Mitch Kupchak: Hard to find anything to feel good about the Lakers

[lake_show]

it's to early but i think mitch might be regretting taking russell. randle has been great and russell is still young but i see nothing that says he's going to be a great player and it's only a matter of time before fans turn on him. i mean look at a lot of posters here. we all knew it was going to be a long season and instead of folks enjoying the young guys,or watch kobe going into the sunset, all we hear is folks complaining about scott,ripping kobe,bass and whoever else. kind of sad really,and before anyone rushes in with the " no one is above criticism" talk, just understand that after a while it get's old.

Wait.... What?!?!


Guys i know you don't think you have to read the article to post in a thread about an article but do us all a favor and read the article before you post.

Especially the part where Mitch says he's been "very pleased" with Russell. And he thinks Russell is going to be a "really, really, really good player". That's 3 reallys for those who weren't counting.

[slifersd]

Byron Scott is a jackass, I really don't think anyone can look at what he did the two years and come to a different conclusion. But the root cause of this team's problems has to start from the top. Jim, the head honcho of our basketball operations has been a catastrophe since he took over control. He just seems clueless as to what it would take to make his team good, and that is more concerning to me than 100 Byron Scott hirings. A company cannot do well without a competent CEO, and that is exactly what we do not have right now.

As far as Mitch is concerned, he has his problems as well. The whole LMA recruiting meeting crap was squarely on the front office. They were trying to sign a player and they did not even know how to talk to the guy. To some degree, I do wonder if the inept front office is a result of Mitch not doing his job right, or Jim putting too many of his drinking buddies in the office and took away Mitch's trusted supports. Either way, the FO has been very mediocre at best.

To me, though, the team needs to have a serious self examination and figure out why so many of the decisions they made have turned out so badly. We cannot learn from our mistakes unless we understand why we made those mistakes to begin with. Take this draft, for example, why was Russell picked over Okafor and Porzingis? Was it an issue where our scouting just messed up their evaluation? Was it an issue with our strategy (need vs. BPA)? Or was presumption of us being able to land LMA or Monroe? Whatever the problem is, we need to rectify it and make sure we don't repeat it. I am by no means saying Russell will definitely turn out to be a bust, but the decision certainly looks shaky right now.

[LApwnd]

I don't understand why some fans go out of their way to absolve Mitch of any blame but put all the negative stuff on Jim. We don't know what kind of conversations they have. I've only heard 1 of the owners say anything stupid in regards to basketball and that was Jeanie.

For all we know Byron's hiring was forced by her, but lets not get into conspiracies. Let's deal with what's the likely reality.

Jim was pretty clear that he was the one who picked mda and brown as the hc, its safe to assume Jim picks the hc. Jim does deserve blame for the makeup of this team but he signs playersbased on scotts input and the system Scotts runs

[Pinoy cchio]

Byron Scott, Mark Madsen ---- not the coaching staff Lakers need to develop young players.....period.

[So Gutta]

Yeah, the bottom line is that the offense sucks. It's not fun for anyone. It's just iso-ball. No assists.

The defense sucks, too. Byron hasn't made any progress, has only regressed since last year, now with a healthy team!

[TylersLakers]

It's a big mess. Period. And hopefully there's a silver lining to come from this mess with a Top 3 pick.. but, we can't even bank on that.

In the mean time, we should just enjoy the minutes Russell, Randle and Clarkson do get. We should enjoy the remaining games of Kobe we have left whether the statistics are 4-20 or 10-20.

[Sedale Threatt]

If we lose our pick this year and miss out on a stud like Simmons...that's going to be tough to swallow.

Much as I like Russell, it's tough enough to take that Porzingis is obviously going to be a total stud. Would have been really difficult to take him given the high bust factor of foreign players in the draft, but damn, he is a nice, nice player.

[tugs]

I'm thinking how come an AI led, iso heavy 76ers looked better than our current team.

[Sedale Threatt]

Those were flawed teams but they were still constructed to strengths, with the offense revolving around one guy -- who as much as I disliked was an MVP candidate -- a HOF coach and lots of good role players. We're pretty far from that.

[Wavy Q]

Hall of Lame coach, LVP candidates across the entire team, and tons of bad role players.

[ArC_man]

I'm thinking how come an AI led, iso heavy 76ers looked better than our current team.

MVP caliber player in his prime, DPOY center, and HOF coach.

