[sammyg2]

just to muddy the waters some more, there's also a huge difference between a talented individual athlete and a great team player.
The talented individual can do things by himself that are amazing but may or may not influence the outcome. Cam Newton and RG3 come to mind, they have incredible skilz but lose allot of games because it's them vs the other team.
If I had to choose i'd pick a great team player over a great individual athlete every time.

A great team player may not have the best skilz in the game but will elevate the performance of his entire team and make them all perform beyond their abilities and can most definately influence the outcome of the game as witnessed by the broncos last year, miracle comeback after miracle comeback. winning games against powerhouse teams that are favored by 24 points.
IMO We'll never see better football played in our lives than we saw last season.
Magic Johnson had that same talent, the ability to elevate the performace of his entire team instead of just himself.
He made everyone around him better and that's a lost art in most of today's sports.

Another good example would be the miami heat a couple years ago and the philly eagles last year.
the owners and GMs bought a team full of great individual athletes but they didn't live up to their hype because they were a group of great individuals and not a team.
Last year the heat finally won the big one despite not really being team players but just because their individual talents were so dominant it was hard to keep losing.

The lakers this year have lots of great individuals, we'll see how they do in the real season. So far they're 0-7 in pre-season.
It'll also answer the question if they have a real coach or not.
Last year they were still riding the zen-dude's coattails, this year the new coach but in his offense and defense and we'll have to wait and see if it works.