Lakers: Missing pieces

EL SEGUNDO - There is only so much of this that can be watched before the head shakes and the eyes roll and lips plead:

Enough.

The point where logic overtakes hopefulness. When Kobe Bryant has driven the lane engulfed by threedefenders one time too many. When the inside play has become paper thin, the open man unable to hit a shot, the point guard position a lark, the intensity laughably inconsistent.

One time too many when the Los Angeles Lakers are pushed out of the playoffs in the first round like some small-market team barely able to even envision a title.

Enough.

Enough of this experiment, of this group of Los Angeles Lakers.

Enough of trying to surround Kobe Bryant with role players and potential and crossed fingers.

NBA seasons for the Los Angeles Lakers are judged by championships, not by seventh-place conference finishes. Not by annually being brushed aside by Phoenix.

There is little reason to believe this current collection will ever grow or develop into an elite NBA team.

There's only so much waiting the franchise can afford. It can't wait until Kobe Bryant gets around on a cane.

Kobe Bryant remains the league's most incredible talent, but he's no longer some wide-eyed kid from Philly,

delighting with spurts of greatness and potential.

This is the 11-year veteran Kobe Bryant, the one who turns 29this summer. The one still at the peak of his athletic powers but within view of the other side.

Now, maybe the Los Angeles Lakers do demonstrate some fiber and stun the Suns tonight to avoid elimination. Maybe they do actually put together 48minutes of basketball passion to bring the series back here for a Game 6.

Hey, that would be great, to their credit. Yet even more than it would be unlikely, it would only be delaying the inevitable.

These Los Angeles Lakers are not of championship caliber. Not as constructed, not as currently piecemealed together.

This summer screams to be a time of action for the Los Angeles Lakers. A key time for the franchise, for owner Jerry Buss and general manger Mitch Kupchak.

It is a time to become creative, persistent and daring. It is not time for the status quo, for tinkering or hoping some free agent signed at a mid-level exception can push the team over the top.

It is time to reshape this roster before Kobe Bryant is too old, while the NBA is devoid of a truly exceptional team.

There are titles out there to be won right now.

Miami was not a great team last season, but rather a very good one that got hot at the right time. There is no special team out there this season, either.

Phil Jackson did not return to the Los Angeles Lakers to stumble around in the first round. Buss didn't sign him to the richest coaching contract ever to lead a 42-40 team.

Unlike this season, last year the Los Angeles Lakers were healthy and entered the playoffs a hot team. And could not sustain a 3-1 lead over a Phoenix team playing without Amare Stoudemire.

This year almost the exact Los Angeles Lakers team returns, supposedly bolstered by a year's experience from Ronny Turiaf and Andrew Bynum, and the addition of Maurice Evans.

And, yes, they are not at the peak of health.

Starters Lamar Odom, Kwame Brown and Luke Walton are playing through injuries.

But even healthy, they don't match up with the Suns.

Nor with San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, or at this moment, even Golden State.

Golden State?

The window of opportunity is closing not just on Kobe Bryant, but on Jackson, who'll turn 64 prior to next season.

The painful way he limps around now, you have to wonder how many more years he wants to put up with the coaching grind.

Only Red Auerbach has won as many NBA titles, and these current Los Angeles Lakers have to be a frustrating endeavor for Jackson.

"I don't think about it in those terms," Jackson said. "We just think about what we can do next to get back here on Friday. That's all we're thinking about. Not anything else."

Kobe Bryant's greatness actually handicaps the team from moving forward. Kobe Bryant and four pretty good players is just enough to slip into the playoffs and out of the lottery, where the Los Angeles Lakers might be able to draft a player significant enough to offer him a true complement.

Right now for the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant's greatness is almost the curse of Kobe Bryant.

It was hoped that Odom would be that second great player, but by now it should be clear he's not. He's too inconsistent, too on one night, too MIA the next.

Jackson has said, "We know we're one player away & from maybe being a top-echelon team in the league."

That's probably true, though it's hardly a guarantee. Houston has Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming and is chasing its first playoff series victory with them.

But Kupchak needs to do something dramatic to shake up the roster, and that means anybody not named Kobe Bryant has to be available. Odom, Andrew Bynum, anyone.

Try to put together a package for a top draft pick.

Make a major deal to acquire a superstar. Clear out the roster the way Jerry West did to create salary cap room when he signed Shaquille O'Neal.

None of this is easy nor obvious as many attempt to make it appear.

Despite finally losing Brian Grant's $15 million-per-year contract this summer, the Los Angeles Lakers are still committed to nine players next year making $57.6 million, which will likely already put them over the cap.

You can't just wish upon a star and hope Kevin Garnett opts out and signs with the Los Angeles Lakers. That Jermaine O'Neal suddenly shows up at the Staples door.

A team has to have the salary-cap space to sign a superstar.

Kupchak's legacy will be determined by how he answers this challenge. He needs to be bold, needs to put his true stamp on this organization.

Meanwhile, Jackson tries to massage the Los Angeles Lakers into victory tonight by canceling a practice and challenging their desire, by insulting their basketball IQ.

"I did tell them they had the brain power of slugs or earthworms, but that was just in a moment of irritation," Jackson said.

And Kobe Bryant watches another season tick away, his opportunities to win another title beginning to close.

"Oh, yeah, it's very disappointing," Kobe Bryant said. "Very disappointing. This is the kind of year where we've kind of been struggling a little bit."

This has been three years of struggling.

And that's enough.

Steve Dilbeck's column appears in the Daily News four times a week.

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