2008–09 Los Angeles Lakers season
Bryant finished second in league MVP voting, averaging 26.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game.
Trevor Ariza, who also missed the second half of the season, but later returned in the playoffs also had to work back into shape.
At the time, Bryant decided to forgo surgery and play out the rest of the season and participate in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
[11] The most notable departure was last year's backup power forward Ronny Turiaf to the Golden State Warriors.
Still, contract negotiations dragged on longer than usual because he wasn't signed to a tender offer from another team as a restricted free agent.
[18] Josh Powell was also signed to a one-year contract to replace the departed Ronny Turiaf[19] The Lakers 2007 NBA draft pick Sun Yue, spent the entire 07–08 season playing for the Beijing Olympians in the ABA.
Giles, Brandon Heath, and Dwayne Mitchell signed to the Lakers roster during the offseason but were all released before the season began.
[20][21][22] Due to the midseason trade for Pau Gasol in February 2008, the Lakers only had a second round draft pick in 2008.
[20] On February 7, Vladimir Radmanović was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats in return for Adam Morrison and Shannon Brown.
The deal was made largely to save money to be able to resign players during the off-season, notably Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza.
[25] On February 18, backup center Chris Mihm was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies for a conditional second round draft pick in 2013.
[26] Roster Last transaction: 2009-02-18 When the Lakers made it all the way to the 2008 NBA Finals without starter Andrew Bynum, they were seen as the favorites from the Western Conference to return there in 2009.
They finished the road trip with a sub-par 2–2 record and were facing a rematch of last year's finals against the Boston Celtics on Christmas Day.
The losses revealed how injuries to role players Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar could affect the Lakers.
[29] Walton was chosen as starter because of his good passing skills and Jackson wanted to emphasize ball movement in the offense.
Andrew Bynum was also criticized for his poor play, including a one rebound performance against the Houston Rockets on January 13.
Bynum responded by going five straight games with a double-double including a career best 42 points against the Los Angeles Clippers.
On January 31, against the Memphis Grizzlies, Bynum left the game with an injured right knee after he was hit by Bryant driving to the basket.
An MRI scan revealed he had a tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and was expected to miss 8–12 weeks.
On February 7 the Lakers traded Vladimir Radmanović to the Charlotte Bobcats for Adam Morrison and Shannon Brown.
Radmanović saw his role decrease drastically with the Lakers when he was taken out of the starting lineup, often coming in behind Walton and Trevor Ariza.
In March, after recommending Phil Jackson to, Luke Walton was moved to the bench and was replaced with Trevor Ariza.
The change caused a surge in Ariza's production and allowed Walton to play less minutes against opposing teams' starting players.
Since then they were in a race with the Cleveland Cavaliers to finish with the best record in the league and secure home court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Lakers stole home court advantage back from the Nuggets with a 41-point performance from Kobe Bryant (13 of them in the 4th quarter).
While the Lakers were making their NBA record 30th Finals appearance, the Magic were entering only their second in franchise history.
