RealGM

Lakers VP Jim Buss will answer an hour's worth of listeners' questions live at 4:30 pm PT Friday on 710/KSPN radio's "Mason & Ireland."

dockingsched wrote:

Lakers VP Jim Buss will answer an hour's worth of listeners' questions live at 4:30 pm PT Friday on 710/KSPN radio's "Mason & Ireland."

http://espn.go.com/espnradio/losangeles/play

dockingsched wrote:yeah, i'm not sure if they'll just be taking pre determined callers, emails, twitter replies, not sure how it works.

I wouldn't put a rating on it. I'd just sum it up by saying he's ahead of what we expected, and therefore we are very pleased with what he's doing.

We look at Kobe as a Laker for life and wouldn't consider using the amnesty clause on him. Kobe being the player that we all love, one of the greatest Lakers of all time, we view him as family.

We are always looking at the waiver wire, but we don't expect anything to come our way.

We first started talking about Ramon last season; he's been on our radar for a year or so.

As Mitch has stated, our policy is not to talk to players before trades because of the uncertainty about whether or not trades will go through.

I've known Chaz for over 10 years, and when he was initially hired by the Lakers, it was as my assistant, a job which he performed for over two years. During that time, he accompanied me on a lot of scouting trips and showed a natural affinity for that type of work. So after a couple of years in his previous position, we felt he earned the right to be a scout, and that was under the direction of Mitch Kupchak and Bill Bertka. He does not work for me, he works for the Lakers under Bill and Mitch. In addition, I'd like to say that Chaz has many qualities that any employer would look for in an employee, including the fact that he's intelligent, hard working and trustworthy.

And by the way, I'd like to clear up a misperception that has been written about his past: Chaz has never been a bartender.

The Basketball Operations includes Bill Bertka, our Director of Scouting, Rondre Jackson and Glenn Carraro, alongside Mitch and myself. Furthermore, we have seven scouts, including Chaz, who cover the global basketball landscape.

If we only had to deal with the luxury tax, it would have a slight affect on business decisions, but the new CBA, including the heavy burden of revenue sharing, has changed the landscape for tax paying teams, reducing our ability to improve our roster. We have less flexibility than teams under the tax. Among many different restrictions, here's one example: a non tax paying team can offer significantly more money and more years in a mini-mid-level contract than can a tax paying team.

dockingsched wrote:i had posted an article a few weeks ago about chaz never being a bartender. u guys never read what i post.

Sofa King wrote:

dockingsched wrote:i had posted an article a few weeks ago about chaz never being a bartender. u guys never read what i post.

I read it.

FullCircle wrote:The only question I have for Mr. Buss is what the hell was with the "Lets purge every thing Phil Jackson" mentality after he left. Why didn't B Shaw get a shot? Why were we so adamant about abandoning a system that won us 7 conference championships and 5 world championships in the past 11 years?

dockingsched wrote:

FullCircle wrote:The only question I have for Mr. Buss is what the hell was with the "Lets purge every thing Phil Jackson" mentality after he left. Why didn't B Shaw get a shot? Why were we so adamant about abandoning a system that won us 7 conference championships and 5 world championships in the past 11 years?

i listened to parts of the interview today while driving home and this was one of the questions. basically ireland and mason asked if there was any truth to him jim buss wanting to distance himself from phil jackson. first he kinda laughed it off saying something like it would impossible to distance himself from his future brother in law. said that when they started the search, they weren't looking for a phil jackson replacement, they were looking for who would be the best coach going forward. when they decided on a new coach, it was natural for that coach to want to bring in his own assistants/trainers/etc, said this is common practice so he's confused why it got so much attention.

anything related to brian shaw wasn't mentioned, at least when i was listening which was 25% of the interview.

Phil XI wrote:

dockingsched wrote:

FullCircle wrote:The only question I have for Mr. Buss is what the hell was with the "Lets purge every thing Phil Jackson" mentality after he left. Why didn't B Shaw get a shot? Why were we so adamant about abandoning a system that won us 7 conference championships and 5 world championships in the past 11 years?

i listened to parts of the interview today while driving home and this was one of the questions. basically ireland and mason asked if there was any truth to him jim buss wanting to distance himself from phil jackson. first he kinda laughed it off saying something like it would impossible to distance himself from his future brother in law. said that when they started the search, they weren't looking for a phil jackson replacement, they were looking for who would be the best coach going forward. when they decided on a new coach, it was natural for that coach to want to bring in his own assistants/trainers/etc, said this is common practice so he's confused why it got so much attention.

anything related to brian shaw wasn't mentioned, at least when i was listening which was 25% of the interview.

Pretty much this. I thought it was a great interview. As expected, Jim isn't the menacing-owner-to-eb that the media makes him out to be.

I enjoyed the interview and the Q&A. Another point is that He has been working for the Lakers for 15 years and credits guys like Jerry West, Magic and of course his Dad for teaching him about the business. He doesn't see any immediate control of the team and seems vary comfortable working with Mitch.

Oh and his dad makes the final call, period.


Re: Shaw. He didn't talk about him. But Shaw simply wasn't a candidate, because this is a veteran team, with Kobe ( and Fisher at the time) that didn't want a coach that wasn't going to communicate with Kobe and co. as a friend but more of a coach.

This was told to me by the brother of a current NBA coach, who interviewed for the Lakers. Take that that for what it's worth.