Lakers Rumors: Veterans Must Unite Behind Mike Brown to Salvage Shaky Season

Watch out, Los Angeles Lakers fans! The sky is falling! 

So said every Chicken Little in Los Angeles (and around the NBA) after the Purple and Gold picked up a loss to the now-9-29 Washington Wizards, the day after suffering a similarly embarrassing fate at the hands of the 13-26 Detroit Pistons.

According to Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com, the back-to-back defeats set off a similar "panic" within the team, with fingers pointed firmly in the direction of first-year head coach Mike Brown.

What else is new? The former Cleveland Cavaliers boss has taken heat at nearly every turn of misfortune this season, whether it be for his inconsistent distribution of minutes, his micromanagement of the team, his heavy practice schedule and/or his attempt to install a new offense on the fly.

Of course, change is never easy, especially for a veteran team that's won titles before, and especially for the incoming coach, who's been thrust into the unenviable position of replacing the greatest coach of all time (Phil Jackson) with hardly half of a training camp and only the occasional off-day for practice to work out the kinks.

Surely, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher and the rest of the seasoned veterans on this Lakers squad are all too acutely aware of the challenges their coach (and, in turn, they) are facing. Believe it or not, LA might still have what it takes to win a title, thanks to one of the league's elite scorers and a pair of seven-footers, in Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, whose combination of size and skill is unmatched in the NBA today.

The keys to success, from here on out, rest with the team's leadership and communication, along with the settling of the roster into its roles. Rather than publicly question and complain about Brown's strategy or his more detail-oriented style—in comparison to the Zen Master's free-flowing, laissez faire approach—the Lakers' core must devote their energy to working with the new staff, as they've seemingly done with a sort of punctuated equilibrium this season.

A trade for a point guard or a small forward would help, at least in theory, though there's no telling how quickly or how well the Lakers would be able to integrate another new face into the framework before the playoffs.

Either way, this team's fate will rest with the ring-bearing foundation of Bryant, Gasol, Bynum and Fisher (and, to a lesser extent, Metta World Peace) and the attitude that they take toward the remainder of the season. If they allow the supposed rift between the players and the coaches to consume the season, to overshadow the task at hand, then they can expect nothing better than another disappointing finish.

However, if the veterans squash this proverbial fly in the ointment, if they refocus themselves on the goal of winning a title and realize that they're all in it together, then they stand a chance of doing something great.

Or, at least, quieting the Chicken Littles and their frantic pens for a day or two.

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