EXIT STRATEGY TAKES SHAPE LAKERS PLAYERS GIVEN OPPORTUNITY TO VENT.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

Staff Writer

EL SEGUNDO -- It didn't get any easier to explain the day after.

Twelve hours and 400 miles removed from the end of their season, a handful of Lakers floated into and out of the team's practice facility Thursday afternoon to pick up their belongings and go through an exit interview with coach Phil Jackson and general manager Mitch Kupchak.

The answers -- or explanations -- hadn't changed much from the past few weeks.

Frustration, despair, anger and a general malaise were the running themes as the Lakers began writing the epilogue on a year that ended sourly Wednesday night in a 119-110 loss to the Phoenix Suns, compared with its auspicious beginning.

"We just kind of talked about how disappointed we all were with how the season ended," said Lakers forward Luke Walton, who will become an unrestricted free agent after the NBA Finals. "I think last year, at the end we really had a lot to build on. Early in this year, it looked like we had built and we'd gotten better as a team and we'd be able to start competing for championships again.

"Then we kind of got hit by the injury bug and it was all downhill from there."

The fall was precipitous, from a 26-13 start that defied the expectations of nearly everyone in the NBA and tempted a hungry fan base to dream golden thoughts again, to a stumbling 16-27 finish and a predictable early playoff exit.

Kobe Bryant's individual brilliance carried the Lakers across much of the divide as he flirted with NBA history with fourstraight games of 50 points or more in March and topped 60points twice to easily win the NBA scoring title.

But injuries, internal strife and chemistry issues undercut anything, even the sometimes superhuman things, Bryant could do.

Walton missed a quarter of the season with an ankle injury. Lamar Odom missed a third with knee, shoulder and assorted other ailments. Kwame Brown missed exactly half with ankle and shoulder injuries.

"Anytime you get injured, you've got to take your time to get back into ryhthm and get in shape," Brown said. "I feel bad because I wasnt there for most of the season. Forty-one games is a lot of games to miss."

The rap sheet wasn't as long as the injury list, but it was certainly more bizzare.

First there was Brown's cake-throwing incident outside a Hermosa Beach nightclub. Then came Smush Parker's sulking and war of words with Phil Jackson. Brian Cook threw his warm-up pants at the coach. And Bryant's tiff with the league office over inadvertent elbows.

And who could forget last year's prized free-agent pickup Vladimir Radmanovic's plunder off a snowboard in Park City, Utah, and subsequent blunder of an explanation as to how he injured his shoulder?

Heck, even Brown wanted to know a little more about that one.

"How come you jumped off the mountain?" Brown yelled from the hallway as Radmanovic faced the media.

"I'll just have to put it behind me and start from scratch next year," Radmanovic said. "I owe a lot to the organization and the Lakers fans. There were a lot of expectations when I first came here and obviously I didn't prove any of them."

For Radmanovic, this summer's task is pretty straightforward: Get back into game shape, master the triangle offense, resolve any lingering health issues with his hand and shoulder and come back with a renewed sense of purpose and confidence.

Everything else, starting with the shape the roster will take next season, is up in the air.

Bryant, Odom, Brown, Radmanovic, Ronny Turiaf, Andrew Bynum, Maurice Evans, Brian Cook, Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar are currently under contract with the team for next season.

Walton, Shammond Williams, Aaron McKie, Chris Mihm and Parker are all free agents.

Walton could be back, Parker almost certainly won't be back and McKie might retire. After that, it's anyone's guess.

Kupchak and Jackson will clarify things today, after they finish exit interviews and address the media. Bryant has his exit interview this morning.

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