After the Lakers early exit of the 2010 Playoffs and the retirement of Phil Jackson, the triangle offense era came to an end. Brian Shaw was the only one who could have continued with it but the team decided to hire former Cleveland (and LeBron James) coach Mike Brown.

With the coach situation already decided the other issue to consider is what to do with the roster, a talented group of players that couldn't live to the expectations last year but won the championship the previous two seasons. According to owner Jerry Buss there was going to be only a "tweak here or there", but no major moves. Reality showed that a trade for Chris Paul was vetoed by the NBA, Odom was sent to Dallas and the Lakers are ready to make a deal for Dwight Howard even if it cost them Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol.

Rumors

Jan 12: The Lakers would be willing to trade Pau Gasol for Minnesota's young star Kevin Love. The New York Post reported that the Lakers offered Gasol to Minnesota when the Chris Paul trade fell through and despite the negative answer then the T-Wolves would be open to hear offers since Love, a restricted free agent when the season ends, has shown no interest in making a long term commitment with them. Such a trade would put Gasol on the same team with his Spanish teammate Ricky Rubio.

Jan 6: The Warriors are the new team interested in Dwight Howard, even if he doesn't sign an extension with them. Howard has already said that he will only sign a contract extension with the Lakers, Mavericks and Nets./ Dec 17: With Dwight Howard out of the market (according to his team, the Orlando Magic) the Lakers will have to wait to try to make a deal for him. It could happen during the season and it should involve Andrew Bynum and maybe Pau Gasol. Rumors archive

Chris Paul
In what could be considered the most embarrassing decision the NBA has ever taken, David Stern vetoed a 3-team trade that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers. The NBA (owner of the New Orleans Hornets) says it was for "basketball reasons" but it was clear they didn't want the Lakers to acquire another big star. It was a case of conflict of interests where Stern suffered the pressure of the other NBA teams owners.

The trade wasn't going to be free for the Lakers who would have sent Pau Gasol (the man who help them reach 3 NBA Finals in 4 years) to the Rockets and Lamar Odom to New Orleans. The Hornets also were acquiring draft picks, Goran Dragic and two very good players like Luis Scola and Kevin Martin from the Rockets. It was a fair deal that became an awful situation for everybody: the Hornets won't get a better deal for their top star and will get nothing in exchange if he becomes a free agent and the Lakers have two players "devastated" by the idea that they are not wanted in L.A. (update: Odom asked to be traded and was sent to Dallas and the Hornets got a bad deal with the Clippers)

The NBA had allowed the Hornets GM to hear offers from Paul but once he got a good trade it was killed because the Lakers were involved. It's hard to believe it could have done in a worst way. With everybody criticizing their absurd decision the NBA allowed the teams to try to retool the trade so they could approve it and clear its image but the Lakers got tired of waiting and pulled out of it. Rumors archive

Coach Mike Brown
Mike Brown was a surprising choice from a list of candidates that also included Brian Shaw, Rick Adelman, Mike Dunleavy and Jeff Van Gundy.

Brown is 41, a defensive specialist and has previously deal with a big superstar. He got a four-year contract worth more than $18 million.

After being and assistant coach in Washington, Denver, San Antonio and Indiana, Brown got his first NBA head coach job at Cleveland for the 2005-06 season. And it wasn't just another job, he had the mission to deal with the young ego of LeBron James. In 5 years with the Cavs he went 272-138 (.663), was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2009 and led his team to league-best records of 66-16 in 2009 and 61-21 in 2010. He reached the Finals in 2007 but was swept by the Spurs.

The decision to hire Brown was made by Jim Buss, the son of owner Jerry Buss and also the Lakers' executive vice president of player personnel. Kobe Bryant, the Lakers centerpiece whose preference was Brian Shaw, wasn't asked his opinion about this.

John Kuester (assistant coach)

The first addition to Brown's staff is one of his former assistants in Cleveland.

Kuester was the Pistons head coach the past two seasons but was fired after going 57-107, failing to make a playoff appearance and seeing the relationship with many of his players deteriorate by the end of 2010-11. Previous to his job in Detroit he was an assistant coach for 14 years with six different teams. As a member of Larry Brown's staff, Kuester got to the Finals (against the Lakers) in 2001 and won the Championship in 2004 (Lakers again...). He played with L.A.'s GM Mitch Kupchak at the University of North Carolina.

