It would be hard to argue that the Los Angeles Lakers weren’t the best team in the NBA last season. Kobe Bryant and company were dominant all season long last year and now have an NBA title to show for it, but can the Lakers repeat in 2009-2010 season?

Yes, they can!

A lot of title contenders in the NBA this offseason made some pretty major upgrades to their squads making it arguably tough for the Los Angeles Lakers to repeat this season, but the Lakers didn’t just stand by and watch all their opponents get better without making some moves of their own.

In the offseason the Lakers priority was sign Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza. Both Ariza and Odom were huge pieces to the puzzle in the Lakers championship run last season and not resigning either of these players would be a huge lost.

Well, the Lakers almost signed both of them, but had to settle of one out of two as Trevor Ariza chose to sign with the Houston Rockets. Lamar Odom agreed to resign with LA just after Ariza chose to make the move, but he almost decided to rejoin his old team and play alongside Dwyane Wade once again with the Miami Heat.

Fortunately, the Lakers were able to convince Odom to stay. Losing Ariza was a huge blow the Lakers defense, but in a way to counter Ariza’s move to Houston the Lakers went out and signed the Rockets best defender in the controversial small forward Ron Artest.

The Boston Celtics signed Rasheed Wallace, the Cleveland Cavs traded for Shaq and both the San Antonio Spurs and the Orlando Magic made moves to bring in Richard Jefferson to the Spurs and Vince Carter to the Magic. These were huge moves that will definitely make a big impact in the league next season, but I believe there will be no bigger impact then Ron Artest joining the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

The only real question is the chemistry in Los Angeles. Obviously last season there was no problem with chemistry as they were able to go the distance, but in the past Ron Artest has been lockeroom cancer at times with his former teams and can really make things tough for a team that has already established a good team chemistry like the Lakers.

Despite all the questions marks surrounding the Ron Artest experiment in Los Angeles, Artest has made it clear that he came to the Lakers to become an NBA champion and has already said that he will take all the blame if the Lakers cannot repeat this season.

That is bold statement, but at least the Lakers know that Artest is serious about keeping the Lakers winning ways alive!

It should be interesting to see how the Lakers come together this season and whether they can hang with the rest of the league.