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The Lakers lack depth. The Lakers lack productivity from the point guard position. The Lakers lack scoring. If you were to take away anything from the first 19 games of this current season, those three would likely be high on that list.

But there might be a solution — one in the form of a 30-year-old guard who was once famously known for yelling out the name of a Japanese heating device with every shot.

Hoopsworld.com’s Alex Kennedy reports that the Lakers are eyeing Gilbert Arenas:

The Los Angeles Lakers have expressed interest in Gilbert Arenas, according to sources close to the situation. The 30-year-old is an unrestricted free agent after being amnestied by the Orlando Magic last month. No signing is imminent, but the Lakers have reached out to the veteran point guard.

League sources say that Arenas would love to join the Lakers. He grew up in Los Angeles and is interested in playing for his hometown team. He believes that he can contribute in Los Angeles’ backcourt, which currently features an aging Derek Fisher, injured Steve Blake and inexperienced Darius Morris. Arenas and Blake played together for two years with the Washington Wizards.

If health and conditioning are a concern, Kennedy mentions that Arenas dropped 20 pounds during the extended off-season, helping prevent any issues with his surgically repaired knee.

Arenas’ stint in Orlando may be a cause for concern. The three-time NBA All-Star struggled off the bench, was frequently in Stan Van Gundy’s doghouse and didn’t look like the player he once was. But his 17 point starting average last season with both the Wizards and Magic can add a much needed spark that the Lakers desperately need.

Level #4 of the #KobeSystem takes us through explosion. Until Tony Robbins starts wasting everyones time… again.

How much of your time did Tony Robbins waste?

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Lakers forward, Matt Barnes, was a guest on the Jim Rome radio show on Thursday and talked about playing for Mike Brown, Pau Gasol’s dust-up with Chris Paul after last nights game, and Metta Wold Peace, among other topics.

On the mini mix-up between Pau Gasol and Chris Paul after the Lakers win over the Clippers:

Pau is fed up with people using the term, “soft.” Pau is hands down one of the most skilled big men in the game and he just has a different style of game. Sometimes you have to rile him up to get him going. Its just a fact of, you hear things and you want to go out there and show everybody what the deal is”

Getty Images | Mike Ehrmann

The 10th seed in the Western Conference – that’s where the Lakers sat before tonight’s game; and based on how they’ve been playing lately, it’s where they deserved to be. After dropping three games in a row and four of their last five, Kobe Bryant said they needed a win - ANY win against ANY team. Well tonight they got their win, and not just against any team. It was the Clippers on the Lakers’ home floor and for the first time in four tries (the two pre-season games included), the purple and gold finally handed a loss to their neighbors down the tunnel.

The game was chippy, as most Laker-Clipper games have been the last couple of seasons. Six technicals were handed out, there was one ejection, Metta World Peace was one swing of an arm away from getting T’d up himself when he got tangled up on the floor with Blake Griffin, and even Pau Gasol was talking trash with Chris Paul. Pau Gasol…talking trash. If the resident white swan talking trash doesn’t do it for you, I don’t know what will. Gasol backed up his talk with some excellent play though, as did four other Lakers who scored in double figures.

It was definitely a group effort tonight on both sides of the court, and in the end the Lakers pulled themselves out of that 10th spot in the West to go up to the 8th. As has been the case this season for the purple and gold – baby steps.

Photo by Harry How | Getty Images

The (10-8) Lakers host the (9-5) Clippers tonight as the tenants of the Staples Center resume the renewed hallway series. The Lakers are 20-4 all-time against the Clippers at home, 9-1 in their last 10, winners of the last eight. The Lakers are 6-4 in their last 10 games overall. The Lakers lost game one and trail the Clippers in the season series after winning the series last year (3-1).

As expected, Chris Paul has literally changed everything in this series. If the Lakers do not come out of top tonight, the Clippers will win the season series against the Lakers for the third time in franchise history, as the L.A. Clippers in the 1992-1993 season and as the Buffalo Braves in the 1974-1975 season.

The Clippers are a confident group playing good basketball and enjoying their best 14-game start since 2006-2007. The purple and gold are 9-2 at the Staples Center this season. The Lakers have struggled mightily to score points this season and everyone is frustrated.  The Lakers, on a three-game-losing skid, have gone 11-straight games scoring under the century mark exceeding 100-points only once this season.

The Lakers are searching for answers. Normally this would be a great time to exhibit some patience with the new-look Lakers; however, it is doubtful with a shortened season that the purple and gold have the luxury of time to be patient. The loss of Lamar Odom has increased the workload of Pau Gasol. Gasol is a team player who has made several adjustments this season and has been truly professional throughout the process.

Due to the lack of speed, athleticism on the perimeter, guards that are skilled at running the pick-and-roll play head coach Mike Brown is using Pau Gasol more as a facilitator, jump shooter further away from the basket.

