With the exception of the first season after trading Shaquille O'Neal and 93-94, the Lakers have been a playoff team in every year of the lives for anyone born after 1976. They have also won 10 titles and have appeared in another six NBA Finals.
When the Lakers go through a rough patch, it is because top-10 player of all-time Kobe Bryant is shooting a little too much, or one of the most skilled seven-footers to ever play the game is behaving like Natalie Portman again, or their other seven-foot scoring machine is injured again.
The Lakers have earned the right to have a completely different reference point for struggles than every other team in the NBA, but particularly the other six teams that made up the old Pacific Division (1).
I believe Phil Jackson is sincere when he says he is not concerned with the uneven performance of the Lakers and that they will have it figured out by the middle of April, but Mitch Kupchak should be a more motivated to make a trade this season.
While they have the top rated offense in the NBA, dominating the interior against anyone to offset Kobe's scoring prowess in situations where things break down, the play at point guard has abated to a point where it is a legitimate vulnerability teams can exploit. The Lakers will need to beat at least one team with an all-world point guard in the playoffs and Derek Fisher is incapable of providing 27 quality minutes per night. We said the same thing last year and he came on as always in the Playoffs, but I think we mean it this year.
Depth at small forward is also an issue presently, particularly considering the need to guard LeBron James or Paul Pierce in the Finals. The Lakers rotate Kobe to small forward for a good portion of Ron Artest's bench minutes since all that is left is Luke Walton or Devin Ebanks until Matt Barnes return.
Desperation Meter: The deadline is an opportunity for the Lakers to acquire protection on their investment. The Lakers already have over $90M of committed payroll in 11-12 and 12-13, so only titles can satisfy those aspirations.
The Lakers unquestionably have enough to win the 2011 title without a move, but are clearly working under circumstances where the margin of error have been diminished.
Note
1.) The Blazers, Suns, Sonics, Kings, Warriors and Clippers have not won a title since the 70s and have each suffered a series of unfortunate events. The Blazers and Kings couldn't get past the Shaq/Kobe Lakers in controversial Game 7s. The Sonics moved just as the team was being rebuilt into one of the best in the NBA. The Suns couldn't get into the Finals and then were derailed by frugality. The Warriors and Clippers have suffered from dispassionate and incompetent owners.
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