A rookie, cap space, and a 10 mil expiring. Not bad, except:

-Kobe's a hindrance now. That's just the fact. He hasn't exactly shown that he's willing to relinquish his status as alpha dog, and that's not exactly enticing to other alpha's.

-Kobe's contract still eats up a huge chunk of cap room. Talking guys like Lebron or Carmelo into taking 16 mil while Kobe earns 33% more is a tall order.

-Other teams, like the Rockets, have more attractive overall situations or more coveted assets to make trades, like GS or Boston or Cleveland.

-The other quality free agents on the market are restricted and not really good enough to overpay for, and we'd likely have to give up Randall and/or Nash's expiring to get some of those guys.

We have a nice little bench worth of players we can resign for relatively cheap, and that's a plus. The Lakers are still the Lakers, Mitch has shown an ability to make things happen over the years, and we've got some money to spend. We could conceivably be back in contention if a lot of shit goes our way, but it's a tall order.

Basically, you're badly overselling the position of OK Lakers fans. We've got some things in our favor, but after Lebron and Melo, the options aren't all that attractive. If we could nab, say, Lowry by signing him outright while flipping Nash's contract in the process, sign Melo, resign Pau, Hill, Young, and Marshall, Randall happens early and Kobe so much as resembles his former self.....yeah, we'd be in business.

How likely is it that all those things happen though?