From Mark Heisler, Lakers Nation: So, how did you like the Lakers’ off-season? Not that it’s over ‘til it’s over… or before it starts July 1 when free agents are officially free. Nevertheless, Lakers Nation just tapped into the Lakers’ new plan, which is what we—and, I believe, they—thought it would be. Everyone expected the Lakers to try to secure Dwight Howard and tradePau Gasol for an athlete(s) who could shoot so Mike D’Antoni could run the offense they hired him for. Plan A now envisions keeping Pau and socking the ball inside to him and Dwight as they did in their 28-12 finish, even if that means getting another year older, slower and farther behind the Roadrunner Elite (Heat, Thunder, Spurs).

From Mike Bresnahan, LA Times: Poor Lakers. Even if Dwight Howard walks and Metta World Peace gets amnestied, they’re still too far over the salary cap to chase any big-name free agents. Silly NBA rules. Along those lines, a sad-looking quote stood out as players and staffers slogged through two days of end-of-season meetings last week — except Antawn Jamison, who skipped them as a final goodbye to the team and Mike D’Antoni.”The collective-bargaining agreement really limits how we can add to the team,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “We get a limited number of exceptions. Probably the most widely used exception would be the veteran’s minimum. It’s hard to find a young player that would do that because if it’s a younger player, he’s probably not going to take the veteran’s minimum. And if he did, he’s probably not good enough to play.”

From Michael C. Jones, Yahoo Sports: The Los Angeles Lakers have far more questions than answers as they prepare to embark upon an offseason that is sure to have as much drama as the regular season brought on. That says a lot about what’s set to take place over the summer. Because of the Lakers’ salary cap constraints — they’re already on the hook for $79.6 million, without Dwight Howard’s assumed max deal if he returns — and lack of a first-round draft pick, they’re limited in their ability to fix what are substantial personnel issues. With the season being a comedy of errors, Lakers fans hope they can somehow find a way to improve and retool for 2013-14. In order to do so, they’ll need to address these questions:

From TheGreatMambino, Silver Screen & Roll: There’s no doubt that the 2012-2013 campaign was disappointing–after all, the Lakers entered with championship expectations became mere playoff hopes. However, after all the locker room turmoil, coaching changes, front office blunders and possible long term cap ramifications because of this specific team, there’s reason to think that the season was far more than merely “disappointing”. In your estimation, was the 2012-2013 Los Angeles Lakers campaign the worst season in franchise history (interpret the word “worst” how you will)?

From News Services, ESPN: Kobe Bryant is in a court battle to try to keep his mother from auctioning off mementos from his high school days in Pennsylvania and his early years with the Los Angeles Lakers. A New Jersey auction house filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Camden on Thursday for the right to sell the stuff after the NBA star’s lawyers wrote the firm telling it to cancel a planned June auction. The disagreement is a high-value, high-profile version of a question many families face: Can Mom get rid of the stuff a grown child left at home? Pamela Bryant intends to sell: the NBA star’s jerseys, practice gear and sweatsuits from Lower Merion High School; varsity letters; a trophy for being the outstanding player at the 1995 Adidas ABCD basketball camp; and a signed basketball from the 2000 NBA championship game.

From Drew Garrison, Silver Screen & Roll: The off-season has arrived for the Los Angeles Lakers and the evaluation of their coaching situation has begun. Mike D’Antoni wants help with the Lakers defense and has requested to add either Nate McMillan or Alvin Gentry in a defensive assistant role, according to a report from CBS Sports’ Ken Berger. McMillan is likely to land a head coaching position and has already begun interviewing for vacant positions. When D’Antoni was hired there were initial reports indicating D’Antoni wanted to add McMillan to his staff, but the Lakers did not sign him as part of their already robust coaching staff.

From Mike Bresnahan, LA Times: There’s unanimity within the Lakers. Kobe Bryant and General Manager Mitch Kupchak both want Dwight Howardto return. There’s also a problem within the Lakers: Howard isn’t so sure. He declined to reveal which way he was leaning after his one-year run with the Lakers. “I’m going to take my time, get away from the game, my phones and everything and just clear my head,” Howard said Tuesday in an end-of-season interview at the team’s practice facility. “I’ll do what’s going to be best for myself, what’s going to make me happy. I can’t control who likes me, who dislikes me, but I have the right to be happy.”

