled that description thus far in the playoffs has not been headline acquisition Ramon Sessions, but rather Hill, who didn't even play significant minutes until very late in the year. Thus far in the series, he has acquired an ironclad hold on the third big spot and is proving yet again that all those adjusted rebounding statistics are telling a very real truth: he is a dynamo on the boards. His ability to jump for rebounds is uncanny, especially in crowds and he has the athleticism to go right back up to secure the ball on tips after his initial jump. Combined with his seemingly limitless motor, he has made a huge impact in the series despite largely getting garbage points around the rim. He simply tries harder than the players around him. In Game 4, Hill forced at least two turnovers simply due to being active on his pick-and-roll coverage -- and he is far and away the team's best pick-and-roll defender because of that lateral quickness -- and even if he's not completely up to speed on the defensive rotations, he'll sure as hell try to get to where he thinks he needs to be. For the wonderfully skilled and multifaceted bigs the Lakers have in their starting lineup, Hill is a perfect complement.

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If there's one thing that changes when the playoffs comes along, it's that the concept of moral victories disappears. There's precious little context to take from a loss -- it's final, in the books, and just a deeper hole that you have to dig yourself out of. Insane shooting nights you can dismiss as outliers in the regular season are things you have to deal with as possibilities with very real consequences in the playoffs. So while the Lakers squeaked out a victory at home to take a two game lead in the series, do not doubt Denver's ability to take a game at home by virtue of shots simply falling despite whatever defensive adjustments are made, effort being expended, and so forth. They have the offensive firepower to do so at least once. This noted, we should remember that outliers are just that: outliers. The Lakers have consistently controlled the series via their vastly superior frontcourt and a healthy dose of Kobe Bryant and that formula is one that should give them victory in two of the next three, if my prediction is worth anything (hint: it's not). Altogether, this is what ultimately makes the playoffs exciting. To put it bluntly, stuff happens and we only find out the particulars of the proceedings game to game as twists are no doubt there to confound us.

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• Kobe Bryant -- Of course, everything said above about the Nuggets heating up on offense applies to Kobe absolutely exploding at any given point to take control of a game. He blew away every Nuggets defender sent at him with deft footwork and his trademark difficult shot making yesterday, and it is not really clear what Denver should do in those circumstances. Arron Afflalo has proven that he cannot deal with Kobe in a straight-up situation, and Andre Miller and Corey Brewer will likely prove no better. The flip side is that putting more pressure on Kobe opens the door for utter dominance from Andrew Bynum, who has destroyed practically every instance of single coverage that he has seen this series. Giving Kobe a few somewhat tough long twos seems almost preferable to Bynum running rampant on the low block, and either way, Denver faces a classic Catch-22 here. If you were wondering why Kobe and Shaq were such a dominant combination, this is one of the foremost reasons, aside from the fact that both were -- and Kobe still is -- unbelievably good players. The only downside to Kobe's hot shooting is the number of times the Nuggets turned his misses into transition opportunities, but that goes on the defense as a whole, which was much shakier Tuesday than it was last Sunday.

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Now that's how you open up a playoff run. The Lakers uncorked hell of a defensive effort against one of the league's elite offenses and absolutely stifled the Nuggets all night long. As Chris and several other people noted on Twitter during the game, the fear in the eyes of every Denver player driving to the rim was palpable, as they were all but certain that a certain behemoth center was coming over to bother their shot. This was as engaged as the Lakers have been on the defensive end all season, something especially notable considering how poor of a defensive team they have been lately. While you have to look at sample size and all that, one can venture that effort was the primary cause in the Lakers' previous defensive troubles, and there certainly is no shortage of that when the games start to matter. Needless to say, if the Lakers continue to play this well, not only will Metta World Peace likely still be watching the playoffs from his house in the second round, he might be there for more than just one game. All that noted, we have seen the Lakers take playoff opponents lightly in the past, but after last year's fiasco, the team certainly is putting the work in as of now.

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• Andrew Bynum -- Of course, it all started with a sublime defensive showing from Bynum, who was practically indistinguishable from every elite defensive center who has played the game. He contested shots everywhere on the court, removed the paint from the Nuggets' offensive options, and was so active that he switched onto Ty Lawson on one possession, stayed with him as he drove, and sent his shot attempt near the rim into the stands. The record breaking and all that were undoubtedly impressive -- especially so for anyone who breaks a Laker playoff record, always a superb accomplishment -- but the sheer amount of effort that Bynum invested into this game was more so. Bynum has run the gamut from lackadaisical to dominant this year on the defensive end, and to see him as absorbed in his defensive responsibilities as he was during his stretch after the All-Star game last season has to be an endearing sight to every Laker fan. That the Lakers will go as far as their defense takes them is a mantra that has been true for every Laker championship run, and Bynum is no doubt a huge part of that.

