NBA PREVIEW : Lots of Questions, Only a Few Answers : Lakers: There are different points of view on how the team will do this season.

One popular view:

The Lakers are in trouble. They no longer have reliable Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and, essentially, they have not replaced him. They have about as much depth as a music video. Vlade Divac would have been more productive in the Yugoslav army reserve than as a Laker reserve. They will be lucky to win the Pacific Division, much less reclaim the NBA title.

Earvin (Magic) Johnson shakes his head and disagrees.

“Of course, people think we’re going to fold it up and pack it in,” the Laker guard said. “But that’s not the case here. You can’t count us out.”

Another popular view:

The Lakers may never look better, as evidenced by their 8-0 exhibition record. They no longer have aged Abdul-Jabbar clogging the middle, meaning they can resurrect their fast break and offensive versatility. They are so deep Coach Pat Riley might even use his bench. Divac loses nothing in the translation or transition. Another NBA championship is probable.

Johnson again shakes his head and disagrees.

“I don’t like to predict things like that,” he said. “We know we are one of the best teams. But we have to go out and play hard every night. If we work hard, the wins will come.”

Truth is, no one is sure what to make of the Lakers this season, their first in 15 years without the looming presence of Abdul-Jabbar at center.

This uncertainty adds some mystery to the Lakers’ regular season, which traditionally has been little more than an 82-game tuneup for the playoffs. Starting tonight in Dallas, the Lakers will start discovering what type of team they have become entering the post-Kareem ‘90s.

While the Lakers could go either way, they most likely will fall somewhere between those two extreme predictions as the season unfolds.

They will not be a physically imposing team, not with Mychal Thompson as the starting center and Yugoslav import Divac as his backup. Unless the Lakers acquire another aggressive big man--the team’s salary-cap limitation precludes most deals--even Mark McNamara may see meaningful minutes against bigger opponents.

But the Lakers will be as quick and as versatile as any team in the league. Johnson can, and probably will, play point guard one minute, then power forward or center the next. Michael Cooper is now almost exclusively a forward. A.C. Green will play some time at center.

When Riley finally accepted that the Lakers would not acquire Rick Mahorn or sign Wayne Cooper or find any other “true” center to replace Abdul-Jabbar, he set out to redefine the Lakers’ style and substance.

“I’m happy with the team we’ve got,” Riley said. “I’m maybe a little disappointed we didn’t get Ricky Mahorn, but I’m satisfied with our players.”

Riley has reintroduced the five-man fast break--no hanging back at midcourt for the center--and restructured the offense so that each player is involved and most of the low-post plays are set up for James Worthy and Johnson. Defensively, the Lakers promise to trap the player with the ball more aggressively than before and to take more chances.

“He’s definitely made things different,” Johnson said of Riley. “He’s maximizing the talent we have now. He’s trying different things. He’s put in a whole different defensive scheme. He’s taken advantage of our quickness. I think he took a long hard look at what’s going on, what the change is going to be in the ‘90s and adjusted to that.”

Actually, the Lakers had begun to prepare for Life After Kareem while Abdul-Jabbar was still around. Abdul-Jabbar, who averaged a career-low 10.1 points a game last season, was the third or fourth offensive option most of the time, and sometimes was waved out of the post altogether. Thompson averaged more minutes and almost more points than Abdul-Jabbar last season.

But Riley said the Lakers will definitely miss Abdul-Jabbar in certain situations, such as when the 24-second clock dwindles below 10 and that reliable sky hook is no longer available.

“Kareem was always the last leg of our offense,” Riley said. “We can’t rely anymore on just putting the ball above our heads, standing around and throwing it inside to him. But we’re working on that.”

Laker scoring this season figures to come from the same players who provided it last season. Johnson averaged 22 points a game on his way to becoming the league’s most valuable player. Worthy averaged 20.5 and off-guard Byron Scott 19.6.

“The only conscious thing I’m working on without Kareem is posting up,” Worthy said. “I have to make sure we have that scoring from down there. But A.C. and Earvin will post low, too.”