[Jedi32]

Why would he be regretting Russell? He's been playing relatively well the last 2 weeks. I mean Porzingis is killing it and maybe they should have gone that route but Russell has some serious talent. Im not sure what guys are expecting from a 19 year old guard having to fight for possession with Kobe, Lou and Clarkson. Once Kobe is gone I guarantee his game opens up.

it's to early but i think mitch might be regretting taking russell. randle has been great and russell is still young but i see nothing that says he's going to be a great player and it's only a matter of time before fans turn on him. i mean look at a lot of posters here. we all knew it was going to be a long season and instead of folks enjoying the young guys,or watch kobe going into the sunset, all we hear is folks complaining about scott,ripping kobe,bass and whoever else. kind of sad really,and before anyone rushes in with the " no one is above criticism" talk, just understand that after a while it get's old.

Russell just doesn't look like "that" guy at all. I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see it.

[Jedi32]

it's to early but i think mitch might be regretting taking russell. randle has been great and russell is still young but i see nothing that says he's going to be a great player and it's only a matter of time before fans turn on him. i mean look at a lot of posters here. we all knew it was going to be a long season and instead of folks enjoying the young guys,or watch kobe going into the sunset, all we hear is folks complaining about scott,ripping kobe,bass and whoever else. kind of sad really,and before anyone rushes in with the " no one is above criticism" talk, just understand that after a while it get's old.

Wait.... What?!?!


Guys i know you don't think you have to read the article to post in a thread about an article but do us all a favor and read the article before you post.

Especially the part where Mitch says he's been "very pleased" with Russell. And he thinks Russell is going to be a "really, really, really good player". That's 3 reallys for those who weren't counting.

Sounds more like PC talk to me. Of course mitch isn't going to say I regret taking russell. Russell is a decent player I just don't see him being the type of piece a Wiggins pr randle could be. Like I said before hopefully I'm wrong and it's still early and I'm more than willing to give russell the benefit of the doubt especially since it's only be 21 games.

[ALL HAIL]

No one knows who makes what decision in that front office.

The last we heard from Lucky Sperm he seemed to be almost "submitting" to Kupchak, but no one knows how it really goes down with these guys.

It's ignorant to call these guys out on an individual basis because, unless otherwise stated, they work in unison -- they are one.

Lucky Sperm is an easy target. Kupchak has nice gray hair and roster construction issues.

They both are complicit.

I respect the hell out of Kupchak for calling himself out though.

[PKABOOICU]

isn't this the 3rd year for jim? he said if the team isn't turned around in 3 years, he's going to step down and let Jeanie Buss run the team.
lakers should go after nicholas batum and al horford in the offseason.

[BEazy]

Man 20+ games in people are arguing that Russell isn't that guy. Clarkson wasn't that guy 20+ games in either. He actually had to go to the D-League and get some games in. Russell can't even get that consistently with Byron screwing with his minutes. Give the kid some time and a another coach to play under.

Mitch is part of the blame, but not all. Byron not teaching these kids anything is large part of the blame. When training camp was over and we were playing our preseason games we looked like we had just came back from vacation. Everything was just sloppy and not even slightly organized and that's on Byron.

[Jody Smokz]

What exactly are you expecting to see? I mean Im not going to hype myself up to believe he's the next Kobe Bryant. He could very well be a top 5-10 wing in the next few seasons and that's great.

Why would he be regretting Russell? He's been playing relatively well the last 2 weeks. I mean Porzingis is killing it and maybe they should have gone that route but Russell has some serious talent. Im not sure what guys are expecting from a 19 year old guard having to fight for possession with Kobe, Lou and Clarkson. Once Kobe is gone I guarantee his game opens up.

it's to early but i think mitch might be regretting taking russell. randle has been great and russell is still young but i see nothing that says he's going to be a great player and it's only a matter of time before fans turn on him. i mean look at a lot of posters here. we all knew it was going to be a long season and instead of folks enjoying the young guys,or watch kobe going into the sunset, all we hear is folks complaining about scott,ripping kobe,bass and whoever else. kind of sad really,and before anyone rushes in with the " no one is above criticism" talk, just understand that after a while it get's old.

Russell just doesn't look like "that" guy at all. I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see it.

[Jody Smokz]

Different NBA and you know AI during that time was one of the better players in the NBA...odd thinking

I'm thinking how come an AI led, iso heavy 76ers looked better than our current team.

[gts1]

I'm thinking how come an AI led, iso heavy 76ers looked better than our current team.

Because Iverson was really good...

Still the 76ers were not that good his first year or two even with Larry Brown as a head coach

[Jedi32]

@jody smokz better court vision, speed, and at least a few flashes of brilliance, not consistent brilliance because I know he's still a rookie. I want to see what blew the FO away so much that they made this kid the second overall pick. Is that to much to ask for? He still has time to prove himself and I'm sincerely hoping he does. Right now in this early season I have not seen any traces of it.