I have also noticed that a lot of fans love to play coach and/or general manager trying to figure out who will make the team and who will start. As a member of the MSM – Mainstream Media, I believe that means, -- I have access and information to stop some of the misinformation out there. Some of it comes solely from the blogosphere, while other misinformation actually comes from the MSM itself.

After the Clippers sign Dan Dickau on Wednesday, they will have 15 guaranteed contracts, so their roster will be set unless the team makes a trade or buys out one of the guaranteed players. The starting roster is expected to be: Sam Cassell, Cuttino Mobley, Corey Maggette, Tim Thomas and Chris Kaman.

However, that starting lineup presents a problem because Quinton Ross is Cassell’s defensive valet, and he might start in place of Mobley or Maggette.

As for former first-round pick Yaroslav Korolev, he was not signed to a tryout contract as of Monday afternoon. But coach Mike Dunleavy said he expected to see Korolev in camp, although that might not happen. If Korolev does come to camp, he will not have a guaranteed contract and not have a partially guaranteed contract. He would simply join Marcus Douthit and Kimani Ffriend (yes, two Fs) with a free-agent, tryout contract.

That didn't stop Profit, however, from putting in appearances in the locker room at Staples Center after games, at the practice facility during workouts and, most recently, at the summer league in Long Beach.

It took Profit nearly seven months just to be cleared to play again after undergoing surgery in December. Now the free-agent guard is trying to find an NBA job.

With Profit rehabbing after the surgery in Los Angeles, the assumption has been that he would come to training camp with the Lakers and try to win a spot on the roster. But Profit's agent, Andre Buck, said several teams have shown interest in Profit, provided he can prove he is healthy.

The Lakers also added two veteran guards this summer in Shammond Williams and Maurice Evans, leaving Profit to question the role he would play with the team. Profit was averaging 4.2 points and playing 11.2 minutes a game before his injury.

"He would have loved to go back to the Lakers,'' said Buck, who did not rule out such a return. ``But he wants to be somewhere he's going to have the opportunity to contribute the same way he did with L.A. last year until his injury.''

Buck said Memphis has shown the strongest interest of any team in Profit. Other interested teams include Denver, New Orleans/Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Washington and the Lakers. Profit has yet to start auditioning for teams, Buck said, but likely will spend August and September doing so.

* * *

One player who probably won't be coming back to the Lakers is guard Kareem Rush, who was released by Charlotte with nine games left last season. Lakers coach Phil Jackson defended Rush at the time, even as the Bobcats questioned Rush's commitment.

``I have had some conversations with the Lakers, but with the recent trades, signing Kareem does not seem likely,'' agent Aaron Goodwin wrote in an e-mail. ``Teams are interested, but Kareem has been put into a position where teams are wondering about his supposed attitude before they focus on his basketball capabilities. His release from the Bobcats created a bunch of untrue rumours that had to be addressed.''

In the news release that announced Rush's release, the Bobcats put out a statement on behalf of coach/general manager Bernie Bickerstaff that said: "The Bobcats are about two things -- hard work and maximum effort. With that in mind, we think that it is best to go in a different direction with Kareem.''

It's hard to measure how damaging those words were. Goodwin said Rush thought he had a deal with Orlando, but the team got cold feet about Rush's reputation.

Can they get better next year without making a major move? What do you think??? I tend to think the big key to improvement might rest with how Corey Maggette recovers from his injury-plagued season, but who knows???

In other news, this time from the NBA goes by quickly. You got the draft, summer league, free-agent signings, then training camp at the beginning of October. And 82 games, that is not nearly enough. Why not increase the schedule by 20?

What's interesting is that the Christmas game in Miami might not even be the biggest show in town that day. The Dolphins are playing in the second game of the NFL doubleheader at home against the Jets. It will be Week 16 of the season. And from what I understand, the first love of Miami sports fans always has and will be the Dolphins.