From Brett Pollakoff, Pro Basketball Talk: The Lakers finally got some good news on the injury front three days after their season ended, when it was announced on Wednesday that Dwight Howard would not require surgery on his right shoulder. Howard was diagnosed with a torn labrum after originally suffering the injury on Jan. 4, and missed a total of six games (in two separate three-game stretches) because of it. Despite returning earlier than expected from back surgery last summer, those were the only six games Howard missed all season. He was looking much more like his former Defensive Player of the Year self over the last couple of months of the season, and the pain he was dealing with in the shoulder seemed to taper off over time, or, at the very least, Howard showed no visible signs that it was an issue.

From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: Pau Gasol left his exit meeting with general manager Mitch Kupchak on Tuesday with an increased sense that he may have played his last game with the Lakers. “The future is uncertain,” Gasol said. “There’s no doubt about it. It’s a possibility that I could be gone and there’s a possibility that I could stay. I don’t know the exact percentages of it. But I’m prepared for either way. “I understand the challenges that the franchise is facing, the decisions that they have to make in order to keep the team in the direction that they want to — looking at the present and the future and also understanding the business side of it. So, it’s a lot going on. I wish things were a little simpler, but they’re not. So we’ll see.”

From Sam Amick, USA Today: When it comes to pro athletes who have serious sway within their respective organization, Kobe Bryant might stand alone. Yet the Los Angeles Lakers star tested the limits of his influence Tuesday in a postmortem media session, imploring his bosses to do the unthinkable this offseason: keep this underachieving team together despite a price tag that, because of the NBA’s more punitive luxury tax that is about to kick in for the first time, could approach $200 million. Never mind that the 34-year-old Bryant isn’t even sure when he’ll be able to return from the season-ending Achilles tendon tear that took him out of the Lakers’ four-game sweep by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. Bryant still sees a starting five that includes himself and a re-signed Dwight Howard with forward Pau Gasol, point guard Steve Nash and small forward Metta World Peace as championship-caliber and worth the incredible cost. It wasn’t a very good band this season, but he wants to keep it together.

From Dave McMenamin, ESPN Los Angeles: After everything the season brought for Gasol – Mike Brown wanting him to play the facilitator; Mike D’Antoni wanting him to play back-up center; a laundry list of injuries, including a concussion, knee tendinitis and a torn plantar fascia in his foot causing him to miss the most games of his 12-year career — he still chooses to identify himself as a Laker and everything that is supposed to stand for. Being traded from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Lakers made Gasol a champion. It lifted him from being remembered like the Grizzlies’ best franchise player before him, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, as a very good player on a middling team, to a great player on a great team. To Gasol, the Lakers’ lore is real. While Dwight Howard seemingly has struggled to grasp what it means to be the next in the line of great big men following George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal, Gasol got it from the get-go, helping the Lakers to three NBA Finals appearances and two rings in his first two-and-a-half seasons. When asked about the crowd’s ovation for him during his postgame news conference, Gasol teared up. ”I am very appreciative and thankful for our fans and the support they show and their loyalty and their appreciation that they have for me,” Gasol said.

From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: Dwight Howard‘s final game as a Laker was ugly. San Antonio early on in its series against the Lakers took to the strategy of fouling Howard hard every time he went up for a shot. San Antonio fronted him in the post, was physical in taking away his position on the block, they collapsed on him (which they could do because there were no healthy Lakers guards to really fear), then finally when Howard would get the ball and start to make a move the Spurs would just foul him. Hard. Howard put up decent numbers through the series — 17 points per game on 61 percent shooting with 10.8 rebounds a contest — but he wasn’t the dominant force the shorthanded Lakers needed against the Spurs, either. He got frustrated early in the second half of Game 4, pickup up his second technical, and got ejected. He watched the end of the Lakers season from the locker room. Late Sunday night/Monday morning, Howard took to twitter to apologize to Lakers fans.

From Ben Bolch, LA Times: Staples Center held Pau Gasol in a warm embrace late in the fourth quarter Sunday, as fans stood to applaud when he left a game that had long been lost. Kobe Bryant then rose from his seat behind the Lakers’ bench to tenderly place two hands on his teammate’s shoulders. It was gracias, Gasol. It also felt very much like adios. The power forward who prompted Lamar Odom to exclaim, “The Beatles are back, baby!” on the day the Lakers acquired Gasol in February 2008 probably has played his last game as part of a not-so-Fab-Four. He stayed classy throughout the Lakers’ season-ending 103-82 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of their Western Conference first-round series, remaining on the court to congratulate conquerors who had swept him out of the playoffs.

