Before Kobe, Odom, Mihm and Divac went down (again), the Lakers were the 6th seed in the West. And that was after the All Star break too. You know how the Lakers will fare without Kobe. All of a sudden the rookie Sasha Vujacic got some starts, players were playing out of position (which Odom was doing the whole year last year anyway) and to top it off, Rudy T resigned. Spreewell can add some offense if Kobe, Odom or Brown go down.
The LAKERS had to learn the triangle again halfway through the year, and no one had triangle experience except Kobe, Walton, Cook, George (who was on the IR most of the season) and Divac. Kobe was the only one who played more than one quarter of the game of that group. And damn straight we need to add a big man. Divac's probably going to retire, and Jumaine Jones or Brian Cook as the backup PF would not be good enough especially in the West.