But if you're looking for an over/under, how about 11.6 minutes per game? That's the average that a first-round draft pick has played for a Jackson-coached team as a rookie. Stacey King averaged the most minutes of any Jackson rookie (21.6) back in the 1989-90 season. He also was a No. 6 overall pick.

Kareem Rush and Luke Walton (a second-round pick) both averaged double-digit minutes and played in 70-plus games as rookies. Brian Cook averaged 12.5 minutes but played in only 35 games. Devean George averaged about the same minutes (7.0) on a 67-15 team as Andrew Bynum did out of high school (7.3) on a 45-37 team.

It is going to be difficult for Farmar to find minutes with the Lakers having four ball-handling guards (Smush Parker, Shammond Williams, Sasha Vujacic and Farmar) on the roster. Keep in mind the Lakers can activate only 12 players total for each game.

They also have the option of having Farmar play for their NBA Development League team, which they don't with Vujacic now in his third year. And you have to assume that Andrew Bynum will be on the active roster all or most of next season as the Lakers try to get him NBA minutes.

Right now, I'm going with the under on 11.6 minutes per game, but you never know.

The Lakers are supposed to open the season Tuesday, Oct. 31 against Phoenix at Staples Center, a rematch of their first-round playoff series. I'm not a gambler, but I saw a site recently that had the Suns, Mavericks and Heat all 9-2 favorites to win the 2007 title. The Lakers were at 40-1. It should be an interesting opener, especially with Amare Stoudemire back for the Suns.

They will play at Miami in the NBA's marquee Christmas Day game, the third year in a row the league has brought together Kobe and Shaq on the holiday. They push this rivalry so much, the NBA might as well have the Lakers open the season in Miami and watch the Heat get its rings.

There is a marathon eight-game road trip set for early February. You have to go back to December 1989 to find a trip that long in Lakers history. It's one-fifth of their entire road schedule in one trip. The Lakers also are playing a New Year's Eve game, their first on that date home or away since 1968.

Their schedule looks like it will be front-loaded with home games this season. The Lakers could play as many as 15 of their first 20 games at home. I don't know whether that includes any road games against the Clippers at Staples.

If you win two-thirds of your home games and split your road games, you should finish about 48-34 for the season. That would have been good enough for fifth in the Western Conference last season. But if the Lakers schedule has that many home games in November and December, the team will have to come together quickly.

Just to stay on pace for 48 wins, the Lakers would want to open 13-7. It's the exact opposite from last season, when the Lakers were a .500 team until March 19 but took advantage of a schedule that had them playing 10 of their last 13 games at home. They made a little run, finished 45-37, and nearly pulled off a playoff upset.

Maybe the Lakers will be build some confidence at home early that will benefit them for the rest of the season. If they do play 15 of their first 20 at home, they can't afford a slow start to the season. We'll know everything for sure once the NBA schedule becomes official.

The fact that Turiaf made it back to play in the NBA less than seven months after undergoing the surgery is an absolute marvel. I will never forget being summoned to the Lakers practice facility last July on 90 minutes notice to hear team spokesman John Black say Turiaf was suffering from the same heart condition that killed actor John Ritter.

The Lakers said that night the best-case scenario was that Turiaf would sit out the entire 2005-06 season. I thought the odds probably were that he never would play again. As it turns out, Turiaf played in 23 games last season after struggling just to put on his socks in August.

A source I talked to a couple of months ago said Turiaf had the most to gain out of any player this off-season. I don't know how the minutes will break down next season, but it's fair to say that Turiaf can be expected to play a greater role on the team. Even if he's just dancing on the sidelines, though, Turiaf will be an inspiration to many.

It will be an interesting season for Mihm in a lot of respects, chiefly because he will be an unrestricted free agent once it is over. The Lakers have three centers on their roster right now, with a lot invested in the two not named Mihm. Kwame Brown is owed $17 million the next two seasons and made strides at the end of last season with Mihm out. Beyond that, Andrew Bynum needs to play if he is to continue in his development.

