Hi-diddly-ho, my little strawberries. I hope everyone had a fine holiday weekend. Not much new happening in the Lakerverse yet, although the flip of the calendar to September is damn welcome. I guess we did learn yesterday that Derrick Caracter has to keep his fat, glucose-ridden ass in check if he wants his contract fully guaranteed, so let's everyone keep him away from Ron's Henny and Lamar's Milky Way stash.

I remain irritated that the world's top scientists haven't yet figured out how to bend time and space so the NBA season can run continuously - or "24/7," as rock stars like me, Dexter Fishmore, call it. Until that blessed moment comes, I'd like to call on your assistance to kill these horrible offseason days.

Specifically, I'd like to hear who in the West you think is the biggest threat to the Lakers this year. It's an interesting question with many plausible answers, as I explored at length over at the LA regional hub a couple weeks ago. My ranking of the threats I think is pretty sound, but there's a lot of uncertainty here, and I'd like to know what the webosphere's sexiest commenters think.

So hop to! Vote in the poll, and defend your choice in the comments. We'll do some more of these, as the season grows closer, in order to generate a wisdom-of-the-crowd set of expectations for the coming campaign. Training camp starts in 18 days.... let's be strong and get through this together.