Steve Blake passing to Ron Artest (Courtesy of Creative Commons).

In their most emphatic string of wins this season, the Lakers got revenge on the Grizzlies, beat the Celtics in Boston and took down a struggling Knicks team in the mecca of basketball -- all in one week. 

It’s true that the team’s fabled “Grammy Road Trip” has been kind to them the past few seasons. The Lakers have posted a combined 18-5 record on the trip since the 2007-08 season.

But there is still one major concern in Lakerland that may stymie the squad’s chance to capture a third straight NBA title: their lack of depth at the guard position.

The Lakers are one of just three teams in the NBA – the 76ers and the Wizards are the other two – to carry just four guards on their roster. That’s a remarkable stat.

What that means is they lack the luxury to bench a struggling guard – such as the slumping Steve Blake – and are virtually unprotected from an injury at the position.

In comparison, the league’s elite teams – Boston, Miami, Dallas, Orlando and San Antonio – are all at least five guards deep.

So how did the Lakers get into this bind?

In the past year, the Lakers have let go of two of their guards coming off the bench: hotheaded Slovenian sharpshooter Sasha Vujacic and athletic Southern Californian native Jordan Farmar.

Both are now playing for the Nets and are averaging about nine points a contest.

For Steve Blake: just four points.

Though the Lakers were eager to get rid of Vujacic’s expiring contract – $5.5 million in the last season of a three-year, $15 million deal – they had no problem signing Blake to a $16 million deal over four years.

The net $1.5 million in savings this year has truly hurt the Lakers' bench as Blake continues to have one of the more dismal seasons of his seven-year career.

The problem with Blake is that he’s purely a shooter and, if his shot is off, he lacks the versatility to help the team win in other ways. He’s constantly preyed upon by opposing team’s guards on defense and is a noticeable liability in the pick-and-roll game.

Coach Phil Jackson has praised Blake in the past for his decision making with the basketball and his ability to find the open man inside the triangle offense. But if Blake were passing to anyone on the team other than Shannon Brown Friday night – in what became a spectacular one-handed alley-oop dunk – the ball would have sailed into the Madison Square Garden bleachers.

Check it out below.

It’s true; I was bananas for the “Killer B’s” in the beginning part of the season. Their high energy off the bench was exhilarating and it looked as if the team’s reserve replacements we’re gelling with the starters.

But this is L.A., Steve Blake.    

You’re making $4 million this season. You finally have a shot at a title after seven years with bad teams. And your field goal and 3-point percentages are both under your career averages.

I’m not saying that the Lakers should trade Blake – no one would take him. All I’m suggesting is that the Lake Show needs one more backcourt performer for a title run, and they have just 12 days before the trading deadline to make it happen.

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