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Alas, the Lakers were one win away from nailing my prediction made in December for a 42-24 season, and likely would have if Kobe Bryant had decided to shoot for the scoring title. This twist fits well, however, with a season that has had nothing but dramatic ups and downs for a team that has been in flux ever since the aborted Chris Paul trade. The true worth of this season will only be ascertained in the coming weeks, but at least right now, we can look at how how the players dealt with the shortened season, surpassed our expectations, or miserably failed to reach them. A full evaluation is difficult because of the limited practice time, a lack of a real training camp, and in-season trade that changed how the team approaches the offense, but the core, for the most part, remained consistent throughout the season and we certainly have enough of a sample size with which to analyze them. Considering all the aforementioned issues, it would be hard to label this season a disappointment, especially since it came so close with my expectations, but this is still a very, very good core that certainly could have performed better than this. We can only hope that they show in the playoffs that such potential existed in the first place.

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• Andrew Bynum -- Most of that optimism lies with Bynum, who surpassed expectations this year despite a five point uptick in his usage rate and an expectation that he was going to be a big contributor night in and night out. He seemingly broke out new post moves every other week, dominated some of the best post defenders the league has to offer, and proved that he was a worthy second to Dwight Howard in the league's center rankings. He even attempted to match Howard in the lack of maturity category, although Howard appears to be ahead by virtue of his trade fiasco and backstabbing his coach. Bynum has certainly been petulant occasionally this season and his effort has come and gone, but for the most part, no one can doubt that he has secured a firm hold on the second banana status on the team. In terms of advanced statistics, he finally surpassed his breakout 2007-08 season, and holds the top mark on the team with a 23 PER. Assuming Bynum is dialed in for the playoffs, that is a mark he easily could blow past.

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After the insanity of the shortened season, having the playoffs in sight and a clear hold on the number three seed must be comforting to Lakers fans, who have had to deal with a whirlwind set of changing circumstances this year. Week to week, the team either looked like a world beater, a mediocre squad, or complete garbage, something that was seemingly subject to the whims of the basketball gods. The ever-changing rotations of Mike Brown were one such cause, as players were inserted into the lineup or demoted to the bench seemingly every other game or so, and there were many circumstances in which his decisions were questionable, if not mind-boggling. That noted, if we are to criticize, we must be ready to dole out praise as appropriate, and Brown did hell of a thing against Oklahoma City on Sunday. He stuck with a mostly energy lineup that showed heart, worked on defense, and clawed the Lakers back into the game close enough to clear the way for some patented Kobe Bryant heroics. Even more than the walloping of San Antonio, this game was probably the Lakers' best win of the season and hopefully showed that they have the mettle to grind their way through a postseason that is finally before them.

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• Jordan Hill -- No player better embodied this than Hill, whom Brown took off the bench seemingly as a whim, and in the space of a few minutes, he clearly proved why he was Josh McRoberts' and Troy Murphy's superior. He rebounded like a madman -- and this is no fluke; he is eighth in the entire league in rebound rate (19.8) -- ran the floor, played some inspired pick-and-roll and defense, and displayed a decent midrange and post-up game. He was picked eighth in the 2009 draft for a reason, as his lateral quickness and athleticism allowed him to successfully hedge and recover and disrupt plays in space, something no other big on the roster has been able to do consistently. His contest on Russell Westbrook's three at the end of the first overtime on Sunday was a textbook example. The number of plays, moreover, that he extended by simply working his tail off can't be counted, and if he is coming into his own after a turbulent beginning to his NBA career, the Lakers got hell of a gem for an aging Derek Fisher.

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With three games left in the season, two against the West's top seeds, one would be tempted to consider this a barometer of where the Lakers are on the verge of the playoffs, but we likely will be contented with a confirmation that a certain Kobe Bryant is ready to lead this team to the promised land. Kobe's return forces an adjustment in a dynamic that has resulted in various Laker role players raising their games in order to keep the team above water, as some beautiful sequences of inside-out play have kept the offensive flowing well. Will Kobe disturb this? Not really as long as he commits to being the off ball threat that he started to become since the team dealt for Ramon Sessions. With Kobe in motion, it becomes harder to devote as much attention to the Lakers' post players, driving and passing lanes suddenly become open, and in general, everything functions more smoothly. Make no doubt: the Lakers are a supremely better squad with Kobe in the mix, but in turn, that requires both Kobe and to the team to accept what is most effective and how Kobe can best integrate into what is starting to look like a very dangerous playoff team.