During his time with the Cavs, Kuester choreographed the offense while Brown focused on the defense. Here he will have the job to shift the team away from the triangle offense.

Quin Snyder (assistant coach)

Snyder, who spent last season as a player development coach for the 76ers, was previously an assistant coach for Duke (under Mike Krzyzewski) and the Clippers, and had experience as a head coach at Missouri and in the NBA D-League.

Jason Kapono

A career small forward that the Lakers signed with the veteran's minimum of about $1.3 million and will try to use at shooting guard. Kapono is an excellent long-distance shooter with averages of 6.9 points and 43.7% from three-point range but averaged a career-low 0.7 points and 4.6 minutes with the 76ers last season.

Josh McRoberts

Free agent from Indiana, McRoberts is a power forward that averaged 7.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 22.2 minutes and started 51 of the 72 games he played last season. It was his 4th year in the NBA.

He signed with L.A. for two years and about $6.2 million

Troy Murphy

Murphy signed a 1-year deal for the veteran's minimum, worth about $1,3 million. Despite a bad 2010-11 season (he was injured and averaged 3.1 points a 3.2 rebounds in 35 games with New Jersey and Boston), the 6-foot-11, 245-pound left-hander has career averages of 11.6 points and 8.3 rebounds while shooting 38.9 percent on 3-pointers in 10 seasons in the league.

Matt Barnes
He exercised the player's option in his contract for the 2011-12 season. Signed as a free agent, he averaged 6.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.3 assists while playing 19.2 minutes over 53 games last season. He will make $1.9 million.

Chuck Person (assistant coach)
The only assistant coach from Phil Jackson's staff.

Amnesty Clause
The Lakers did not make use the new one-time amnesty clause to waive a player. Rumors said they were going to use it on Luke Walton or Ron Artest. They still can use it before the start of 2012-13 season.

Phil Jackson
The best coach in NBA history retired as a Laker after the 2010-11 Playoffs. Sadly, his final memory isn't the best one after being swept for the first time in 20-years of a legendary career. But that aside, he left after having won an NBA-record 11 championships, 6 of them with the Bulls, 5 with the Lakers.

His career playoff record went to the books at 229-104, the most wins and the highest winning percentage (.688) in NBA playoff history. His regular-season winning percentage of .704 is another all-time best.

Brian Shaw
Three times champion as a player and 2 as an assistant, Shaw was the natural candidate to replace Phil Jackson in the Lakers bench and give continuation to the triangle offense.

But after the team's meltdown in the Western Semifinals against the Mavericks, the front office decided to change the direction and ignore the public support received by Shaw from Kobe Bryant and other players.

Shannon Brown
As expected he opted out of the final year of his contract which would have paid him $2.37 million and signed with the Suns for about $1 million more than that. In 3 years at L.A. he won two championships coming from the bench and with his spectacular dunks appeared frequently in TV highlights.

Lamar Odom
Tired of dealing with the NBA's owned Hornets the Lakers pulled out of the negotiations for Chris Paul and sent a very unhappy Odom to Dallas in exchange for the Mavericks' first-round pick in the 2012 draft and another unspecified draft pick in what is supposed to be a move to dump salary and eventually get Dwight Howard. The Lakers also got a traded-players exception worth Odom's salary this season. They can use it to get a player that makes less than $9 million and trading only a draft pick and have exactly one year to use it.

Odom, 32, was the sixth man of the year last season after averaging 14.4 points and 8.7 rebounds and was owed $8.9 million this season and $8.2 million next season. He arrived to the Lakers as part of the Shaquille O'Neal trade in 2004 and was a relevant member of two championship rosters (2009 and 2010). Odom was very uncomfortable with being mentioned on every trade possibility, including the the Chris Paul situation.

Trey Johnson, Joe Smith, Theo Ratliff
Free agents

Ron Artest - Metta World Peace
Just a note for those who didn't read the news tired of hearing about the NBA lockout. Ron Artest legally changed his name to Metta World Peace.