Great Article with Kupchak

[dingclancy]

This article showed some of the throught process of Mitch

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=13240

One option was to fashion a dual sign and trade with the Rockets for Ariza and Artest. That would have necessitated the inclusion of other players like Brian Cook, Adam Morrison and potentially Brent Barry. The extraneous names wouldn't be the goal, but such a deal could have preserved the Lakers Mid-Level Exception (providing similar relief to Houston as well) and a chance to shop for an Odom alternative.

Sources say the Rockets were open to the idea but LA was not . . .

"You know something, in this business if you try to get too cute, something's probably going to go wrong. The quickest and easiest route to get Ron Artest would be to get him to sign the Mid-Level," answered Mitch. "Once you start talking about sign and trades, other general managers become involved; other representatives become involved. You go from three people (which are myself, the agent and Ron) to dealing with at least six people. My experience tells me that those things rarely work out if ever."

"I thought maybe as we continued to talk that maybe there would be some meeting of the middle ground within 24 hours but it moves so quickly and you have to go on feel," said Kupchak. "I just didn't feel that we were going to be able to make a deal. If we did it would preclude us from bringing back the other players that we wanted to bring back."

This guy has some Zen powers.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=13240

[dingclancy]

Ariza would go on to take even less money with the Rockets than what LA was willing to spend. By then the Lakers had already moved on to Plan B.

Forgot to add lol! Ariza end up taking less money.

[Tommy Trojan]

Since we are talking about Mitch here is what he said in the LA Times today

"I don't know how strong a word that [hopeful] is, but I am hopeful," Kupchak said. "I'd like to get some clarity in the next day or two or three, but knowing Lamar, it's an emotional time for him. I know he had to get away a little bit. I think Lamar just needs to work his way through it. Maybe it's helpful for him to see other players sign for whatever they signed for, and maybe it's easier to see where you fit into that group."

Now lets get it done Odom

[hermes]

nice find, thanks

DO IT MITCH

[lakersfanatic]

yeah, im pretty sure if kupchak could get both he would have but tis' true... the more people you add into the bucket the more crowded and confusing it gets... Push comes to shove and then the whole thing dissolves. So it was a good choice that kupchak did what he had to do.

Im pretty sure Ariza would have taken just a little more but because artest came long and willing to take less... you can't leave that waiting. Tough luck for Trevor.

Now that people are getting signed for 8-10mil.. im thinking Lo is more determined to seek the 10mil now. I think that if the lakers give him 9mil they he would sign. Or else Kupchak should offer him a 1 year deal. Hopefully we'll get our answer soon

[Tommy Trojan]

Bynum just robbed us with his huge contract. Bynum should get a pay cut of atleast 25%

I think Mitch is doing the right thing, he gave in to Bynum and look what happened. IT back fired on us now his a little more coushious then last time

[semi-sentient]

Bynum just robbed us with his huge contract. Bynum should get a pay cut of atleast 25%

I'd be pissed and confused as well if I were Odom and saw what Bynum was making while being low-balled by the organization.

It's like my company hiring a new software engineer right out of college, paying him a bigger salary to do much less, and expecting me to take a pay cut when it's time to negotiate my new salary. Fsck that. I'd be pissed.

I don't get all this stuff about "look at what other teams are signing players for". This is the Lakers, one of the most profitable (and winningest) franchises in all of sports.

I'm certainly not saying that Odom should rape us, but he is taking a pay cut of $3.2 million if he signs for $10 million, which is precisely what he said he would do. I've maintained all along that Odom was worth about that (even when he was being overpaid), so I'd have no problem with it.

[LAKESHOW]

i dont think you can have it any better than we have had it. from jerry west. to mitch in what seems like will be a longstanding relationship. other organizations go through GMs like crazy. bigtime turnover. but weve been fortunate to have relied on these 2 for a while. AND IN MY OPINION, and i wanna make it clear, in my opinion, rambis wouldve been an excellent person to groom in this front office position. groom and eventually fill the seat. but anyhow, after mitch is done, i hope thats not for a long while, it'll be interesting to see who takes his seat.

[Kilroy]

Bynum just robbed us with his huge contract. Bynum should get a pay cut of atleast 25%

I'd be pissed and confused as well if I were Odom and saw what Bynum was making while being low-balled by the organization.