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• Pau Gasol -- The biggest change for Gasol will simply be a lack of touches. Moving Kobe back into the lineup means that Pau is back to being the third or even fourth option on a lot of possessions during which he will mostly be shooting jumpers from the high post, throwing some passes around to cutters and shooters, and getting a post-up once in a while. There's little chance that could replicate his stellar triple double against Golden State, for instance, although the passing acumen he demonstrated will assuredly continue to be useful. He definitely is the best pick-and-roll partner for either Kobe or Sessions on the team and is excellent at acting as a release valve on post-ups or penetration, things that will become more prevalent with Kobe taking more attention from opposing defenses. One also hopes that the team revives the Kobe-Gasol-Bynum connections -- Kobe/Gasol on the 2-4 pick-and-roll, Kobe passes to Gasol, who pops out and throws the alley-oop pass Bynum after Bynum's defender has to move over to cover a suddenly open Pau -- that worked so well in the past. In all, Pau will act much more as the glue guy between the Lakers' perimeter and post players and it is important for him to still keep the aggression level high.

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When playing without your best player, a team either demonstrates the strength of its depth and commitment to the coach's system by performing well or generally performs poorly due to a lack of the aforementioned items. If you had told me ten days ago that the Lakers would be 4-1 without Kobe Bryant, including three consecutive wins against Western conference playoff teams, yours truly would have been incredulous. The bench had been a glaring weakness on the team and even after the acquisition of Ramon Sessions, the loss of Kobe appeared to constitute a huge neutering of the Lakers' perimeter attack. Mike Brown, moreover, had demonstrated a tenuous ability to handle rotations and there were apparent flaws in his offensive and defensive strategies. Well, a week and a half later, the Lakers have received contributions from areas many least expected it to come from, and altogether, one could safely argue that the team has risen to the occasion. Should the Lakers' role players continue this high level of play when Kobe returns, Laker fans can have much greater hopes for the team's prospects during the playoffs.

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• Metta World Peace -- No player has bucked the level of expectations like MWP has. For most the season and even previous ones, consistent performances from MWP were considered minor miracles. Yet here he is in the month of April averaging 14.9 points per game on 49% shooting. He has regained confidence in his jumper (35.7% from beyond the arc), is nailing fadeaway shots over his man on post-ups with gusto, and even finishing at the rim in transition (!). His scintillating 26 points against San Antonio were almost as much of a sight as Andrew Bynum's 30 rebounds. At the other end, he has also seemingly regained some of his defensive presence, as his lighting quick hands will filch the ball away from an offensive defender a few times a game nowadays. It has become a tired saying to point out the Lakers' weakness at the small forward position, particularly in light of the huge improvement at the point with Sessions' arrival, were the most pressing problem on the team, but MWP's return to his old form, whether due to his apparent healing from a long-standing injury or not, has greatly alleviated those concerns.

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The Lakers eked out a close victory over the Mavericks in overtime 112 to 108 after a slow start and uneven defense threatened to turn the game upside down from the start. Andrew Bynum (23 points on 9-24 shooting, 16 rebounds) and Pau Gasol (20 points on 6-14 shooting, 10 rebounds, five assists) were the primary culprits in the Lakers' poor showing to begin the game along with Dirk Nowitzki, who only tallied 24 points on 28 shots despite a Lakers defense that constantly switched smaller players to him on the pick-and-roll. In general, the Lakers' defense was shoddy, leaving shooters open, lanes to the rim, and at least for the first half, when the Lakers allowed the Mavericks to shoot 55% from the field, it appeared like another uninspired Sunday performance.

Ramon Sessions kept the Lakers offense humming with 22 points and five assists, following up on his superlative performance last time these two teams met, and he constantly penetrated into the heart of the Mavericks' defense off the high pick-and-roll. This afternoon's game also saw the Lakers' small forwards, constantly heralded in the past as one of the primary weak links on the squad, continue to do solid work in Kobe Bryant's absence. Metta World Peace had 18 points along with six rebounds and four assists and Matt Barnes, after arguably his best game of the season at home against Denver, came just short of a triple double with an 11 point, 11 rebound, and eight assist performance.

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Playing without your top option is usually a test of not only your team's depth, but the players' trust in the system the coach has created for them. Naturally, in a compressed season, such comparisons are difficult, but two years ago, the Lakers found themselves in a similar predicament with Kobe Bryant out of the lineup, and hardly appeared to lose a step. Of course, Lamar Odom was present, as was a bench that was markedly better than this one, but either way, it is fairly clear that this bunch still has a ways to go before championship contention becomes a reasonable expectation. One could say that they are really dogging it in non-marquee games, as this team has been prone to do in the past and the level of effort against say Phoenix on a back-to-back can't really be compared against the Clippers at home, a game that featured some of the best execution we've seen for a while. Still, sans Kobe, the team has had trouble executing on both ends, emphasizing not only the top heavy nature of the roster but also perhaps a greater problem with the system as a whole.

