LOS ANGELES -- Steve Nash sat in front of his locker Tuesday night before a game that could have essentially ended this miserable Los Angeles Lakers season. He put his socks on slowly. His hamstrings were still sore, his hip was in spasm, his back wasn't much better. Every movement required some consideration and care.

If things had gone as planned for the Lakers this season, Nash would be resting right now. Healing up for the playoffs. Gearing up for what he'd hoped would be a championship run at the end of his Hall of Fame career. Instead, he was figuring out a way to get his body well enough to play again as soon as possible to help the Lakers make the playoffs as the No. 8 seed.

"We just don't have any room for error," Nash said before a Lakers win over the Dallas Mavericks that kept their playoff hopes alive another day. "We have to get these wins, no matter who we're playing.

"I think part of us are disappointed we're in this position and we blame ourselves for it. But another part of us is like, 'We've been through so much. We've just never had a run to get a healthy team, so we don't really know.'"

Either way, this season has been something of a disaster. The league's highest payroll has belly-flopped, splashing dysfunction everywhere.

Injuries to Steve Nash and others have made it difficult for the Lakers to find their rhythm this season. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

And yet as disappointing as the Lakers have been, there is a strong case to be made that they should simply heal up over the summer and try it all over again next year. Re-sign Dwight Howard, keep Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace and Nash, hold on to as much of the bench as you can, maybe even give coach Mike D'Antoni another crack at it, this time with the benefit of a full training camp to install and teach his system.

"I'm fine with that," Nash said. "There's a lot of factors that go into that I haven't evaluated right now, so we'll see. But I definitely think there will be a lot of motivation to get off to a much better start and see if we can get some continuity at least and become a good team."

There's just one problem with that idea: It's totally irresponsible from a financial perspective.

As ESPN.com salary-cap expert Larry Coon outlined earlier this week, with the changes to the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement really starting to kick in next season, if the Lakers again field a roster about $30 million over the luxury-tax line -- as they are this season-- they'd be on the hook for a whopping $85 million in tax, due to the new progressive luxury-tax system.

Even the Lakers, with their impeccable brand and $5 billion TV contract with Time Warner Cable SportsNet, would have a hard time with that.

"It just doesn't make any sense," said one Western Conference executive. "From a business perspective, I just don't see how you can do it."

Harsh words. Harsher reality ahead.

Over the past week, ESPNLosAngeles.com has interviewed a group of agents, executives and players to find out just how difficult it will be for the Lakers to sort through all the issues, options and problems this new stark financial reality has thrust upon them heading into next season.

There are no easy answers. But there are several areas upon which almost everyone agreed.

"No matter what, they have to re-sign Dwight," one general manager said. "Even if they don't want to move forward with Dwight, you gotta re-sign him because he's a tradable asset no matter what he makes. Someone will take him.

"Even if he's taken a step back, someone will take him. He's 27 years old and he's arguably still the best center in the league; someone will take that. You can always move him, but if you don't have him under your control, then you've got nothing."

Howard is eligible to sign a five-year, $118 million contract with the Lakers this summer. That's approximately $30 million more in guaranteed money than he can get from any other team. If the Lakers are able to re-sign him, but it becomes clear on either side that this marriage was not meant to be, Howard would be eligible to be traded after Dec. 15.

However this season ends, Mitch Kupchak and Lakers management have some very difficult choices to make about next year. AP Photo/David Zalubowski

More likely, though, the Lakers will want to build around Howard going forward. While his season has been uneven as he's tried to bounce back from offseason surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back, he's still regarded by most as the best center in the NBA.

"It's not only about having him, but it's about having him to attract other players," the general manager said. "You might overpay him; he might not be what he was before, but as long as he can bring other guys to L.A., you gotta have that. Players want to play with a big man who is an anchor defensively."

It has become something of a common assumption now that if Howard re-signs with the Lakers, Pau Gasol and his $19.3 million salary will either be traded or the team will exercise its amnesty rights on his contract.

That's not as simple as it sounds, however.

The Lakers would have to answer to Bryant, who is on record as saying "I love Pau like a brother," and would then be in the final year of his contract. Would this really be the way the organization wants to end Bryant's Hall of Fame career?

The Lakers would also have to find a trade that doesn't return an even more cumbersome contract.

"He's an expiring contract, but even then, I don't know how much interest there's going to be around the league for him," the general manager said. "Because if you really felt like he was viable for you for the next couple of years, can you re-sign him? Are you just renting him for a year to try and get yourself over the hump to win a championship?"

Another general manager didn't think that would be as much of a problem.

"He'll have value as a super expiring contract," the second general manager said. "There are 12 teams with 12 million or more in [salary-cap space] this summer. Multiple teams will be open to doing an uneven deal to acquire him.

"They [the Lakers] would probably have to take back a multiyear deal at a lower number. Say, somebody with two or three years left at 6 million a year. They can't incentivize a deal because they have no assets -- no [draft] picks and no young players of value.

"But by 2014 they can always move the $6 million guy to [a team under the salary cap] by conveying $3 million if the guy can play at all."

Trading Gasol is also tricky timing-wise. He is the Lakers' insurance policy if Howard signs elsewhere. The team likely won't get an answer on Howard until early to mid-July, and as one agent pointed out, Gasol's highest trade value will likely be in advance of the NBA draft in late June.