More shots figure to be available with Abdul-Jabbar gone and the Lakers pushing the ball instead of grinding out the clock, so Riley said he expects more offensive production from Green and Thompson, as well as from Orlando Woolridge (once he returns from a knee injury, probably in early December), Cooper, point guard Larry Drew and Divac off the bench.

“We may not get that many more shots than last year, but more of a distribution of shots,” Scott said. “There’s more people to go to now. A.C. will take more shots. Mychal, too. So, we don’t need Magic, James and myself to each score 22 (points) every game.

“If we really run like we want to, then we’ll all be scoring. But like Riley told us, we can’t run with people, we have to run by them.”

Riley has run the Lakers ragged in the 11 days between the end of the exhibition season and tonight’s first game. He said the Lakers need to be in better cardiovascular shape than before to maintain the brisk pace.

“What I want is five guys always moving and working together,” Riley said. “Everybody has to develop the skills to get us a good shot. We can’t get caught in a grinding type of game. As soon as I see them get lethargic on offense, I’m going to put them in a different defense and generate offense off the defense, a switching and trapping defense.”

Against teams with a tall, bulky and talented center, such as the Houston Rockets’ Akeem Olajuwon and the New York Knicks’ Patrick Ewing or even the Mavericks’ James Donaldson, the Lakers still will be at a disadvantage. Riley’s answer is to play hard-nosed team defense, send as many players as possible to rebound and hope to wear teams down.

Johnson said: “What we have to do is put a lot of pressure on teams, stay up in their chests and use our quickness to our advantage. We aren’t as big as a lot of teams, so we can’t let their size get to our quickness. Our quickness has to get to their size first. Dallas is going to be the start of that. They are big, so we’re going to have to get after people, trap a lot, do things to disrupt teams’ offense.”

Realistically, though, Johnson believes that the Lakers need another “big body,” as he terms it, off the bench for rebounding and defensive muscle.

“Vlade doesn’t fit that bill,” Johnson said. “He’s long (7-foot-1), but he’s not big. Mel (McCants, a 6-foot-9, 250-pound rookie) would be great if he were three inches taller. All I want is someone who can give us size and some boards. If we don’t get anyone, we go with what we got. Mel can still play, and Vlade can do some good things for us.”

Divac’s role is not fully defined. But he will have a role, which is more than Riley thought at the start of training camp. Although he is 7-1, Divac’s play resembles that of a power forward. He is a sure ball-handler, possesses a fine shooting touch and has good inside moves. But he is weak on defense in the low post and positioning for rebounds.

Because Divac has developed into more than just a new cult figure for Forum fans, Riley has expanded his substitution pattern from eight to nine players.

Drew, the 31-year-old veteran free agent, will play significant minutes at point guard, so Johnson can either rest or play on the front line. The addition of Drew also allows Cooper to switch from point guard, where he is shaky, to small forward. Once he rehabilitates his right knee, Woolridge will spell Worthy at small forward. Until then, rookie Steve Bucknall will play some minutes. And Divac will replace Thompson or Green.

“I think maybe we can go to nine (players),” Riley said. “But I still don’t like to roll over too many guys. It’s better to give one guy 12 minutes than two guys six. You know what they say--use seven, play six and trust five. I think Vlade will play significant minutes. Of course, it depends on his performance. He’s still learning.”

Riley figures to learn more about the Lakers, and perhaps alter his tactics on the fly, as the season progresses. But Riley still likes his team’s chances, because of what he calls the Lakers’ “core of four,” consisting of Johnson, Worthy, Scott and Green.

Others agree.

“As long as Magic is breathing, you still have the Lakers to beat,” Phoenix Sun Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons said.

Johnson said it is his goal this season to breath new life into the Lakers by being a different kind of MVP--most versatile player.

“I’m learning all four or five positions,” Johnson said. “My game will change in that aspect. I’m going to have (the ball) a lot, but I’m not going to have it a lot, too. It’s going to be a big change for me. In practice (one day last week), Riley didn’t allow me to touch the ball. I just played forward. I have to learn that. It makes us more effective as a team.”

Just how effective the Lakers, the so-called Team of the ‘80s, will be at the outset of the ‘90s should start to become apparent tonight.