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• Pau Gasol -- No player has better stepped up his game with Kobe out and Pau has shown the synergy he has with the rest of the roster, especially Sessions, with whom he works exceptionally well as a release valve on his drives and has a pick-and-pop partner. His post game still only intermittently shows up from time to time and he will miss some awfully easy hooks near the basket, but his amazingly accurate midrange game has been a huge boon to the Lakers' offense, as it has been all season. One wishes the Lakers would utilize Pau more as a distributor, notably for Bynum, who has had trouble creating offense due to increased double teams and a sudden unwillingness among the referees to blow the whistle. The utter disappearance of the pick-and-roll sets on the wing in which Pau receives the ball and tosses a lob to Drew are disconcerting, as are the 4-5 pick-and-roll sets that accomplish much of the same thing, but that owes itself to coaching more than anything. Still, given the likelihood that Pau will be shipped off in the offseason, he's doing an awfully good job assuaging the fears of any team who doesn't think that he can't be a primary contributor for them.

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Following the win against the Clippers, we can be reasonably assured that barring a horrendous finish to the season, the Lakers will come out on top with at least the third seed in the West. Getting any higher appears to be rather difficult given that the Spurs have a four and a half game lead on the Lakers, so even if the Lakers sweep the three (!) games that they have yet to play against the Spurs, it is unlikely that a better seed is possible. That the Spurs get the top seed is not a far-fetched scenario either, as they are tied with the Thunder in the loss column, which should give the Lakers ample motivation in those games to avoid a very tough second round matchup. In any case, we should now turn our gaze to the bottom end of the playoff picture and the ever-changing menagerie of probable first round opponents.

The Houston Rockets are one of those teams. In what must be a annual tradition for general manager Daryl Morey, his best two players in Kyle Lowry and Kevin Martin are out for the year, although Lowry might return close to the playoffs. In the meantime, Houston has eked out a playoff seed based on the strength of a motley collection of role players and established veterans that Morey appears to pull from the ether every year. Houston is by all respects an average team -- they rank twelfth in offensive efficiency, fifteenth on the defensive side and are middling in terms of pace. At the same time, they defeated the Thunder and the Bulls on the road last month and have consistently produced more than what would be seemingly possible with the sum of their parts.

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A sign of any good player is that the flow of the game completely changes when he enters the game: he demands increased attention from the defense, provokes new schemes, and opens opportunities for his teammates. A point guard who can shoot from range, run the pick-and-roll, accelerate into the paint, probe the defense, make pinpoint passes at top speed, and finish at the rim is one such player. That is why Chris Paul is having such an impact...oh, excuse, me, Ramon Sessions is having such an impact with the Lakers right now. Sessions certainly isn't Chris Paul by any measure, but he looked awfully like him in the game against Dallas, as the difference between him and Steve Blake was as clear as night and day. All of the Lakers' struggles on offense seemed to evaporate on the spot as soon as Sessions got the ball in his hands and began attacking Dallas' defense -- one of the best pick-and-roll defenses and overall defenses in the league mind you -- with gusto, looking like he was the one who had been with the team since day one, not Blake. The notion that Sessions could get even better as he develops more synergy with the team has to be a comforting thought to any Lakers fan.

• Ramon Sessions -- The "should Sessions start?" question has been hashed out by nearly the entire Lakers' blogosphere, with interesting arguments made for both sides. Regardless of how it ultimately plays out, it is clear that Sessions should be playing at least 30+ minutes a night, or at the very least, as much as any other member of the big three. It would not be wrong to compare Sessions' role to that of Rajon Rondo's on the '07-'08 version of the Celtics as the fourth wheel that made the rest of the roster work, besides the fact that Sessions can shoot and is better than Rondo was then. There still are a handful of issues to iron out, particularly how he works with and off Kobe, but the Dallas game indicated that the two can work together, and if Kobe's post game comments are to be taken at face value, they certainly will make a game effort to do so.

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With the possible exception of opening night, perhaps no game held Lakers fans in more utter rapture than Friday's contest against Minnesota, during which we realized that yes, it is conceivable for the Lakers to have competent point guard play. From the moment Sessions turned on the jets and sped right past Jose Juan Barea, the tormentor of the Lakers in last year's playoffs, we knew that we had something special on our hands. And mind you, Sessions is an above average point. He is not a star, not even a borderline All-Star, but the sheer difference between Sessions and Derek Fisher and Steve Blake was clear as day almost from the moment that Sessions stepped on the court. The question of whether he should start or not aside, it is plainly clear that the team benefits from every minute he is on the court rather than Blake, and it would not be surprising for Mike Brown to come to the same conclusion.