It's like my company hiring a new software engineer right out of college, paying him a bigger salary to do much less, and expecting me to take a pay cut when it's time to negotiate my new salary. Fsck that. I'd be pissed.

I don't get all this stuff about "look at what other teams are signing players for". This is the Lakers, one of the most profitable (and winningest) franchises in all of sports.

I'm certainly not saying that Odom should rape us, but he is taking a pay cut of $3.2 million if he signs for $10 million, which is precisely what he said he would do. I've maintained all along that Odom was worth about that (even when he was being overpaid), so I'd have no problem with it.

For all you know, your company did just that to you... They don't disclose that kind of stuff to us mere mortals...

Odom has absolutely no reason to be upset... He's been a career under-achiever who's been horribly overpaid for his career and primarily by us after he signed his fat extension in Miami... Time for him to get back to reality...

It's taken him untill the last 2 years to finally find a role he can consistantly play in the NBA...

I love what he brings to this team and I think it's worth just about exactly what we're offering... And it's just like people are saying about Ariza looking better on the Lakers than he really is.... Odom found his niche here.

[semi-sentient]

For all you know, your company did just that to you... They don'e disclose that kind of stuff to us mere mortals...

They don't need to disclose that to me -- we talk about salaries amongst ourselves in IT. It's actually the reverse here where we pay the newcomers (no matter how brilliant) and obscenely low salary. I actually offered to take a pay cut last year when they were threatening to release one of our more gifted youngsters because I just thought it was damn unfair. Fortunately one of the other old (and useless) farts left the company so that turned out to be unnecessary.

That's besides the point though. Odom does know what Bynum's salary is, and I'm sure he knows that Bynum is not worth anywhere near that.

[Sedale Threatt]

I agree with what you're saying, Semi, but you should never try to apply real-world standards and ethics to the arena of professional sports. It just doesn't fit.

I wouldn't know what type of person in software compares to a young, talented, 7-footer, but in the NBA, those guys are exceedingly rare, and they're almost always going to get (over) paid. Just like QBs in the NFL, just like ace pitchers and power hitters in MLB.

In hindsight, the Bynum extension looks regrettable for two reasons:

1. He got hurt again.
2. The economy collapsed.

Considering his history, we knew about the possibility of the first and decided to press forward. As for the second, I don't think anybody saw that coming.

Let's look at the situation had neither happened. Bynum stays healthy, improves on his 13/10 from a year ago, and enters the open market. You're, say, Oklahoma City. You have a sure-fire superstar in Durant, some really nice young pieces around him in Green, Westbrook, probably Harden and one of the best GMs in Sam Presti. The one thing you're lacking is a great center.

Maybe their owner doesn't want to pony up the cash. Maybe he does. The point is, had neither of those two instances occurred, I highly, highly doubt somebody wouldn't have given Andrew a longer, richer deal than the one he got from us, and we would have almost certainly had to pay it because of the innate value of an upper-tier center.

In reality, the opposite happened. Andrew got hurt again, casting further doubt on his future, and the money has all but dried up. As such, we probably wouldn't have had to pay him what we did.

So I'm not defending the deal as much as I am the thinking that went into it. Mitch made a good, solid calculated risk -- one that didn't quite work out, but was logical at the time. That's about all you can do as a GM.

[semi-sentient]

Good points, and I understand all of that.

I guess I'm just bothered by the fact that other teams have made improvements to somewhat catch up to us and our organization is hesitating to pay an extra $1-2 million dollars. That seems a bit absurd to me even though I know Odom isn't going to get better offers elsewhere. Then again, we don't know what's being discussed behind closed doors in other front offices. I guess I'm just worried that we'll lose Odom somehow which will be a significant loss.

[Sedale Threatt]

I know exactly how you feel. Go read my post in the Odom FA thread. It's like, everybody involved is going to be filthy rich one way or the other, so finish this.

But, I'm not overly worried -- more like, very slightly concerned -- that we're going to lose Lamar because I just don't see what other options he has. Once Portland makes that offer to Millsap, which I can't imagine Utah matching, there simply aren't any other options for him.