Right now, Mihm will have to find minutes - - he started 56 games last season - - playing behind Brown and possibly sliding over to power forward. He has the jumper to play the position but is best suited as a center. The Lakers also figure to start Vladimir Radmanovic and Lamar Odom at their two forward spots. They just made a $30 million investment in Radmanovic, with Odom due more than $40 million the next three seasons.

You just have to wonder what would have happened had Mihm not sprained his ankle in the last minute of a game that was bad enough already.

The consistency of the refereeing in the summer league was not good, but Bynum also picked up a lot of fouls. He has to learn when to try to block a shot and when to back off and save himself a personal. Bynum also didn't get a ton of chances to show his moves in the post. But he was calling for the ball, and got up and down the floor well, which were two good signs.

My two favorite plays he made both came in Tuesday's game against Washington. On one of them, Bynum tipped an offensive rebound off the backboard from one side, then hammered home a dunk on the other side of the rim. He also used a nice two-dribble move to power to the basket after getting the ball at the foul line. I'm not sure I had seen him put the ball on the floor like that before.

Bynum also got a taste of what it means to play hard in back-to-back games, which happens between 15 and 20 times every NBA season. The next step for Bynum is to stay healthy going into and during training camp, unlike last season when he suffered an abdominal injury. Whether Bynum will get the 15 minutes a game he wants next season remains to be seen.

``I think if you go back and look at the tape of how he was playing in last year’s summer league and look at him now, you’ll see a dramatic improvement,'' assistant coach Kurt Rambis said. ``Not only in how well he’s playing but in his conditioning, how his body has reshaped itself in terms of getting some muscle and some definition to him.

``His understanding of the game is coming along. But he’s still a project. He understands that. He understands that he’s a ways away and he’s going to have to continue to work really, really hard if he expects to get time next year.’’

Finally, I think we have a nickname for Andrew. He walked out of the Pyramid last night wearing a Yankees hat that had the No. 17 stitched onto one side and "A-Train" stitched onto the other.

The team will play its first game Friday, Nov. 24 at Anaheim, then play Sunday, Nov. 26 at Bakersfield. The D-Fenders' first home game will be Tuesday, Nov. 28 against Bakersfield. The team is supposed to play its home games at Staples Center before Lakers games. It's sort of like the junior varsity game before the varsity game. The Lakers will be able to send their first- or second-year players to the D-League, up to two at any time.

The full schedule is online at www.nba.com/dleague. The NBA also has decided to add a D-League All-Star game to its All-Star weekend in Las Vegas. The inaugural game will be played Saturday, Feb. 17 as part of the NBA's Jam Session. It will follow practices for the NBA All-Star teams.

Bynum finishes his summer-league season having averaged 14.7 points, 7.9 rebounds 4.4 fouls, 2.3 blocks and 2.4 turnovers in seven games. He went 39 of 64 from the field (60.1 percent), 25 of 42 from the foul line (59.5 percent) and played 31.5 minutes per game. It's hard to say how much that means against the level of competition he faced.

It's a shame because tonight's game was shaping up as the best of the summer league. The Lakers were playing Memphis for the fourth and final time and Bynum was determined to show how he had learned to take advantage of the Grizzlies, who fronted him on defense in the three prior games. He also talked yesterday about having promised Kareem Abdul-Jabbar that he would hit at least one left-handed shot.

Now it looks like you're going to get a big dose of former UCLA center Michael Fey tonight at the Pyramid.

LONG BEACH--The Lakers should have finished off the Washington Wizards in the first quarter Tuesday, especially after opening the summer-league game with a Doron Perkins’ 3-pointer, a Jordan Farmar 3-pointer and an Andrew Bynum alley-oop dunk.

It was 8-0 after only 70 seconds, the Lakers on their way to a 13-point lead against a Washington team with only six players. Too bad there was another 46 minutes, 50 seconds to play at the Pyramid.