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• Ramon Sessions -- Perhaps the most impressive thing that Sessions did, more than his ability to attack the rim, probe the defense, and run the pick-and-roll, was his instant synergy with Matt Barnes, something that took Steve Blake half a season to acquire. Sessions' ability to push the tempo works wonderfully with Barnes, who has been the best Laker this year at slipping out on the break for easy buckets. Aside from this, Sessions was drawing fouls like Kobe Bryant used to do three to four years ago whenever he attacked the rim. He even got a few touch fouls on the perimeter for his troubles. Some missed chippies at the rim notwithstanding, Sessions' ability to turn the corner off a pick and go straight to the rim is essentially exactly what the Lakers needed to complement Kobe, and how it helps the Lakers' bigs was shown in one sequence during which Sessions blew past his defender, forced Enes Kanter to help, and gave Bynum the ball right under the rim for an easy dunk. And as this is with only one practice and two games under his belt, we can only expect it to get better, people.

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In pair of deals today, the Lakers made a significant effort to change the fortunes of their franchise this season, landing Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga from the Cleveland Cavaliers for Luke Walton and Jason Kapono, and in arguably the most surprising transaction since the Pau Gasol trade, Jordan Hill from the Houston Rockets for Derek Fisher. Both of the Lakers' first round picks in the 2012 draft, their own and the one acquired from Dallas in the Lamar Odom trade, were also shipped out, indicating the degree to which the team has set its sights on competing in the present and make no mistake, these trades have certainly changed how we view this current team.

All this season, we have complained about the play of the Lakers' point guards, especially their inability to run the pick-and-roll aspect of Mike Brown's San Antonio-inspired offense. Well, that looks to change in short order, as Sessions is a quality pick-and-roll point that fills that role and with Fisher's departure, there should be little question of whom the Lakers value among their point guards. After the jump, we will examine what the Lakers' new acquisitions can contribute to the team this season, what the Lakers gave up to acquire them, and the future implications of the deals that were made and not made at the deadline.

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The Lakers have long needed a real point guard, made all more acute by the team's departure from the triangle and institution of a more traditional system under the auspices of coach Mike Brown. As we know well, the team tried to trade for Chris Paul at the start of the season before the league aborted that notion, and the Lakers have been rumored in a number of possible point guard deals ever since. Well, at least for now, the Lakers appear to have gotten their point guard. From ESPN's Brian Windhorst:

About to go up to ESPN.com: Lakers have agreed to a trade for Cavs point guard Ramon Sessions for a future draft pick.

Sessions was drafted by Milwaukee with the 56th pick in the 2007 draft and has shown himself as a nice contributor in limited minutes before getting signed by Minnesota and then dealt to Cleveland, where he showed that he was a solid pick-and-roll guard. As Sessions has a player option he is unlikely to exercise for next season and the Cavs have rookie phenom Kyrie Irving starting at the point, Sessions was expendable, and luckily for the Lakers, available for their purposes. We will update you on the particulars of the deal as they come out.

UPDATE (10:45 AM): So we have more particulars. From Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal:

BREAKING NEWS: #Cavs trade Ramon Sessions, Christian Eyenga to Lakers for Luke Walton and Lakers' #1 pick (top 14 protected) in 2012 draft.

Eyenga is an athletic forward taken by the Cavs in the 2009 draft. He is very raw and has some defensive potential, but is unlikely to be a contributor anytime soon. That noted, the Lakers were able to dump Luke Walton's contract on Cleveland in exchange for the Lakers' first rounder. The lottery protection on the outgoing first rounder won't mean anything unless there are a series of catastrophic injuries. Altogether, if the Lakers can retain Sessions after this season, it will be worth the cost. The Lakers, moreover, will retain the traded player exception (TPE) they acquired in the Lamar Odom deal, so the Michael Beasley deal that is reported to still be in the works can still be consummated.

UPDATE (11:39): Jason Kapono will be joining Luke Walton in Cleveland. This opens up a roster spot for another acquisition and ensures that rookie Andrew Goudelock will get some playing time, barring another trade. From Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski:

As part of the Ramon Sessions package, the Lakers sent Jason Kapono to Cleveland, league source tells Y! Sports.

UPDATE (12:08 AM): Coming right against the deadline, the Lakers have solved the new glut at the point guard position by dealing Derek Fisher and the first round pick they acquired from Dallas to Houston for backup center Jordan Hill. From Woj:

Let's fix this: The Lakers have traded Derek Fisher and a 2012 first-round pick (via Dallas) for Jordan Hill, league sources tell Y!

Follow this author on Twitter @brosales12.

