Even over here in the UAE, we know the Lakers are being dissected and deconstructed, and the prevailing notion seems to be that they need to be disassembled.

My first thoughts, and these go back to when the deficit to Dallas was 2-0, were “maybe they do need to blow it up.” But then I began to think it through some more … and I’m not sure that it’s necessary or even a good idea or even possible, given the guaranteed money the club has invested on current players, which impacts their trade-ability …

Before we take the analysis deeper, can we just recall for a moment that it was a heck of a run?

Consecutive championships several years after most of us thought the Lakers might not ever be an elite team again? The most fun I’ve had, as a sports fan, in 18 months in the Middle East was watching the espn.com gamecast of Game 7 of the NBA Finals last year, and seeing in my mind’s eye the celebration at Staples when they ran down the Celtics. Grand.

Again, we turn now to my former colleage, the Lakers fan/analyst, who makes many valid points, and springs a bit of news about Pau Gasol I had not heard, but maybe everyone outside of Abu Dhabi knows about it.

“As for the Lakes, all the columnists … were piling on today, saying It’s Over. But like you, I’m not sure this is the end of them as contenders. A lot of it was good, compelling reading, especially from Heisler, Plaschke and Bresnahan (of the Los Angeles Times), who did an analysis piece delineating just how hard it will be to change the roster because they’re so far over the salary cap, all the key guys, and many of the scrubs, are tied up in multiyears, and most of them aren’t good trade bait.

“Who’d take Artest? . . . who’d take Bynum with his injury history? . . . Who’d take Gasol, coming off this postseason? . . . Trading Kobe is a non-starter … Odom, maybe, but what could you get for him? Etc.

“It was nice, common-sense rebuttal to the hysteria of Magic Johnson, who in his TNT commentator role said after Game 3 that the Lakes needed to “blow up the team” and suggested they trade Bynum or whoever for Dwight Howard, as if that could happen by just snapping his fingers. Given the financial constraints, this team appears to be un-blow-up-able.

“Still, they’ve got some pretty good pieces left. Gasol won’t play like this the rest of his career; Dallas was just a really bad matchup for him, as we discussed, and then apparently he was distracted this spring by the mess in his personal life

(“You heard about that? It’s been all over the Internet that Kobe’s … wife Vanessa told Gasol’s girlfriend that Pau screwed around on the road, hey, all the players do it . . . and Gasol’s girlfriend broke up with him because of what Vanessa told her . . . and Pau blames Kobe for it and now they’re not speaking.”)

“Bynum, if he stays healthy, a big if, could be a monster. Kobe, whatever he’s got left is still gonna be better than most players. Odom is still pretty useful. . . . Etc. On the other hand, some of the points raised by Magic and the LAT writers are valid. The lack of quickness and athleticism is a huge problem — the fast, little guy has become preeminent in the NBA (SI even did a cover-story trend piece on that), and the Lakers are the opposite — big, slow, leaden. They have no legit point guard — and those don’t grow on trees, plus the Lakers are hamstrung by the fact they have no draft pick this year.

“As Heisler noted, the triangle offense does not feature a true point guard — it just requires an ‘initiator’ to get the team into the offense, whose job is to make the first pass and hit the open shot if one presents itself . . . and that guy can be an all-around guard like Fisher or Paxson, or a versatile forward like Odom or Pippen. But with Phil gone, and if they don’t promote Brian Shaw to replace him, the Lakers will move away from the triangle.

“Problem there is, this roster was assembled specifically to run the triangle — hence the absence of a true point guard. . . . The lack of quality shooters is another big drawback. Again, as we’ve discussed. And again, not easily solved, and possibly un-solvable. Dallas made TWENTY threes Sunday . . . the Lakers made 15 the ENTIRE SERIES.

The Lakes won 57 games this season, playing much of it on auto-pilot. The guts of that team returns intact . . . but a year older, and with the league moving in the opposite direction, toward Quick and Athletic and away from Big and Tall. There’s legitimate reason to question whether the Lakers, as presently constituted, can compete in the playoffs . . . and legitimate doubts about whether they can reconstitute themselves, given the financial realities.

“But hey, maybe there won’t even BE a 2011-12 NBA season, given the labor situations. That might be great for the Lakes — all those old guys could use a year off.”