The Lakers weren’t able to finish off the Wizards in a 132-123 victory until Farmar, Bynum and J.R. Pinnock all checked back in with 7:42 left in the fourth quarter of a four-point game.

It was a defense optional game, with the Lakers shooting 60.6 percent and Bynum going 10-for-10 from the field on the way to 25 points and 11 rebounds. Devin Green scored 26 points and hit 12 of 14 shots and Farmar added 16 points and 11 assists.

Bynum made a number of nice plays in the game, though the Wizards did not have a true center to match up against him. He came up with a big rejection by rotating over as Washington’s Scooter McFadgon drove the lane in the closing seconds of the first half.

It was one of the few times all afternoon McFadgon was denied, scoring 15 points in the second quarter and 36 for the game.

Bynum got his points around the basket, off lobs and follow-up dunks, and put the ball on the floor to get from the foul line to rim on one play during the third quarter.

``I think that Andrew is going to be very capable with his back to the basket, he’s going to be very capable facing the basket,’’ assistant coach Kurt Rambis said. ``That 12- to 15-foot range is something that he’s going to be able to knock down open shots.

``If guys are too close to him, with his length and his abilities, he’s going to be able to put the ball down on the floor, too. I think if he continues to work, if he continues to grow, we’ll have a special ballplayer in a few years.’’

Bynum converted a three-point play after returning in the fourth quarter. Farmar followed by zipping a pass to Green for a basket. The Lakers finally pulled away as Farmar hit a tough bank shot off a play with Green.

So far, the Lakers have added four players with guaranteed contracts this summer - - Jordan Farmar, Maurice Evans, Radmanovic and Williams. Smush Parker and Ronny Turiaf both are locks to make the team, although they do not have fully guaranteed deals. That leaves the Lakers with something pretty close to a 15-man roster.

C Kwame Brown/Chris Mihm/Andrew Bynum
PF Lamar Odom/Ronny Turiaf/Brian Cook
SF Vladimir Radmanovic/Luke Walton
SG Kobe Bryant/Maurice Evans/Aaron McKie
PG Smush Parker/Shammond Williams/Sasha Vujacic/Jordan Farmar

They could buy out the final year of Aaron McKie's contract - - getting almost no return on a $12-million investment in Vlade Divac and McKie the last two seasons - - and choose to keep one of their younger players from summer league. Or they could give Laron Profit the chance to make the team out of training camp.

The Lakers will introduce Williams this afternoon at their practice facility. One of the big questions for general manager Mitch Kupchak will be if his roster is set for next season and just how improved the Lakers will be with largely minor changes.

"We don't anticipate any more free agent signings,'' Kupchak said Wednesday. "Having said that, this time of year, there's a million phone calls regarding trades. That remains a possibility, although we don't have anything about to happen."

* * *

I was totally disappointed to see Radmanovic will not be bringing the No. 77 he wore in Seattle to the Lakers. It would have been the highest jersey number in team history; Dennis Rodman wore No. 73 during his time in purple and gold. Radmanovic decided to go with No. 10, which he wore as a teenager in Serbia.

* * *

Talked to Smush Parker for a couple of minutes at summer league Tuesday night. If anyone knows about summer league, it's Parker. He played for a different team (Detroit, Orlando, Indiana and the Lakers) each of the last four summers before this year. Parker's been in New York and said he has been playing a little bit on his own.

So I'm posting it here in the blog and hoping to find it at dailynews.com/sports when I wake up Wednesday morning.

By Ross Siler
Staff Writer

LONG BEACH--The Lakers played more close games than just about anybody in the NBA last season. So why not continue the trend Tuesday night in their third summer-league game?

They did just that in an 87-84 victory over Memphis at the Pyramid and maybe learned a couple of things in the process.

For starters, Andrew Bynum can make free throws when they matter (at least in July) and Jordan Farmar isn’t afraid of making the big play down the stretch or sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong on the court.