Pau Gasol is a two-time NBA champion dealing with decreased production, increased scrutiny and more than likely not participating in this year’s all-star game.

Gasol has not drawn a line in the sand and demanded more touches in the post, but who could blame him if he did? Gasol has posted 4 triple-doubles, 326 double-doubles, 40 30+-point games and 2 40-point games. However, the state that the Lakers are in seems to scream out go back to the triangle offense.

(Photo by Mike Ehrmann | Getty Images

Let’s jump in the Delorean for a minute.

The Lakers are about to face the Dallas Mavericks in the 2nd round of the ’10-11 playoffs. You & I walk into Staples Center.

“The Mavs? Dirk? Cuban? HA!”

We have a good laugh while we walk to our $600 seats (which probably means we’re sitting in Section 318). We agree that Dallas is a much better matchup than Portland, but we can’t agree on how long the series will last. You say it’ll be a sweep, I say the Mavs will win Game 3 in Dallas. In either case, we both concede – there’s no way the Lakers are losing this series.

Then it happens.

Only a few seconds before tip-off, our future selves walk into our section through some cheesy CGI portal. They sit down next to us, freeze time and tell us the following:

The Lakers aren’t going to win this series. Actually, they’re not going to even win a single game.

We smile at the obvious stupidity, but continue listening anyway.

And right after the season ends, Phil is going to retire and Jimmy Buss is going to start calling the shots. Brian Shaw will be ignored, Ronnie Lester will be canned without a phone call and Mike Brown will be the heir to Phil’s throne.

We continue to smile, but also wonder about the type of drugs that must be freely available in the future.

After the lockout shortens the season, David Stern will block a trade that brings Chris Paul to the Lakers. Fans will be completely outraged. No need to worry, he ends up in L.A… with the Clippers.

Suddenly, the conversation isn’t amusing or interesting anymore.

The Lakers will panic and trade Lamar Odom to Dallas for a trade exception that doesn’t really help them. And speaking of trades, Dwight Howard will let it be known that the Lakers are on his short list of teams he’d like to be traded to, but Jim Buss will tell the Orlando Sentinel:

“I personally believe now that we have the team that we will be playing with all season long.”

The sudden urge to punch our future selves in the face is ignored only because it would be pretty weird to punch yourself in the face.

Photo by Jeff Gross | Getty Images

It’s been talked about for years in the city of Los Angeles. Who is to blame for the feud between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant? Was it Kobe’s ego? Believing that he should be the number one offensive option because of his tireless work ethic and unrivaled drive to be the best player in the NBA? Was is Shaquille O’Neal’s ego? Believing that despite whatever shortcomings he may have had in the work ethic department, he was still hands down the best center in the NBA (not named Hakeem Olajuwan of course) over the last 2 decades and the Lakers wouldnt sniff the NBA Finals without his prescence?

Well, for Lakers forward, Robert Horry, who told Russian website, www.sports.ru, by way of our friends at probasketballtalk.com that the true culprit for the much publicized feud between the two superstars was not the fault of the players themselves, but Lakers head coach Phil Jackson:

I think Phil Jackson started that feud. It happened many times that after team practice he would say, “Kobe said this about Shaq, and Shaq said that about Kobe… We couldn’t believe how could that happen, because just the day before we saw them together, jumping on one another. Phil liked it when there was conflict of some sort.

I always tell people; if you look at those championships, you’ll see who were the closest players on the team. Normally those are the guys who are the first to hug each other. And when we were winning, it was always Shaq and Kobe who hugged. I think this will answer your question. Later it was blown out of proportion by the media and both players started doing something that didn’t make sense.”

One would find it a little odd, if not counter-productive, that Jackson would attempt to drive a rift between his two star players. But when you look a little deeper, how farfetched is this? Are we to believe that Jackson is above creating possible tension in the locker room? Jackson has always been known as a coach who could “manage personalities” and get guys who aren’t on the same page to co-exist. With that being said, it doesnt take a rocket scientist to realize that Shaq and Kobe didnt need Phil Jackson to stir the pot, that feud would have inevitably come to a head regardless of Phil’s interjections. Despite Horry’s description of Shaq and Kobe hugging and jumping on one another, one would have to be pretty naive to believe that the genesis of their rift can solely be attributed to Jackson. O’Neal and Bryant were both very headstrong individuals who both wanted to be THE guy. That they would end up clashing at some point was an inevitability. I’m not calling conspiracy theory here. I’m just saying that it would not surprise me if Jackson somehow threw fuel on the Shaq-Kobe fire to further prove to the masses his greatness as a coach by leading a team of ego-driven, dysfunctional players to multiple championships.

When he was young, Kobe used to just attack quick. But the #KobeSystem is about adaptation. Aziz Ansari gets a lesson in early success. We’ll learn more when we reach level 2.

Are you on the #KobeSystem yet?