Well, how about that? The Lakers, upholders of the mythic concept of playing hero ball in crunch time and abandoning any real sense of playing basketball, put together a solid stretch of plays to crawl back from a five point deficit in the closing minutes Sunday. In order, Kobe hit an admittedly ridiculous shot in the lane, passed to Andrew Bynum on a nice alley-oop attempt, nailed a wide open midrange shot after one of the best screens of Pau Gasol's career, and to the collective surprise of the entire fanbase, acted as a decoy on the penultimate possession while Bynum secured deep post position and sank a hook shot over Kevin Garnett. To top it all off, the Lakers played the Celtics perfectly on the final sequence of the game in a textbook example of how to defend a three point lead in the closing seconds. Unlike the collective reaction on every early morning television and radio station in existence the following day, I am not ready to say this was Kobe's big "passing the torch" moment to Bynum, but at the very least, it was an acknowledgment from Kobe of how much Bynum has matured and settled into a key role on the team. For all the rampant talk of the Lakers' chemistry imploding, it was a pretty notable, if not seminal, moment. Whether this will result in the Lakers pulling their heads out of their rears on the road is another matter, but we can bask in the positive vibes coming out of L.A. for the moment.

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• Andrew Bynum -- Yes, Garnett isn't as good of a defender as he once was -- although he still remains very, very good -- and his physical frame is ill-suited for stopping a gargantuan center like Bynum, but Drew can only play against the matchups that are in front of him. He was decisive in the post, active on defense, and showed all the things you want to see out of your number two option. His development in a season during which he has had to cope with greater responsibilities despite limited practice time and a new system has been hugely endearing, and it reminds us that Drew is still only 24 years old. The notion that Drew might not have yet reached his ceiling with the rest of the roster aging around him is another nice thought to entertain. If the front office obliges the fanbase and gets a real point guard, that growth will only hasten.

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A pair of depressing losses has done much to kill the confidence the Lakers had after a solid win against Miami last Sunday, but it is not inconsistent with our analysis of the team we thought had turned the corner and was ready to contend. The Lakers' win against Miami was largely in part due to the solid effort of the Lakers' bench, which usually turns in decent performances at home, and the superb play of Metta World Peace, who normally is a rather large liability for the Lakers. Take both of those things out of the equation and the Lakers dance on the edge of a knife every night depending on the play of their big three. Add in a few very poor games from Kobe Bryant and you find the Lakers dropping two games to a pair of bottom feeders. There really is that big of a gap between this team's highest potential and lowest depths. The schematic necessities aside that make acquiring a point guard all but necessary, what the Lakers seek in the trade market is more consistent producers that reduce the utter reliance the Lakers have on the big three any given night, and it is likely that such help is coming. The win against Minnesota was endearing, particularly for the way the team clawed back from a big deficit, but effort problems were visible even there.

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• Andrew Bynum -- One of the two players who kept on plugging away despite the rampant turmoil this week, Bynum turned in one of his best performances of the season against Detroit, putting up 30 points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks while holding his counterpart in Greg Monroe, one of the league's best frontcourt players, to a measly two points. And mind you, he's doing this with no point guard to feed him for easy buckets consistently, no spacing, and the worst excesses of a certain franchise superstar. His performance against Washington cut down on much of that luster and was a step back in regards to his ability to deal with double teams and move the ball out from the post, but he definitely was the Laker who put his best foot forward so far this week. He proved that by dissecting Minnesota's frontcourt to the tune of 26 points, and while his defense on Nikola Pekovic was far worse than the solid effort he put forth in the previous meeting against the Wolves, he generally acquitted himself well. We can only imagine Bynum's level of dominance with a certain Chris Paul feeding him buckets. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to punch something.

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As noted several times in these columns and most poignantly by Chris in an excellent piece yesterday, the roster outside of Kobe Bryant, Andrew Bynum, and Pau Gasol -- and Matt Barnes, the solitary "average" piece -- is quite terrible.

Of course, there have been a litany of explanations for this. A combination of the lockout, a shortened training camp and limited training camp has slowed the implementation of Mike Brown's system, and in retrospect, Brown deserves some serious props for making things work with a highly flawed roster, including no real point guard, a complete lack of spacing, and three primary players who can only operate effectively from the high post downwards.

As we have noted in numerous trade topics, one upside is that even a modest upgrade to this situation such as a Ramon Sessions or Michael Beasley would have a significant impact on the team's overall performance and this has not changed despite the team performing well of late. The other side of this coin is that the team noticeably perks up when one of its players at a position of weakness, whether at the point, the three, or a bench player, decides to perform well.

A not unreasonable argument is that some of the players on the roster, whether due to greater comfort with the offense or simply getting into game shape, will constitute a source of internal improvement over the final half of the season. As previously stated, this does not blunt the need for a trade, especially for a legitimate pick-and-roll point, but it offers another source through which Lakers fans may have some optimism in.

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• Metta World Peace -- The player that best demonstrated this Sunday afternoon was MWP, who might have had one of his best performances in a Laker uniform. He showed up in some ways we would expect, namely as a disruptive and punishing defender on LeBron James as well as a source of spacing, but also a scorer on the wing the team has lacked for quite a long time. MWP showed the full breadth of a game he likely hasn't displayed in full force since the name on the back of his jersey was Artest and the front had "Kings" in big letters. He went down into the post to bully smaller defenders, was sinking fadeaway jumpers, and taking his man off the dribble. MWP himself attributes some of this to a nerve problem in his leg that has cleared up, but whatever the reason, the effect of having an effective two-way threat at the three was displayed during the Heat game as the Lakers emerged with a long sought victory. If he continues at this level or even half of it, really, then the Lakers can look for a great deal of similar wins in the future.

