NBA Lockout: The Los Angeles Lakers and 5 Teams Most Hurt by the Lockout

No free agency, no summer league, possibly no training camp, and perhaps no NBA season.

As of July 1st, all of these stand true, as the NBA is officially in a lockout. It becomes the second major professional sport now in a lockout along with the NFL.

As the owners and players have come up short of coming to a new collective bargaining agreement, now teams begin to think about how things will change going into this offseason. Will players still hit the gym? Which teams are going to start planning private workouts first?

All teams are hurt by the lockout, make no mistake.

Yet in particular, it may hurt a lot of up and coming teams, teams that are young and had solid runs last season. It also has the potential to benefit veteran ball clubs, and those teams that need to take time to gel with one another.

Here are the five teams that are most hurt by the NBA going into lockout mode.

No. 5: Cleveland Cavaliers

After taking point guard Kyrie Irving with the number one pick and forward Tristan Thompson with the fourth selection, the Cleveland Cavaliers have two bright rookies that are arguably as talented as any players in the draft.

The problem is that with a lockout, players can train but at their own risk, as they have no medical insurance from the league during that time frame.

With two new talents, the Cavaliers are in need of a training camp and practices before the start of the season. Developing rookies is something every team has to be thinking about, especially those teams like the Cavaliers who will be expecting big things out of both Irving and Thompson.

For a team like Cleveland, who is in the rebuilding process, this lockout could take a huge toll on the development of their two draft picks who are likely to be starters come next season.

No.4: The New York Knicks

Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony have to be frustrated that there is now a lockout in the NBA.

The New York Knicks are a team that needs training camp, practices and games to work with one another. This Knicks team is a newly put together ball club, after trading most of their players away for both Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups from the Denver Nuggets.

One of the big reasons why this team was swept in the opening round by the Boston Celtics was the simple fact that they had been a unit that had played less than a quarter of a season together. There were the injury problems to Billups and Stoudemire, but ultimately chemistry was what sent them out of the 2011 NBA playoffs without a win.

Stoudemire said it himself in an interview with ESPN's Jim Rome. He stressed the importance of training camp in developing a team's chemistry, and the fact that this team is yet to go through on together.

No. 3: The Miami Heat

Similar to the situation with the New York Knicks, LeBron James and the Miami Heat are a team that need this lockout to end as quickly as possible.

The Heat might have played together for longer as a unit than have the Knicks, yet they still need more time to continue to improve as a ball club. Losing in the NBA finals, it was evident in that series loss that the team lacked chemistry at times and didn't play as well as the Mavericks did as a team.

Individually, this is a team that without question has the most fire-power in the league. Talented superstars is the least of their needs, and surely goes without saying. What the Heat need is another offseason together and a full 82-game season together.

At times, there was much question as to who was supposed to score the ball, and what was really the identity of this Miami Heat team. Throughout the course of last season LeBron James was the player to finish out ball games offensively, then it became Dwyane Wade against the Chicago Bulls in the playoffs. Then in the NBA finals, everyone decided to turn to LeBron James to carry out games.

If the lockout continues and the Heat don't get to work on their flaws over the offseason, it has the potential to hurt their chances to win a championship next season.

No. 2: The Utah Jazz

The Utah Jazz are a team that suddenly has found themselves in somewhat of a rebuilding process after losing Deron Williams and head coach Jerry Sloan.

The team had a season to forget last season after losing their best player and long-time head coach, dropping out of the playoff picture and failing to consistently win basketball games.

In the 2011 NBA Draft, the Jazz went with Enes Kanter out of Kentucky, a 19-year old prospect with plenty of promise. He will give life to a young, talented Jazz team that needs talent at the center position.

With plenty of young talent on the team, along with Devon Harris taking the starting role for the team at point guard, the Jazz could use this offseason to build chemistry. They would be hurt worse if games are taken away from the season. The Jazz are a team that need to find themselves as a unit, as it showed at the end of last season.

No. 1: The Los Angeles Lakers

Going out 4-0 in the second round, after winning the NBA championship two of the last three seasons has to hurt.

Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers are hurting big, knowing they were dismantled by the Dallas Mavericks in that second-round series. The problem was that the Mavericks did not necessarily out-play the Lakers that bad, it was more a case of the Lakers making the mistakes. They were a team that seemed to lose their cool, let the emotions get the best of them, and as a result paid the consequences.

Bryant played a solid series, while the rest of the team failed to contribute. Pau Gasol put up his usual, mediocre playoff performance while role players that were vital during the course of the regular season seemed to be lost for the Lakers. Bynum had a series to forget, going out with a class-less, elbow-to-the-chest foul to J.J. Barea in mid-air.

The Lakers are a team that simply lost themselves, and are in need of the off-season, practices, and all 82-games to fix it. Make no mistake, they have the talent, the drive, and the different parts to get it done. Yet with the time off the Lakers could find themselves even more lose as a unit come next season.