After seven-plus months with Phil Jackson calling the shots, the Lakers are now in the hands of general manager Mitch Kupchak, who must determine during the offseason whether this second-round loss necessitates wholesale changes or just minor tweaking.

If Kupchak chooses, he can purge almost half of the roster, as Mark Madsen, Tracy Murray, Brian Shaw and Samaki Walker are outright free agents and the team holds options for next season on the contracts of Robert Horry and Jannero Pargo.

It's possible, maybe even likely, at least half of those players won't be back, and minutes after his team was eliminated, Jackson hinted at major changes.

"Sometimes losing clarifies your position," Jackson said. "It makes it clear what you need to do. It's not an appropriate time to talk about that right now.

"We haven't provided ourselves with the best overall personnel we needed for this basketball club. That bore itself out when we had some injuries. We have a nucleus that I'm excited about. I'm excited about replacing players who are going to be moving on. I'm very optimistic, and the fans should be very optimistic."