D'Antoni's system is about way more than sprinting down the floor for transition baskets. A lot of it involves proper spacing on the pick N roll and putting the onus on the point guard and wing players to make the right passes based on how a defensive player commits himself. The more troubling issue would be the Lakers' lack of good perimeter shooting, not their age or athleticism.
You don't have to run all the time. There are plenty of times where it's not practical. And you don't have to outrun everyone. If the Lakers just get to their positions before the slowest defender on the other team, they'll have a huge advantage with D'Antoni's system. And considering the slowest defender is usually a center, and Dwight is faster than a typical center, this is going to happen a lot. I imagine the Thunder will have to think very hard about using Perkins now. And, when the other team is using a center who can consistently keep up, then typically that center has a huge disadvantage vs Dwight and will need help a lot. Which plays perfectly into D'Antoni's half court system -- it's in large part about abusing help defenders. Ideally, the Lakers would now ship Pau Gasol for a 4 with even better range. But it's hard to do without (A) downgrading in talent and (B) screwing up their long term tax situation. Maybe they'll look at some 3-teamers where they get to add a less talented stretch 4 AND get a replacement for Metta / improve their bench.
Totally random, but I was just looking at some stuff and came across this. One of D'Antoni's p&r wrinkles I've always liked: Quite simple, yet so effective and hard to defend, especially if you're playing the p&r soft.
Love Phil's nose ring! <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w5Mi3b4vcCE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
