Lakers Limited in Off-Season

The Laker season had officially been over for a few minutes. Phil Jackson scanned a quiet locker room and said that a lesson had been learned, that a playoff series needed to be closed out when the chance existed.

If the Lakers return to the playoffs next season, and maybe learn the hard-knock lessons that come with losing a 3-1 series lead, who will have taken them there?

Cap-strapped with limited options for free agents, the Lakers will analyze their roster during the off-season and reevaluate a lineup that made for an entertaining, but ultimately futile, first-round series against the Phoenix Suns.

“We have to make some large decisions about who stays and who we build our team around,� Jackson said.

Kobe Bryant obviously stays because of his game-altering abilities. He has another five seasons and $106 million on his contract. The only thing that changes for him next season is his jersey number.

But what to do with Lamar Odom? The Lakers’ in-house opinion of him swayed throughout the season.

There was hope he would be the Scottie Pippen of the Laker triangle offense, so much so that Pippen was brought into training camp as a special consultant. But Odom’s stock dipped with his January gaffe in Sacramento, a charging foul late in the game with a four-point lead.

The Lakers did not consider sending him to Indiana for Ron Artest, but their tone changed before the trade deadline as they entertained preliminary talks with other teams, including the New York Knicks.

The franchise tilted favorably toward him at the end of the season, his lackluster Game 7 effort notwithstanding. He has two years and $27.4 million left on his contract.

Other players face off-season scrutiny, some more than others.

Earlier in the season, Kwame Brown was chided by Jackson for failing to recover from an assortment of injuries, but the Laker center filled in admirably for Chris Mihm and became a foundation of the game plan against Phoenix. He needs to work on his hands and his rebounding to become a more complete player. Like Odom, he has two more years on his contract.

Devean George, the last link besides Bryant to the three-championship teams earlier in the decade, is an unrestricted free agent who will not be back unless he takes a pay cut from the $5 million he made this season.

Smush Parker, a relative bargain who will make $798,112 next season, struggled with his shot in the playoffs and made only seven of 37 (18.9%) in the final four games. As such, the Lakers are expected to pursue another guard in free agency.

The Lakers won’t be below the salary cap until after next season -- only by a few million -- and they won’t have maximum-contract space for a player until the summer of 2008.

There’s always the option of a trade, although the only financial certainties for the Lakers are the two exceptions granted to teams over the salary cap.

The mid-level exception of about $5 million can be distributed among one or more players who can be signed for a maximum of five seasons. The Lakers probably would try to sign a player for only two seasons to ensure being well under the salary cap after 2007-08.

The Lakers also can use their biannual exception, worth about $1.75 million a season with a maximum contract length of two seasons.

The free-agency negotiation period begins July 1. Players are officially able to sign with teams 10 days later. The Lakers, two days into the off-season, are only beginning to formulate their list.

Jackson might have been sending a cross-country message to Kareem Rush by coming to the defense of the former Laker guard after he was abruptly cut by the Charlotte Bobcats late in the season. The Lakers also might try to re-sign Laron Profit, whom they waived at midseason to make room for Ronny Turiaf.

There had been speculation that Kevin Garnett would be traded this summer, but Minnesota owner Glen Taylor said he would not deal his All-Star center, and insiders say the Timberwolves are going to try to acquire Stephon Marbury to placate Garnett.

The draft is in June, but the Lakers are selecting so far down in an already weak collection of players that the chances are slim of finding someone who will make an impact next season.

The Lakers will have two selections, No. 26 and No. 51. They would have had the 21st selection, but shipped the pick to Boston two years ago. They do, however, get Miami’s pick from the Shaquille O’Neal trade.