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The passing of March 1st has made roughly a quarter of the league available to trade, not only in a legal sense but also on ESPN's NBA Trade Machine, which doubtless has kept many hoops junkies awake into the dead of night. (Yes, that includes yours truly.) Before you wonder in anxiety why a flurry of trades hasn't been announced yet, let us refer you to Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, who explains in this video with NBC Sports that because the trade deadline -- normally a February event -- has been moved to March, many front offices are busy scouting college prospects in the tournament and there isn't a whole lot of time for team executives to explore trade possibilities. Yes, Minnesota offered Michael Beasley to the Lakers for the Lakers' traded player exception and both of their first rounders, but we can attribute that to Beasley's value taking a jump after a solid performance against the Clippers. Obviously, two firsts is excessive, but the reality is that the Lakers have -- or at least, should have -- much grander hopes for their assets at the deadline and it undoubtedly starts with finding a point guard.

The offense on Wednesday night was impressive in the smooth ball and man movement that dissected a Minnesota team that had played the night beforehand, but it highlighted, as most games this season have, the dire lack of a real playmaker. No, Kobe Bryant can no longer really be considered one as he can barely dribble the ball nowadays with his deteriorating handle. He continues to show that he is most effective off the ball on curls, post-ups and especially as a cutter into the lane, where he was absolutely devastating Wednesday evening. Needless to say, a point guard who can feed Kobe in those spots and not make the offense so execution dependent aids that problem and has to be the Lakers' highest priority. Kyle Lowry, as has been discussed endlessly on this site since Tuesday, would be the premier option, dependent naturally on Daryl Morey deciding it is in his team's best interests, but given our current point guard situation, almost anything would be an upgrade at this juncture really.

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• Kobe Bryant -- The above screed shouldn't detract from how well Kobe played against Minnesota, but it highlights just how much he has changed as a player recently. A highly diminished first step and a suspect handle has torched a huge portion of Kobe's dribble game, and he simply isn't the perimeter threat he has been in recent years. It is a testament to his overall skill set and absurd work ethic that he still manages to be effective nevertheless, but when it really comes down to it, Kobe is a superlative jump shooter. Is he still a first option? No doubt, but he needs a lot more help from his teammates to do so because he has to be given the ball on the move on certain spots of the floor. Previously, we had the triangle to help Kobe in this regard, but in Mike Brown's system, the fix is instead a point guard who puts everyone in their proper places and provides good floor balance. Kobe has put the work in to adapt his game to what his body is allowing him to do, and it behooves the front office to find the supporting piece, whether it is Kyle Lowry, Ramon Sessions, or any number of serviceable pick-and-roll point guards, to do so.

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The first half of the season has made evidently clear that this Lakers squad is a flawed unit. Their top three in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum is as good of a championship core as there is in basketball. After that, there is Matt Barnes, who is having a respectable season as a backup combo forward, and the rest of the roster, none of whom can put up a PER better than 10. Needless to say, this won't do. Even with the playoffs, where you can compensate for having a weak bench by simply playing your starters more due to the numerous timeouts and rest between games, a supporting cast of this caliber isn't going to see the team back to the promised land.

The upside to this conundrum is that the players around the big three are so bad that even a modest upgrade could have a tremendous effect on the rest of the roster. If you are still dubious, observe the example of Steve Blake and how much smoother the offense runs when he takes the place of Derek Fisher. Blake, a serviceable backup point with decent court vision and most of all, an ability to run the pick-and-roll, is enough to give the Lakers offense a much needed boost. Past the point, the Lakers could use an upgrade at the three due to the moribund offensive ability of Metta World Peace and really, any scoring punch off the bench would be welcome. After the jump, we will review the Lakers' trade assets and the trade options that have been running through the rumor mill.

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Boom. In a downright brilliant show, the Lakers dominated the Blazers at both ends of the court last night, picking apart their defense with slick passing and man movement on one and forcing them into long contested jumpers on the other. Needless to say, this is what we expected this team to grow into and is one of the few things we can hang our hat on in hope that this kind of effort and execution shows up as the Lakers battle for playoff seeding. In many ways, this win is reminiscent of the victory against Utah on the final leg of the Lakers' back-to-back-to-back that opened the season, in which the Lakers thoroughly dominated the opposing team after a poor performance the previous night on the road. That the Lakers need to bring that same fire to their road games is another issue entirely, especially with a tough two-fer coming against the Mavericks and the Thunder, but it indicates that Mike Brown's system is settling in and finding a receptive audience. A serviceable point guard and more scoring at the small forward spot is definitely still a need, but at least for the moment, this group seems to be pulling things together.

