The Los Angeles Lakers have struggled to find cohesion and success to the surprise of nearly the entire basketball community.

The manner in which the Lakers have failed to be firmly in the playoff picture makes the first regular season the Miami Heat spent together in 10-11 seem incredibly smooth in comparison.

At various times during that first season, Erik Spoelstra was criticized for the way he handled his superstars.

"What the Lakers are going through kind of validates the problems that Miami had in their first season together," said one NBA scout. "When they kept saying that it was matter of figuring things out, a lot of people just shrugged it off and said they were whiners. And even that was a team where the individual pieces of LeBron [James], [Chris] Bosh and [Dwyane] Wade fit together more naturally than the Lakers."