This whole ego thing isn't as much of a problem as you guys think. Shaq and Kobe would still be the crux of that team on both ends of the court, and that would be obvious just by looking at their paychecks. By Malone accepting the veteran minimum, he is pretty much saying that he's going there to win a championship, not to necesarily average 20 points per game, and not to try to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer. And although I'm not as old as he is, I have a feeling that once you reach the mid 70s, it gets really tough to go out on the court every night and try to be a consistent scorer. He had to do it in Utah, but now that he's gone, there's no reason he won't be able to accept whatever duties he needs to fulfill.
As far as Payton is concerned, the guy still has mucho game left in him. For the 58 games he played in Seattle this year, where he was comfortable in the offense, the guy averaged 20.8 points on 45% shooting, dished out 8.8 assists and grabbed 4.8 rebounds. All this while only turning the ball over 2.5 times a game, which comes out to a 3.5 assist: Turn-over average. The last time I checked, that is the opposite of being "not that good anymore." Not only that, but even though most of you guys have agreed that Stephon Marbury is hands-down better than GP, those statistics certainly beg to differ. I would probably agree with you guys on this as well, but to dismiss the issue as a given is a pretty unfounded action. Now, Payton is said to be somewhat of a trouble-maker at times, but GP has been around mediocrity for so long now that I'm close to sure that winning will calm any uprisings that Payton might think of causing.
If they could add Scottie Pippen, which is really nothing more than a rumor at this point, he prolly wouldn't be a problem either. Fact of the matter is, if he could survive the Portland Trailblazers, where passing is more the thing you do with the pipe than with the basketball, I'm sure he'll have little trouble making it in LA. Besides, this guy has played second fiddle his whole basketball career, and the only times he's had an opportunity to do anything else, he's shown repeatedly that he'd rather give the assist on the winning bucket than take the shot. Which I respect greatly.
And if all else does begin to fail, the Lakers, despite what some would like to believe, do have a very sturdy safety-net to fall back on in Phil Jackson. Say what you will about his abilities as a coach, but the bottom line is Shaquille O'neal, Kobe Bryant, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, Glenn Rice, Toni Kukoc, Horace Grant, just to name a few very respected NBA players have never won a damn thing without Phil Jackson at the helm.