While Kobe Bryant Watch Continues, Lesser LA Lakers Must Seize Spotlight

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — After one of the illustrious franchise’s most exciting four-day stretches (Kobe lives!) without a single thing officially happening, the Los Angeles Lakers return to what has been their norm this season on Friday night.

They will field one of the greatest inactive lists in NBA history.

Inactives: Bryant, Nash.

The list of active players? Well, when neither Kobe Bryant nor Steve Nash is out there, the Lakers have all of one player—Pau Gasol—on the roster making more than $4 million.

The average NBA salary is $4.5 million.

So, it’s Pau and some other guys. And just to be clear, this is a sore-footed, out-of-shape Pau, now 33, coming off dual knee procedures over the summer.

This is the same Pau about whom the Denver Nuggets’ radio guy could be heard last week howling: “Gasol is getting it handed it to him at both ends by Mozgov! I beg them to go into Gasol against Mozgov!”

Additional perspective: Nondescript Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov makes $4.4 million, so…Mozgov actually makes more than all 12 guys on the Lakers’ active roster besides Gasol.

For the Lakers to be 5-7 this season against one of the NBA’s toughest schedules is not so bad. For them to know that Bryant is on his way back from that ruptured Achilles is very good.

What would be absolutely devastating? For the Lakers to lose, say, five out of the next six and have Bryant come back to debut on a team in deep doo-doo at 6-12.

It’s certainly conceivable: Coming up are three games in four nights out East (Washington Wizards, Brooklyn Nets, Detroit Pistons) and home games against the 8-4 Golden State Warriors and 10-2 Portland Trail Blazers to go with one lighter home date with the 4-7 Sacramento Kings.

Perhaps Bryant will be back sooner than Dec. 6, even though he took a day off Thursday because of soreness in the area of that left Achilles. After Saturday, the Lakers don’t intend to practice again for nearly a week (Nov. 30), meaning Bryant won’t have much chance at all to scrape off rust in a proper team setting if he decides to play before December.

If he does come back soon, and that is possible after how much conditioning he has already regained, Bryant figures to work largely as a decoy while he remasters his mix: He was mostly setting up teammates for open shots in his two practices Tuesday and Wednesday, and that approach is one thing the Lakers can certainly use.

The Lakers are second in NBA three-pointers per game (10.2), and they’ve done it without much of a threat inside. That’s why Jordan Hill’s value is so great, because he rolls hard off picks and sucks defensive attention inside to create space for that perimeter shooting.

With a well-established post presence and ability to probe the paint and draw help, Bryant will help the Lakers break down defenses, something that has mostly come from erratic backups Jordan Farmar and Xavier Henry so far.

When he has played this season, Nash has not been able to provide that longtime pick-and-roll threat, as seen most clearly in the season’s third game, when he was left terribly frustrated after missing open inside shots granted him by Gregg Popovich in the Lakers’ narrow loss to the San Antonio Spurs.

Nash has been out almost two weeks now because of nerve root pain in his back that's also plaguing his left leg, and there is still absolutely no expectation within the Lakers’ organization that he can really get better.

The 39-year-old is headed to Vancouver next week with his longtime physiotherapist Rick Celebrini, who has already been in Los Angeles working with Nash, to pursue ways to alleviate pain and add strength.

Celebrini, a partner of renowned ex-Lakers athletic performance coordinator Alex McKechnie, helped remake Nash’s body with intense summer training right before he went to Phoenix and won consecutive NBA MVP awards in 2005 and 2006.

But the Lakers remain concerned that Nash will never be able to overcome what ails him now, which will leave them back in a place they’ve been trying so hard to escape: being overly dependent on Bryant.

Even though the Nash-less, Bryant-less Lakers failed to sell out a Staples Center game for the first time since 2006, there has been a quiet storyline to watch: Which of these lesser Lakers can establish dependable roles they can carry through even after Bryant is back?

There has been fine work done by Hill, Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks, in particular. To accommodate both Blake and Meeks in the backcourt, Bryant actually projects now to play a lot of small forward. For his part, Gasol is a pretty sure bet to rediscover his efficiency with Bryant’s help.

So have the Lakers, who to date have started 10 different players, come around to a solid starting five with Bryant joining Hill, Gasol, Blake and Meeks to go with a high-energy bench crew?

For as long as Bryant remains out, those are the key players, and that is the angle to watch—plus one other thing would most earn Bryant’s respect.

Have these less-than-average-salary Lakers banded together to become a crew that really goes for it? Have they figured out how to work their tails off for every edge?

That, according to Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni, is pretty much the game plan for the season.

“The identity,” D’Antoni said, “is going to be: ‘We have to play full-out for 48.’ And then Kobe comes back.”

*All quotes were obtained firsthand.