For the Los Angeles Lakers, there's always next year.As tough as it might be to hear for Lakers fans, the writing is on the wall. Their biggest hope for their next franchise cornerstone, Dwight Howard, reportedly just spurned them to play for the Houston Rockets. Their face of the franchise, Kobe Bryant, is almost 35 years old and ruptured his Achilles tendon in April, which could sideline him for the beginning of the season or longer.If that's not bad enough, the rest of the Lakers' core battled...