Bynum went 8 of 15 from the foul line Tuesday but hit two free throws with 59.6 seconds left to cap his 24-point, 7-rebound game. Farmar drove for a layup with 34.1 seconds left and the Lakers survived from there.

``I was shooting them pretty good up until today,’’ Bynum said of his free throws. ``I’m probably going to go shoot some right now.’’

As a rookie, Bynum converted just 8 of 27 free throws, a Shaq-like 29.6 percent. He was so shaky at the line in the first half Tuesday that he conferred with special assistant coach Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during one timeout about what was going wrong.

He said afterward he wasn’t following through and might as well have been ``praying’’ his foul shots went in. Bynum had made 10 of 14 free throws in the two summer-league games before Tuesday.

But the Lakers believe that Bynum won’t merely be an adequate free throw shooter in his career, but a good one.

``We’ve heaped a lot of expectations on him in that area,’’ assistant coach Kurt Rambis said. ``We think that he’s going to be big enough and strong enough to be able to get himself to the line. So we want him to shoot for that 80 percent range on his free throws.’’

Farmar, meanwhile, looked like more than a 19-year-old rookie in beating Tarence Kinsey for his big layup in the final minute. The Lakers cleared out the court for Farmar, who was gone as soon as Kinsey turned his head.

Before that, Farmar showed his feistiness in the final minute by standing directly next to Memphis’ Junior Harrington as the Grizzlies guard went to talk to an assistant coach during a blood timeout prior to Bynum’s free throws.

It was something Farmar - - who finished with 21 points and hit 7 of 10 shots - - never thought twice about, even as a first-year professional.

``I was just playing around, trying to make him uncomfortable, and act like I knew what was going on,’’ Farmar said. ``I have no clue. Whatever they say, I don’t know their calls anyway.’’

Rambis said: ``He goes over there and listens. That’s the smart, crafty little move that he did. I liked that. He has as much right to stand there as the opposing player.’’

Bynum got most of his points off dunks and lobs and might have had a 30-point game had he not struggled so much from the line. He hit 8 of 11 shots with the Grizzlies playing what he called ``ridiculous defense.’’

``They were totally fronting me all the way on the high side with small guys, not really having any backside help,’’ Bynum said. ``So we just kept abusing that situation.’’

He said there's nothing new with George, whose run with the Lakers will come to an end after seven seasons. Bartelstein said he is still talking with a bunch of teams about George and they are not yet at the stage of setting up visits for him.

The list of teams interested in George, from Saturday, was Cleveland, Denver, Washington, the Clippers, San Antonio and Phoenix.

I also asked about how the Lakers' agreement with Vladimir Radmanovic will affect Cook's status. Maybe Cook wants out - - he'll be a restricted free agent next summer - - but Bartelstein didn't suggest that in our conversation.

"Radmanovic sort of took Devean's spot,'' Bartelstein said. "I don't know if that changes anything with Brian. He's going to go out there and compete, and I think he's going to have a great, great year.''

Bartelstein represents a lot of guys who aren't among the top tier free agents, including Darius Songaila, Jake Voskuhl, Aaron Williams and Jannero Pargo. He mentioned those four on Saturday as players the Lakers at least had discussed as free agency opened, but said Friday that there had been no negotiations with the team.

* * *

The Lakers still could spend the $1.75 million bi-annual salary cap exception on a free agent this summer. The catch is that they could not use it come next summer. It is not good for consecutive years.

* * *

With so much attention sure to be on Andrew Bynum this summer-league season, I thought it would be worth noting how some of the other high school-to-the-NBA players from the Class of 2005 are doing.

Martell Webster had 29 points on 10 of 19 shooting (5 of 8 3-pointers) for Portland's team on Thursday night in Las Vegas. Andray Blatche, a second-round pick by Washington, had 15 points and 12 rebounds but also eight turnovers. Hope those eight turnovers are a misprint in the box score.