The Lakers are one of those teams that people love to hate. If you’re a Lakers fan, then you love them with all your heart, but if you’re not, you despise them. Amazingly, LeBron James has taken some of the heat off the Lakers – no pun intended. More people now hate LeBron than Kobe. This should take a good deal of pressure off Kobe, but to be honest, Kobe doesn’t care about pressure. The guy has won five championships. You can’t accomplish that if pressure gets to you. What must be extremely frustrating for Kobe is that MJ has six championships. If Kobe can win one more title, he will also have six and can be in the company of the god-like Michael Jordan. Well, actually, this would only be in Kobe’s mind. While he’s just as good a scorer as MJ was, he’s not as good when you’re talking about a complete player. Regardless, Kobe wants to win one more title. Can he get it done with his current team?

Prior to the NBA season, the Lakers made a trade for Point Guard Chris Paul. If that trade had gone through, forget about it, the Lakers would have won it all. However, David Stern had to step in and block the deal. The Lakers were left with Derek Fisher as their starting PG – again. It seems like Derek Fisher has been playing since the Wilt Chamberlin era. He’s not what he used to be and he doesn’t make many spectacular plays, but he does play smart and he doesn’t turn the ball over.

Ron Artest was hired a couple of seasons ago to be an intimidator and make the Lakers tougher. That worked out well for a while, but considering he just changed his name to Metta World Peace, that intimidation factor has seriously faded. Artest is also aging a little. He’s still got time, but he doesn’t care about the game enough to stay in top-tier shape and offer everything he can to the team.

Pau Gasol was bashed by the media for being too soft last season. Look for him to respond in a big way. If the Lakers are going to have any chance at the NBA title, it’s going to have to be Kobe and Gasol leading the way. As far as Andrew Bynum goes, expect mediocrity as always. Devin Ebanks is a young player who is getting more playing time. He could be a sleeper. If he ends up panning out, the Lakers will once again be a serious threat.

Despite all the problems the Lakers have, they will likely be the best team in the West by the end of the season. Therefore, they should keep they’re current unit. It’s the East that they’ll have trouble with once making it to the Finals.