He can't do it by himself...

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Lamar Odom had a great game tonight, but Kobe Bryant is almost by himself 85% of the time. If the Lakers want to become a winning team, something has to change.

Odom had 33 points and 10 rebounds tonight, but he has been injury plagued and an under-achiever since he came to LA.

Kobe needs more than Odom. Walton is very average. Smush Parker is not a real NBA starting point guard. Maurice Evans is an 8th man at best. Bynum is young and developing. Kwame Brown is, well...I will just move on. Shammond Williams? Rony Turiaf is a great energy and hustle guy, so I will never hate on him, but they need a lot more.

No disrespect to Phoenix, they put a nice beatdown on the Lakers this series, but we will still be talking about them for awhile. With that, I think saying that Kobe needs more is something to talk about right now.

Walton is a free agent, and I would consider him truly very expendible, unless they can find a way to make him a 6th or 7th man, and that is being generous.

First and foremost a solid point guard is what the Lakers can use, someone to feed the ball to Kobe, but also hit big shots off of Kobe's penetration. They don't need a Jason Kidd. Mike James would have been a perfect fit. Steve Blake wouldn't be bad, he proved he can play, though I think Mo Williams would be an excellent fit , if he comes cheap enough.

If they keep Odom around, you get him at power forward and pray he stays healthy and steps it up more. He is so talented, he should be scoring 30 points more than just twice in a season (his first game of the year and tonight).

What about Jerry Stackhouse at Small Forward? He'd like to be a starter, and if he can stay healthy for about 70 games. He could play some solid D and with Kobe and Odom there, he'd be an excellent third, or even second option.

Bynum, Turiaf, Kwame---you have to be able to work with one of them, another one (Turiaf) would be huge off the bench, at about the 8th man or so.

We could go on and on.

Regardless is Kobe needs help.

I think maybe trying to trade Odom might help, but heck, Mitch Kupchak traded Shaq, so I will let him decide what to do, but they need to be one of the most active teams this summer. Kobe is still young, but he will be going into his 12th season next year, time is ticking and he doesn't want to still be rebuilding for three more years, that's for sure.