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• Steve Blake -- This was teed off by Steve Blake, who was en fuego from behind the arc last night, nailing open three after open three off nice ball movement from the bench. He also remains the only guard on the team who is using the pick-and-roll well as a means to create for others -- save for Kobe in stretches -- and he has developed some nice synergy with Matt Barnes, whose cutting has often been rewarded by a nice pinpoint pass from Blake for a layup or dunk. Like the rest of the Laker guards, Blake could stand to throw fewer crazy alley-oop passes that Dwight Howard wouldn't be able to finish, but it emphasizes that Blake is getting everyone in the floor involved in the offense and needless to say, that's what this team needs to win in the long-term. The fact that Blake is having such an effect on the offense when he really is no more than a serviceable backup point guard only makes you wonder more how good this unit would be with a solid point at the helm (cough) Ramon Sessions (cough).

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Monday's game was a profoundly atypical one for this year's iteration of the Lakers and it wasn't due to the painful-on-the-eyes stretch down the middle of the game during which both teams couldn't buy a bucket. The fact that the Lakers are a top heavy team has been one of the main talking points in discussing the overall roster: a fantastic top three and a steaming pile of garbage that surrounds them. Against Atlanta, however, that narrative was flipped. The bench unit moved the ball with decisiveness, attacked Atlanta's reserves, and indeed, got the Lakers the leads they would hold for most of the game. Meanwhile, the return of the starters, the thing that has kept the Lakers in games for the grand majority of the season, lost the Lakers their leads as the ball stuck on the perimeter and the offense stalled. Needless to say, it is easy to call this a fluke on the part of the starters, who will likely perform better against Phoenix tonight after a full week of rest, but if this is a turning point for the bench unit, as Mike Brown has seemingly settled on a consistent rotation, then that only bodes well for this team's prospects.

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• Andrew Goudelock -- No player embodied the bench's overall effectiveness like Goudelock, who has arguably become the team's best perimeter threat besides Kobe Bryant. A big time scorer at the College of Charleston, Goudelock appears to be channeling that same mojo, as he's provided an efficient scoring presence off the bench that the team hasn't had so far this season. He combines a lethal shooting ability with a nice floater in the lane that makes him a threat on the perimeter and on the drive, and there's no doubt that he has a scorer's instincts. In a sequence emblematic of this, Goudelock ran a pick-and-roll with Troy Murphy, forced Atlanta to switch former Laker Vladimir Radmonovic onto him, sized up Radmonovic and nailed a three right in front of him after faking that he was going to drive. Needless to say, if this continues, it will relieve a lot of the pain from the team not getting J.R. Smith -- although it was never a very real possibility -- and make Gilbert Arenas a more and more implausible solution. While fellow rookie Darius Morris needs a lot more seasoning, Goudelock has risen to the challenge the team drafted for him for, and Mitch Kupchak deserves a lot of props for selecting him in the second round.

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Come one month from now on March 15th, the Lakers' prospects for this season and likely the next few will be determined. It goes without saying that at this current level of play, the Lakers' prospects for making noise in the playoffs are slim. Certainly, this does not remove the possibility of this current roster playing better -- as it is wont to do as they figure out Brown's system and become more comfortable with the reads -- but the Lakers would still require an awful lot to break their way to go far. The holes on the roster at the one and the three have been well-documented, and there's a fair argument to be made that the threes have -- a notion that would have been all but inexplicable a few months ago -- eclipsed the Lakers' point guards in terms of sheer awfulness. The largest reason has been the fact that Derek Fisher's backup has finally proven that he is a better solution than the starting point, something that has eluded for years now.

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• Steve Blake -- Aside from Pau Gasol on the defensive end, no player on the team has found a better home in Brown's system, as Blake appears to be liberated from the confines of the triangle in an offense that allows him to use his decent -- although not exceptional -- court vision and ballhandling skill to create off the pick-and-roll and even on penetration from time to time. As the offense basically requires those very things, Blake is a godsend, as he removes the primary ballhandling responsibilities from Kobe Bryant and makes things easier on everyone else. To call him a panacea would be overstating things -- when it comes down to it, he is essentially a very serviceable backup point -- but the utter disparity in fit and talent between Blake and Fisher only accentuates Blake's importance to the team. Of all the lineup adjustments that Brown has made this year, his decision to give the lion share of the minutes at the point to Blake over Fisher, even in crunch time situations, has arguably been his most astute. If Andrew Goudelock readjusts to playing off the ball more as the backup two guard, the Lakers could likely finally have a competent backup backcourt, something that the team has lacked since the Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic pairing in the '07-'08 season.

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