Horry didn’t pull any punches by taking both Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard to task for their role in the Lakers struggles this season. The way Horry sees it Kobe’s defense and Howard’s sense of humor just aren’t helping the Lake Show find their mojo.

When it comes to Kobe, Horry has been unimpressed with Bryant’s gambling nature whenever he’s off the ball on defense.

“Kobe is on the weak side, he needs to start paying attention to where the ball is and not be flying around, thinking he’s some stealth bomber where he can get steals nonstop.”

It might seem obvious but Horry is about the only person I can recall that has been this specific when critiquing the Lakers. For my money he’s hit the nail on the head too. In fact the last two games have proven him very much correct.

Mike D’Antoni might not know much about defense but he’s a good enough coach to know the Lakers are better served with Bryant taking the opposing team’s top perimeter player. The efforts against Kyrie Irving and Brandon Jennings will validate that point.

But that’s a basketball related issue that is correctable. Not so much the case for Dwight Howard.

Horry just flat out doesn’t like Howard’s joking nature. Seems the seven-time champion doesn’t think D12 can win a ring being his normal, goofy self.

“You want a guy to be more focused. That’s the kind of guy you want, someone who’s focused, not fun-loving.”

Again, Horry has seen some of the greatest to ever play the game go about their business so far be it for me or anyone to question his opinion. He knows what works and if that formula ain’t broke then don’t fix it. Naturally Howard defended himself calling Horry’s take “stupid” but at this point the Dwight approach is unproven, so we’ll see how this plays out.

And if the ghosts of role players past isn’t enough then just look to this past season as proof of how important a solid bench comprised of players playing their roles to perfection is. The Lakers had the depth of an inflatable pool this season. Whenever Mike Brown went to the second unit with a lead it was a gamble.

L.A.’s bench was an urban myth this year. There was plenty of talk about it but for the most part it didn’t really exist.

There was the failed experiment of making Metta World Peace a sixth man. Matt Barnes had some good moments but vanished in the playoffs. Andrew Goudelock was the Lakers’ best producer off the bench at one point before his minutes were devoured by Ramon Sessions. And then there’s Steve Blake…don’t get me started.

The irony is that when the Lakers’ bench was best was when Sessions was leading the second unit. While he was adjusting to life in purple and gold Session gave the Lake Show the lift off the bench they so badly needed.

Later it would be the out-of-nowhere emergence of Jordan Hill that had a similar effect but not on the same level as Sessions. Still, Hill was able to take away every minute of PT that was usually going to Troy Murphy and Josh McRoberts.

That both Sessions and Hill were trade acquisitions that took away minutes from players that were heavily involved in Coach Brown’s rotation from day one says it all.

Of course the problem is that the Lakers needed Sessions to start so once he was running with the first team the bench was back to producing nothing every night. Hill’s activity and energy proved to be too little too late as Coach Brown didn’t call his number until the final game of the regular season.

Now just to make this even messier for Mitch Kupchak to clean up both Sessions and Hill are set to hit the open market. Both will be looking for more defined and expanded roles which means both will be looking for a reasonable payday. Oh…and Hill has a court case to deal with.

The good news is that quality role players aren’t expensive. The Lakers and their limited funds can actually acquire pieces necessary to help improve the bench. The bad news is that generally the only guys willing to play on the cheap are vets. This team needs a healthy mix of veteran experience and youthful athleticism. How they get those components remains to be seen. But rest assured if this issue isn’t addressed then it doesn’t matter what big name starter comes in because all the Lakers will have done is change the rug when the roof is leaking.