Los Angeles Lakers: Why Calls for the Lakers' Demise Need to Stop Immediately

The Los Angeles Lakers have been hearing the calls since we last saw this group in the playoffs versus the Dallas Mavericks, and they've never been more pronounced than on Thursday during the official introduction of Chris Paul to the crosstown-rival Los Angeles Clippers.

"The Lakers are done," they say.

"The Clippers will win the West," it's been decided.

"Kobe will force a trade," it's presumed.

"The Lakers have to get Dwight Howard," it's been reasoned.

Before we run off into absurdity, it pains me to ask a simple question:

Have we played a single game yet?

Yes, the Lakers got embarrassed in the playoffs by the Dallas Mavericks and yes, the Lakers played below-average basketball at season's end. The team was out of sync and lacked any will.

All this transpired over the course of two months.

Can we really call two months of work "a trend"?

If you'll remember, two months prior, these Lakers were the best team in basketball. After the All-Star break last year, they naturally arrived at their championship stride, handily beating every team they faced in an unbelievable 17-1 streak.

They simply peaked too early. 

Like I said, two months of work is not a trend. 17-1 is quite impressive, but this didn't just happen overnight—these Lakers were back-to-back NBA champions and Western Conference champions three straight years.

My math brings me to 38 months if we date back to the Pau Gasol trade when the Lakers turned into the championship team of today.

Yet despite this proven body of work, through two months of poor basketball and one botched trade, everything is entirely wrong? The world has ended and the Lakers must blow up their entire team?

But let's not focus on the past.

Let's focus on what is forthcoming, for a moment:

Matt Barnes is 100 percent healthy. Steve Blake spent the entire offseason improving his jump shot. Metta World Peace has finally been liberated from the triangle offense and has been handed the keys to lead the second unit. Big Daddy Drew is poised for the biggest season of his career. Pau Gasol just captured a gold medal in the most competitive Pan European Games to date.

And last time I checked, Kobe Bryant is still Kobe Bryant.

"But this isn't the same team," critics say. So what's changed on the Lakers roster?

The sixth man in the rotation left, a marginal back-up shooting guard signed for another team and their two roster spots were replaced by one of the purest shooters in the league and a 24-year-old , 6'10'' all-out hustle player.

Really?

Much like the Lakers last season, the reactions to recent events and calls for a seismic shift in the basketball universe have "peaked too early." 

By my count, the Lakers are still tied with the Clippers, the Miami Heat, the Dallas Mavericks, the Chicago Bulls—any team, for that matter.

They're 0-0.

Allow the speculation and calls for blood to play themselves out. It's great for the sport and great for its fans.

But when the playoffs start, with health on our side, I'll take this veteran Lakers group over any team in Los Angeles, any team in the Western Conference, any team in the entire league.

Just one humble perspective amid a sea of overreaction.