IS NEW LOOK GOOD FOR LAKERS YES: THEY WEREN'T WINNING WITH SHAQ.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

It was heartening, as the Lakers were taking charge of an exhibition game against the Golden State Warriors in Bakersfield a couple of weekends back, to glance into the stands across the court from the L.A. bench and see a young fan holding a hand-lettered sign with a brief and optimistic message.

``No Shaq,'' the sign read, ``No Problem.''

Note that there were no competing ``Bring Back Shaq'' signs.

It was encouraging, too, to look around Bakersfield's little hockey arena and see Kobe Bryant jerseys outnumbering Shaquille O'Neal shirts approximately 1,000 to 1.

Do Lakers fans in Bakersfield reflect the attitude of Lakers fans here at home?

If they do, then maybe we can have confidence in one thing about the season that opens Tuesday.

Perhaps we can rest assured that nights at Staples Center will not play out as endless bitter debates between Shaq diehards, crying over spilled low-fat milk, and Kobe boosters, convinced the Lakers are better off without big No. 34.

After the glories of the Lakers' 2000-01-02 NBA championships dissolved into an early playoff exit in 2003 and a Finals sweep at the tiny hands of the Detroit Pistons last June - amid increasing rancor among Shaq, Kobe and head coach Phil Jackson - management declared Kobe the future and dumped the rest of the no-love triangle.

The team has moved on after the mid-July trade of O'Neal to the Miami Heat and the break with Jackson.

Thoughts of the past can't dry up quickly enough for Bryant's taste.

By contrast, O'Neal and Jackson may be finding it harder to move on, O'Neal frequently venting his anger at Bryant's victorious power play and Jackson having a tell-almost-all book to promote.

So which way should Lakers fans go? Should Los Angeles look forward to watching a new-look team with Bryant The Man on the court and Rudy Tomjanovich as the boss on the bench? Should we pine for the not-so-old days when the whole city was on a first-name basis with Shaq, Phil, Derek Fisher, Rick Fox and Robert Horry?

Embrace it, folks.

No Shaq, no problem? That's overstating it. The Lakers aren't going to win the NBA championship this season without O'Neal in the middle when they couldn't win the title the past two years with him.

But that's the point.

In the overheated days surrounding the O'Neal trade, some reacted as if the Lakers had jettisoned a young player with a limitless future and a glowing attitude. As if they'd torn up a team coming off a string of titles.

When in fact Jerry Buss and Mitch Kupchak - finding this town was not big enough for O'Neal and Bryant - made the right choice to trade the 32-year-old, who missed the equivalent of 1 1/2 of his eight seasons with the Lakers because of injuries and deserved more than half the blame for his endless spats. When in fact the front office was breaking up a team that had exactly as many NBA Finals victories the past two years as the Clippers.

They've moved on.

The long-term appeal of the Lakers is the high-glamour, big-revenue franchise's ability to pick superstars off the basketball conveyor belt.

Two losing seasons followed breakup of the Jerry West-Elgin Baylor- Wilt Chamberlain championship team of 1972, but then Kareem Abdul-Jabbar arrived in a trade, and when Magic Johnson joined him, the Lakers had the title again in 1980. Three mediocre seasons followed the Kareem-Magic-James Worthy dynasty, but then Shaq (free agent) and Kobe (draft and trade) happened on the scene.

While they wait for history to repeat itself, the Lakers won't be as bad a team as you might have feared this season, although they'll need a few ifs to break their way. If Bryant shows himself to be an effective leader, a burden of proof he has brought on himself ... if Lamar Odom figures out his role as the No. 2 man in the lineup ... if Vlade Divac shakes the back trouble that figures to cost him Tuesday night's opener against the Denver Nuggets ...

The Lakers will get worse before they get better. But that was going to happen with O'Neal. It's time to get on with the next era.

Peace at Staples Center. A regular season that really matters. The radar on Buss' checkbook in an active search for the next L.A. basketball star.

If this is a Lakers disaster, give me more of it.

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(1 -- 2) Building around Kobe Bryant could backfire, but fans at exhibition games don't seem to be lamenting the loss of Shaquille O'Neal.

Photos by Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer