The New Look Los Angeles Lakers

Although the Lakers are on the quest for their 4th straight Finals appearance and 3rd straight championship with much of their core in tact, don't be fooled in thinking that this is the same old Laker team from last season. Great draft picks and offseason acquisitions, an older veteran crew and injuries will reshape the Los Angeles Lakers for this upcoming NBA season.

Possibly the most important off-season acquisition was acquiring Steve Blake. For several years now, a veteran Derek Fisher received minimal assistance at the point from the bench. Sure, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown supplied a few quick sparks here and there, but lacked consistency which ultimately put the Lakers in jeopardy. Combine this with Derek having a bad game and the Lakers lose, almost always. Steve Blake is a proven scorer and defender, and above all, has the high basketball IQ which is so crucial to Phil and the triangle offense. This new look Lakers will consist of Derek playing limited minutes in the regular season, possibly splitting time with Steve Blake and to some degree, Shannon Brown.

Matt Barnes brings intensity off of the bench for Kobe Bryant without having to worry about Sasha's gunslinging ways and poor decision making. Barnes is as close to a franchise role player as you can get. His defense, combined with Ron Artest, will pester and frustrate almost all of the NBA's strong perimeter players. He can also be counted on a solid 8 points per game. Furthermore, Kobe can rest his high mileage legs with confidence in maintaining or even extending the current lead. For once, Laker fans don't have to pray that "The Machine" has had an oil change prior to the game.

The new-look Lakers will involve Kobe Bryant playing less minutes, especially early in the season.

We've seen Kobe's numbers drop over the past several seasons, not because he is getting older, but because he has to do less for his team to win. Last season he no longer had to score 30 or 40 points for the Lakers to prevail, although he did bail them out of 6 games, which meant the difference between the first and third seed. Kobe's a very wise player at this point of his career, he understands that longevity will only be accomplished through the sparing use of "talents."

Kobe is going into the season with a recovering knee. He has not played basketball all summer. As apparent through the first couple of preseason games, his shot has suffered. He will not immediately be at 100% at the onset of the season. It will take a bit of time to adjust and heal from injury, so look for other players, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, to take a more prominent role in the Lakers starting five. This is not say that we will not see a healthy, possibly better Kobe Bryant when compared to last season.

One thing I noticed about Kobe Bryant's play this preseason was his explosiveness and aggression when driving to the basket. He seems to have gotten back some of that "glide" that makes him so finesse, yet dangerous.  When he has almost entirely recovered from knee surgery, look for traits of the old Kobe Bryant from a few season ago.

Lamar Odom has become better. FIBA play in the summer did wonders for his game. Anyone that watched the FIBA games can agree that Lamar looked more like the Clipper Lamar than the Laker. He took a strong leadership role with a team full of superstars. He brought his championship experience to the team, developed some of deficits, and performed in several pressure situations. Although most Laker fans, including myself, believe that Lamar will always be inconsistent, he seems to have made strong strides towards consistency this off-season.

Andrew Bynum is the pink elephant in the room. No one wants to talk about it, but Bynum's injury is serious. Very serious. It's hard to say if he will even be at the same level as last season, where he was already banged up. I will say this though: he got major kudos for playing through injuries in the post-season, in obvious pain, and being the X-factor for the battle in the paint in the Boston series.

Bynum just needs to play. Everyone has seemingly gotten over the insanely high expectations prematurely set for Andrew, but history has shown that just his presence in the paint, combined with a few easy buckets and rebounds makes the difference in gritty games.

I hope the new-look Lakers doesn't involve an ailing Andrew Bynum.

Despite popular belief, this new Laker team has no motivation to steal the spotlight from the seemingly undeserving Miami trio. Yes, I'm sure having the attention stolen from the defending champs is a little annoying, but make no mistake that the motivation is simple: Win A championship (Not a 3rd, but A). Kobe and Fish are way too mature to get caught up in the hype of a three-peat. Kobe's made it clear on several occasions that once the new season starts, the slate is blank.The ring is put away and work has begun.

The Miami Heat have taken the role of the villain, and the Lakers, the hero. Maybe this new Laker team will be less hated, maybe some of the "Laker Haters" will side with the Lakers if it ever (probably not) comes down to the Lakers-Heat in the Finals.

The 2010-2011 Los Angeles Lakers feature 5 new players, that means a little over one-third of their roster is new. With a combination of proven talent alongside strong projects, the Lakers have strengthened their bench.

The end result?

Look for this new-look Lakers to bring the same old championship back to Los Angeles.