watching the lakers erode away their hopes for repeating

if you asked me two months ago whether the lakers would have a chance to repeat as nba champions, my answer would have doubtless been yes. los angeles had the kind of depth at every position - and clutch scorers like fisher and bryant - that they would have had as good a chance as any to take home two in a row.

but now, i'm not so sure. many think that letting ariza go and picking up artest was an upgrade, but that isn't the case. ariza might not be the kind of lockdown defender artest is, but he has great instincts and comes up with timely steals, as was made very evident during the playoffs. moreover, his offensive play was a perfect match for the lakers - ariza knows how to be a no. 3 scorer and to contribute in appropriate ways. artest, on the other hand, likes to jack it up without much regard for the rest of his team, the time of the game, or whether he's actually having a good shooting night. and with odom almost certainly on the way out as well, the lakers just got much weaker at the forward position.

the lakers might have had the pacific division locked up from the moment the season began with if they had returned most of their 2008-09 roster. that might still be the case - but it's going to be a much tougher run once they get to the playoffs.

The Los Angeles (insert NBA team name here) of Anaheim?

The Lakers played an exhibition game at Anaheim's Honda Center on Tuesday night, as they usually do once each season, giving fans a bit further south their yearly glimpse of NBA basketball in their home territory. It wasn't all that long ago that the Clippers played a handful of games in Orange County from 1994-1999 (at the then-named Arrowhead Pond) and seriously considered moving there permanently before deciding to become the Lakers' co-tenants at Staples Center.

Now, after Tuesday's pre-season contest between the Lakers and the Jazz, one Anaheim official told the Orange County Register that he wouldn't be surprised if the city gets an NBA team within the next 5 years.

If that team isn't the Clippers, it seems a bit much to have 2 Los Angeles teams, then an Anaheim team down the road, don't you think? The Clippers barely make a pull in the LA market, competing with the Lakers, and plenty of Orange County fans are already plenty devoted to the Lakers.

After seeing the Angels change their name to consider themselves a part of the LA market, it seems clear that the two cities are too close to each other to sustain 3 NBA teams between them.

Two suggestions:

1) Make that team the Clippers. They've got to be sick of playing red-headed step-child to the Lakers not only in the city of Los Angeles, but playing there in the same building as them all season long. Make a clean break, give Orange County fans something to be excited about close to home, and don't clog the already congested market.

2) Why not bring a team to San Diego? It's far enough from the LA market (Padres do fine, away from the Angels and Dodgers) to sustain its own fan base, and you've got enough LA hatred to form a fan base in SD alone.

Now, what team is moving next? Oklahoma City just got the doomed Sonics from Seattle, but who else is on the list of teams ready to move out of their market?

I don't see the NBA expanding yet again. At 30 teams, it's at its current limit, in my opinion.

So, again, who's next? Personally, no team seems to be in that much turmoil to move out, but then again, five years is a long time for something to happen. Cities like Memphis, Charlotte, Toronto, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans, would be my guesses for places that may not be able to keep their teams. Any other thoughts?