After the Lakers early exit from the 2011 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 was what to do with the roster, a talented group of players that couldn't live to the expectations in 2011 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 were ready to make a deal for Dwight Howard even at the cost of losing Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol. But the trade deadlne came and went and took the legend of Derek Fisher with it while replacing him with the youth and speed of Ramon Sessions.

Rumors

March 15: After weeks of speculation the trade deadlne passed and found the Lakers without Dwight Howard who opted to stay in Orlando. and without... Derek Fisher. The Lakers did acquired a good point guard in Ramon Sessions, but they also surprised everybody by trading Fisher to the Rockets. Although the team clearly improved their backcourt, it was a shock to see one of its leaders and more representative players end his Laker career this way... Rumors said that the Lakers instead of sending him to the Rockets wanted to trade him to the Timberwolves who needed help after the injury of Ricky Rubio, in exchange for Michael Beasley but the trade that was ready to go was blocked by T-Wolves owner Glen Taylor. 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 big 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.

His Cavaliers reached the Finals in 2007 but were 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. 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.

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 North Carolina.

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.

Darvin Ham (assistant coach)

He played 8 years in the NBA and was the head coach of the NBA Development League’s Thunderbirds.

Jordan Hill

Hill is a 24 year-old power forward/center that is still trying to live up to the expectations generated by being the 8th pick in the 2009 draft. He was averaging 5 points and 4.8 rebounds this season for Houston before being traded for Derek Fisher.

Christian Eyenga

Eyenga, a part of the Ramon Sessions' trade, is a Congolese small forward seldom used in Cleveland. The second-year player is expected to start out with the Lakers' Development League team, the Los Angeles D-Fenders.

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.

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

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 3-point range but averaged a career-low 0.7 points and 4.6 minutes with the 76ers last season. (see they left...)

Second Round: Darius Morris
41st pick overall (from Warriors, via Nets). He's a 6-4 point guard from Michigan. Mitch Kupchak wanted back court players and was surprised to find Morris still available at 41.

He has a pass first mentality and could be used as an option off the bench in the weakest position the Lakers had last season. It's expected that Morris or Goudelock (or both) can make the 2011-12 roster.

Second Round: Andrew Goudelock
46th pick overall (from Knicks), 6-2 combo guard from College of Charleston. He can pass the ball but the Lakers were interested in him basically because he can shoot it. He was one of the most productive Division 1 scorers in history, ranking 39th all-time with 2,571 points. The team needs a 3-point shooter and the advantage of his long range weighted more that the fact that he's not a very good defender.

Second Round: Chukwudiebere Maduabum
56th pick overall, 6-9 forward from Nigeria, traded to Denver for a future second-round pick

Second Round: Ater Majok
58th pick overall (from Heat), 6-10 power forward from Sudan. He played professionally in Australia and will most likely continue to play overseas.

First Round

The Lakers 2011 first round pick, which turned out to be the 27th, was sent to New Jersey and then to Boston who selected power forward JaJuan Johnson.