The Lakers drafted Devin Ebanks and Derrick Caracter, waved goodbye to Jordan Farmar, Josh Powell, DJ Mbenga, and Adam Morrison, who all left via free agency, and welcomed Steve Blake, Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff. Derek Fisher and Shannon Brown also re-signed with the team, as well.
Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum are still nursing and recovering from last season's injuries. Both players had off-season surgery and while Kobe is ready to go tomorrow night, Bynum is still not completely healed and will start the season inactive. He is not expected to be ready until at least Thanksgiving, if not later.
Meanwhile, both Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton are dealing with new injuries. Vujacic is out indefinitely while he recovers from a concussion after getting an inadvertent elbow to the head by teammate Lamar Odom during practice recently. And Walton suffered a groin injury in a pre-season game over the weekend, and is also out indefinitely.
As for Odom, he went to the FIBA World Championships with Team USA and came home with a Gold Medal.
Apparently, only Pau Gasol and Ron Artest had relatively quiet off-seasons and pre-seasons.
The Lakers are expected to be a favorite to repeat as champions again heading into the season. Out West, their main competition will be the usual suspects, such as San Antontio, Dallas, Phoenix, Utah and Oklahoma City. However, there has been a shift in the East, and the Lakers will no doubt have another team to be concerned about besides Boston and Orlando.
The Miami Heat completely revamped their roster in the off-season when they not only re-signed Dwayne Wade, but added LeBron James and Chris Bosh as free agents. Add to the mix the likes of Mike Miller, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and Udonis Haslem, the Miami Heat have suddenly become not only relevant again, but the favorites in the East.
The Celtics were able to re-sign Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, and add Jermaine and Shaquille O'Neal, but their age, along with Kevin Garnett's recent injury history, has to still be of concern to Celtics. Injuries are already beginning to mount in Boston and the season hasn't even started yet.
The 2010-2011 season should be one of the more exciting seasons in recent years with so many players on new teams, and the emergence of new teams as serious contenders. But in the end, it would be foolish to pick against the Lakers to repeat for a third straight year. It won't be as easy this year for the Lakers, but the title is theirs until someone takes it from them.
