TORONTO - Last June, the Los Angeles Lakers were in the National Basketball Association (NBA) finals and hoping to win another championship.

　　This June, the Lakers will be in the NBA Draft hoping to make good use of their lottery pick after missing the playoffs and becoming just the sixth team in NBA history not to reach the post-season after making it to the finals.

　　The Lakers' fall this season has been sudden, dramatic and, worst of all for the team's fans, it is apparently irreversible in the immediate future.

　　Routed in the NBA finals last year by the Detroit Pistons in four straight games, leading players Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Karl Malone, along with head coach Phil Jackson, left the court after game four in Auburn Hills stunned by the Pistons' easy sweep.

　　O'Neal, Malone and Jackson left the team for good in the off-season and the Lakers' free fall to near the bottom of the standings has been even more stunning than their finals sweep last June.

　　Interim coach Frank Hamblen probably summed up the team's woes best to reporters when the Lakers were mathematically eliminated from the post-season last week after a loss to Phoenix.

　　"There's some guys that aren't here who (were) the last five years we were in the finals, so I'd say that's what the big difference is," Hamblen said.

　　The troubles indeed started in the off-season when conflicts between O'Neal, Bryant and Jackson, which had always existed, finally came to boiling point.

　　O'Neal went to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster deal, Malone retired and Jackson took a year off. The consequences for Bryant and the remaining Lakers have been dire, even though Bryant is the second leading scorer in the NBA heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

　　Losing streaks

　　Several lengthy losing streaks resulted in the Lakers missing the playoffs. The team will not be in the post-season for the first time in 11 years and for just the fourth time since the franchise moved to Los Angeles from Minneapolis in 1960.

　　Injuries have not helped the situation. Bryant has missed 15 games with assorted injuries and Lamar Odom, who moved over in the O'Neal deal from Miami along with Caron Butler, has missed 12.

　　Serbian Vlade Divac was signed in the off-season but has missed most of the year with injuries. While Butler has had a decent season, the Lakers did not come close to properly filling the void left by O'Neal.

　　They failed to replace Jackson's presence as well.

　　Rudy Tomjanovich took over from Jackson as coach but did not make it through half the season before health issues caused him to step down with Hamblen taking over. There are suggestions that Jackson will coach in the NBA again next season but the chances of him returning to Los Angeles are minimal, due largely to the fact that the roster is now a mess.

　　NBA champions for three straight seasons (2000-2002) and finalists last year, the Lakers are now a mediocre team at the best of times and one with salary cap issues to boot.

　　Large contracts

　　They are stuck with several large contracts and little room for manoeuvre and appear destined to have to rely on a couple of strong drafts in order to make their way back up the very competitive Western Conference standings.

　　"We're a young team, we're struggling," Bryant said. "We're just inconsistent. But we play hard."

　　Playing hard is not nearly enough, however. Bryant is still a top player but neither Odom nor Butler appear to be a consistent number two to go with Bryant the way O'Neal did. The Lakers depended on Kobe and Shaq to make up for a thin roster and now there is no Shaq.

　　The signing of the 37-year-old Divac appears to be little more than a public relations gesture, given his injuries and advancing years. The Lakers may even buy him out at US$2 million, although even that will not help their salary cap woes.

　　The Lakers have won nine NBA titles since 1972. Unless they can find some gems on the next few drafts days the lack of flexibility with their current roster might make just getting back to the playoffs a more realistic goal than winning another title in the next few years.

　　(Agencies via Xinhua)