The off-season is less than 24 hours old for the Los Angeles Lakers, but it’s never too early to start looking ahead to next year. Following their second straight second round exit, the Lakers are expected to make some major changes during the summer to try and regain their championship form heading into next season.
One area where the team is expected to look for a change is the point guard position. Despite acquiring Ramon Sessions on the trade deadline last March, Los Angeles could still look for another way to improve their backcourt.
According to Bradford Doolittle of ESPN, that improvement could come in the form of Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash.
This promises to be a tumultuous offseason for the Lakers, who may be in on the Dwight Howard sweepstakes, in which case they’d be giving up Pau Gasol and/or Andrew Bynum.
While Nash and Howard would be dynamic together, how does Bryant fit into that scenario? Is he really going to go from using 35 percent of his team’s possessions to relinquishing control to Nash?
Well, nothing like jumping straight into the deep end of the rumor pool. Following the drama-filled season Andrew Bynum has had, it’s possible that they may once again open the Howard negotiations, but Howard has already stated he doesn’t want to end up in Los Angeles, at least not with the Lakers.
Nash may be a long shot as well, as he has spent much of his career loathing the Lakers. He even did a Vitamin Water commercial where he took a not-so-subtle jab at Los Angeles. But, we’ve seen in the past players put aside their L.A. biases and join the Lakers for a chance to win a championship. With his career on the decline, Nash could be next.
Welcome to the off-season, folks. It’s going to be a wild ride.