From Drew Garrison, Silver Screen & Roll:The season has ended for the Los Angeles Lakers after the San Antonio Spurs swept L.A. in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. For the Lakers, it means the organization can finally focus on moving forward instead of trying to salvage a broken present. The 2013 off-season could be very interesting for the Lakers as they prepare for a new season that, hopefully, puts the nightmarish 2012-2013 season in the distance.

From Arash Markazi, ESPN LA: There have been many times over the course of this season when one could have wished to be a fly on the wall in the Los Angeles Lakers’ locker room, their training room or even the Buss family living room. The moments are far too many to number at this point and in the aftermath of the season just blend together like a marathon showing of “Jersey Shore.” But perhaps the most fascinating moment came Sunday night as Dwight Howard was inexcusably ejected from a game in which he was one of only two players from the Lakers’ regular rotation able to walk. Howard already had received a technical in the first half for complaining about a call, then picked up a second technical a little less than two minutes into the third quarter with the Lakers down 55-34. Many Lakers fans hadn’t even made it back to their seats from halftime as Howard walked back to the locker room.

From Stanley Lee, Lakers Nation: This postseason has most definitely not been what we all expected when this team began their post-All Star break turnaround. The injury bug has bitten the Lakers all year, but the list of hurt players is piling up like never before at the worst possible time. Already missing four guards—Kobe Bryant, Steve Blake, Steve Nash, and Jodie Meeks— in Friday’s humiliating loss to San Antonio, starting forward Metta World Peace now joins the list. After one of the most embarrassing losses in Laker postseason history in which the Lakers fell to the Spurs by a score of 120-89, Mike D’Antoni would once again be forced to trot out one of the worst lineups he has fielded all season—forced to start Darius Morris and Andrew Goudelock against a champion-level Spurs team.

From Dave McMenamin, ESPN LA: The scoreboard was technically 0-0 when Game 2 between the Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs tipped off Wednesday, but a quick glance at the injury report on the front page of the game notes had the Spurs going into the night with an 8-1 lead.Eight players on the Lakers came in with a pre-existing injury they were dealing with, most notably Kobe Bryant out for the season because of an Achilles tear, while just one player for San Antonio – Boris Diaw, out while recovering from back surgery — had any sort of trauma listed next to his name. Of course, it only got worse from there.

From Mike Bresnahan, LA Times: Maybe Kobe Bryant should go back to tweeting during games. Maybe Metta World Peace should try harder to get in touch with the Dalai Lama. Maybe the Lakers’ injuries will finally recede, because they’re quickly running out of backcourt players. The sky continued to fall amid too many maybes Wednesday, the Lakers losing to the San Antonio Spurs, 102-91, in Game 2 of their first-round Western Conference series. Then they lined up in the trainer’s room, seemingly one by one. Steve Blake will get an ultrasound exam Thursday after sustaining a strained right hamstring on a fourth-quarter drive. Steve Nash will get another epidural injection in his back after his hip-hamstring injury flared up in the first half. And Jodie Meeks will get an MRI exam Thursday because of a sprained left ankle that kept him out of Game 2.

From C.A. Clark, Silver Screen & Roll: Without Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers entered their first round Western Conference playoff series with the San Antonio Spurs as heavy underdogs. Two double digit losses have done little to quell the expectation of a rather quick and easy series for the Spurs.Steve Nash is so hobbled, he might as well take the court with a cane, and now, with the added injury troubles of Steve Blake and Jodie Meeks, the Lakers do not have a single healthy guard in the rotation of four they relied on during the 28-12 run that got them into the postseason. As they say in Charles Dickens novels, things look bleak.

From Kurt Helin, Pro Basketball Talk: I strained a hamstring just watching the Lakers lose to the Spurs Wednesday night. Like Odysseus just trying to get home, the basketball gods are not done throwing obstacles in the Lakers way. And obstacles in this case are more injuries. So here is a rundown of the Lakers injuries as of postgame Wednesday night. Make yourself comfortable, this could take a while.

From Daniel Buerge, Lakers Nation: After falling to the Spurs in Game 1 of their first round series, the Lakers were back in action on Wednesday looking to even up the series. After all the talk over the last two days involving Kobe tweeting, injuries and everything other than actual basketball, the team was able to get back on the court after a two-day hiatus. After the Lakers struggled mightily to score in Game 1, they were hoping to put up a bit more of a fight in Game 2. A lot of that would depend on whether or not they could contain Manu Ginobili, who was a huge factor for the Spurs in Game 1.