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It is wrong to judge a book when the book is only half written. It's unfair to measure a man's performance when outside events are responsible for his failures. It's foolish to throw away a history of strong work on the basis of one short period of failure. All of these statements can be used to explain why it's not a good idea to condemn Mitch Kupchak for failing to put together a roster that meets the high standards of the illustrious Los Angeles Lakers franchise. None of these statements can prevent us from doing so anyways.

The Los Angeles Lakers are not a very good team. They will (probably) make the playoffs. They may win a playoff series. Anything else would have to be considered a surprise. For a team that has one of the best cores in the league in Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, that's not good enough, which is a perfect description of everything surrounding those three guys. Not good enough. In fact, not even close to good enough. Outside the Big Three, the Lakers probably have the worst 4-15 roster in the league. And sadly, despite all those mitigating statements explained above, the blame for it has to be at the feet of one Mitch Kupchak.

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The Los Angeles Lakers are in Boston and eager for a road win, at least we hope they are. With another off day before the big showdown tomorrow against the Celtics, the Lakers are surely running through some offensive sets and fine-tuning some plays. The short travel between Philly and Boston should benefit the Lakers, and they should be somewhat fresh and rested for tomorrow's TNT clash.

One Laker, well ex-Laker, player who probably didn't get much rest is Derrick Caracter. Caracter was waived yesterday by the Lakers, and it seems the reason was monetary. What's that, you're not buying that? We tracked down Caracter and asked him for his thoughts:

"Chaovalkhaohfeaa, Im aakdaGULP, lakers, fanx" - DC while struggling through syrup laden 'cakes.

After that, I was able to track down another source who said that contracts not waived by the 10th would have become fully guaranteed. Good move, Lakers. So that leaves the Lakers with 14 out of 15 roster spots filled. Where does that take us? Sessions? Arenas? J.R Smith? Nope, apparently the other big "story" was Rondo for Pau.

Things just keep getting better and better.

↓ Much more after the jump ↓

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The Lakers played four games since last week's edition of Lakers Trends and while the results were mixed (going 2-2), the trends have been somewhat positive. They kicked off the week with a thrashing of the Charlotte Bobcats; followed that with an impressive road win in Denver; and then proceeded to lose two winnable games in the final minutes against the Utah Jazz and Philadelphia 76ers. Obviously, losing their last two games, especially when victory was within reach with 5 minutes to play, puts a damper on the week. However, the underlying improvements were present and the general direction of this team was positive, even if the movement wasn't of a significant magnitude. Who knows, maybe I am grasping at straws, but lately there hasn't been much positive news in Lakerland (unless you are in charge of updating Kobe's name on the various milestones list) so any sign of hope is worth clinging to at this point. That is what we have this week, hope.

Check out this week's trend update below the jump...

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No official report has yet been given, but most indications are that forward Derrick Caracter has been waived by the Lakers. From Caracter's Twitter account, he writes:

It's over before it begun!!! But plan doesn't change #IAMGREAT peace Cali

No corroboration past that has been provided but Hoopsworld's Eric Pincus and ESPN's Larry Coon have concluded that this more or less means that Caracter is gone.

Caracter was drafted by the Lakers with the 58th pick in the 2010 draft, and while he demonstrated some decent chops during summer league that year, he failed to make any headway in gaining a rotation spot during the regular season. He proceeded to have an unproductive stint in the D-League and was rather notably arrested for attacking a waitress in a New Orleans IHOP. He apparently put in a fair amount of work at the IMG Academy this last summer, but was unfortunately sidelined with a meniscus injury in training camp. While he has recovered and recently put up a pair of decent performances in the D-League, the team appears to be moving on.

As February 10 is the final day by which players must be waived before their contracts become guaranteed, the Lakers clearly had no intent of keeping Caracter past that point. It also opens up a roster spot, paving the way for either a free agent signing (Gilbert Arenas), a potential trade acquisition (Ramon Sessions) or a 10-day D-League call-up (Elijah Millsap). However this plays out, we will keep you informed of any developments.

UPDATE (12:05 PM): From the reliable Ken Berger of CBS Sports:

In addition to Solomon Jones (Clippers), confirmed the following players have been waived: Derrick Caracter (LAL), Josh Davis (Mem) ...

So there's your confirmation, people.

Follow this author on Twitter @brosales12.

The Lakers received bad news several hours before their game against the Philadelphia 76ers: Coach Mike Brown was to be suspended one game as punishment for his tantrum during Saturday's Utah Jazz game, and Assistant Coach John Kuester would be in charge for the night. Happy Monday, Lakers! Then the game happened, a 95-90 loss, leaving the Lakers at 1-2 halfway through their road trip.

All was not lost, however, as there were a couple of bright spots in the meltdown. First, Kobe Bryant passed Shaquille O'Neal to reach #5 on the NBA's all time scorers list, behind only Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Kobe now has 28,601 points, and he did it in his hometown, something he really wanted to do. Even former teammate/frenemy Shaq offered his congratulations on such an accomplishment. No doubt Kobe has had a career for the ages, and he's still not done. We are all witnesses. The other bright spot? Andrew Bynum's second career 20/20 game. Other than that, I got nothin'.

The Lakers' current Grammys road trip is far from their longest at six games. They played nine games away from home in '07-'08 and went 7-2; in '09-'10, they played eight and went 5-3. By any measure, the 2008 trip was their most successful, not just by record, but because they left pregnant with Kwame Brown and came home with a baby brother for Kobe named Pau Gasol. That said, don't expect this trip to end on the same high, even if the Lakers end up going 3-3. Even Pau Gasol acknowledges that change could be a'comin' sometime soon with the trade deadline set for March 15, a short five weeks away.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Next up: the 13-10 Boston Celtics. Maybe we can arrange for Tom Brady and Wes Welker to suit up for them and spot us two points to start the game.


↓ Much more after the jump ↓

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Tonight the Lakers played the Philadelphia 76ers, the team with the 4th best record in the association. Neither team was playing on the second night of a back-to-back, something that is a rarity in this compressed season. In a hostile environment against a very good team with fresh legs, this was a measuring stick game. A chance to see how the Lakers would stack up should the playoffs begin now. The answer: not very well. All the strengths and weaknesses of this Lakers team was on full display tonight. Unfortunately for the Lakers, their weaknesses are simply too many to overcome against a playoff caliber opponent.

The Lakers biggest strength is their big three of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Andrew Bynum. The trio of stars is as good as any in the league, even the team from South Beach. Tonight the big three showed just what they can do. Kobe played superb (at least during the first 44 minutes, more on that to come) as he lit up Philadelphia for 24 points in the first half on 8 of 14 shooting. In the second half, the 76ers sent constant double teams at him, forcing the ball out of his hands and asking him to put faith in his teammates. To Kobe's credit, he did not force the action but took what the defense gave him and typically made the right plays.

Andrew Bynum showed why he is the second best center in the league as he had his second 20-20 game of the season. He scored his 20 points on a very efficient 8 of 13 shooting. He demonstrated the foot work and finishing ability that makes him one of the better offensive centers in the league. He also finished with a three assists, two of which were Gasol-esque in ability. In addition to being an offensive load down low, he was the anchor of the defense, finishing with three blocks and holding the 76ers to lower than 50% shooting inside the key.

Pau Gasol managed to score 16 points and pull down 11 rebounds as the Lakers third option, but he struggled to do so efficiently, making only 5 of 16 attempts. Therein lies the first weakness of the Lakers, the need their big three to play great in order to win.

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