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I been following this guy for a while because he has a great size and a good knack for blocking shots. Anyone else smell something fishy about this? Everyone knew Upshaw was a cocaine user or something back in college and was kicked out of two colleges but reportedly he cleaned up his act a while ago. But even after he was predicted a lottery pick if he didnt have problems.. During workouts some teams were reportedly expecting him late first round or early second round. Then all of a sudden reports during workouts was he had some sort of heart problem and his stock fell like a rock and was never talked about again and never drafted.

Then right away after the draft Lakers claimed Upshaw for their summer league team. Yesterday he plays a few minutes and blocks Towns a couple times, looks pretty good and then today they signed Upshaw to their NBA roster to a partially guaranteed contract.

Everyones knows Lakers passed up a center to get Russell, did they have a plan to engineer Upshaw to fall so they can grab them? Thats like getting two lottery picks. I practically predicted Lakers would get him when I saw that Upshaw wasn't drafted because they are the type of team that would do something like this.

The fishy thing was the reported heart problem, if he had a heart problem he wouldn't have been playing summer league

3 blocks in 12 mins was impressive. I think the kid is a sleeper & all along I hoped my Lakers took a chance on him. Might take a year or 2 for him to develop but when he does, he will be a steal!

I think Mitch planned to get him if he went un-drafted all along

the next rudy gobert

Next Whiteside.

In before lock.

i don't care. i love upshaq. him and hibbert manning the middle with, yes you got it right, MAH MAN BOB SACRE. that's solid two defensive players.

upshaq does have conditioning problems and has apparent consequences from drog abuse which showed in his interview. after all star he's gonna be 5 rebounds, 1.7 blocks in 20 minutes player.

For a guy with a coke problem, $ and living in L.A is a disaster waiting to happen

Dominater wrote:For a guy with a coke problem, $ and living in L.Am is a disaster waiting to happen

his camp has him visiting professional help for a long time. and having guys like kobe, hibbert, randle, clarkson, russell, bass who are all professionals and hard-working basketball players is only gonna help him. not to mention all the showtime players being around the players all the time (worthy, kaj etc). low risk, sky high reward

Leor_77 wrote:In before lock.

I don't think so. While yes I think the whole conspiracy thing is a bit goofy because you would think that if someone had remote interest they would take a flier with a 2nd round pick, he is an intriguing prospect that can make for some discussion, especially now during SL season

If Upshaw becomes a solid NBA player I think Lakers engineered a heist to get him. Hear from many stuff like this has been done before

Rosque wrote:

Dominater wrote:For a guy with a coke problem, $ and living in L.Am is a disaster waiting to happen

his camp has him visiting professional help for a long time. and having guys like kobe, hibbert, randle, clarkson, russell, bass who are all professionals and hard-working basketball players is only gonna help him. not to mention all the showtime players being around the players all the time (worthy, kaj etc). low risk, sky high reward

You know the Showtime lakers were notorious for partying, right? Like even Buss had porn stars and playmates and such running around his house. The owner.

LA is just about the worst place in the world for someone with a coke problem.

His name needs to be Robert Upside

BigBennett2013 wrote:If Upshaw becomes a solid NBA player I think Lakers engineered a heist to get him. Hear from many stuff like this has been done before

Do you have any other examples of this...? I can't think of any.

Upshaw had huge off the court problems, probably didn't get good reviews from his former coaches, and he was flagged at the COMBINE - not the Lakers' workout / not by team doctors.

I don't know about conspiracy but i think this kid will be a train robbery in a market that Aaron "poster boy" Baynes worth 20 million.

wablty wrote:

Rosque wrote:

Dominater wrote:For a guy with a coke problem, $ and living in L.Am is a disaster waiting to happen

his camp has him visiting professional help for a long time. and having guys like kobe, hibbert, randle, clarkson, russell, bass who are all professionals and hard-working basketball players is only gonna help him. not to mention all the showtime players being around the players all the time (worthy, kaj etc). low risk, sky high reward

You know the Showtime lakers were notorious for partying, right? Like even Buss had porn stars and playmates and such running around his house. The owner.

LA is just about the worst place in the world for someone with a coke problem.

i know that showtime lakers were aids on standby (see: magic). but i don't think that worthy will be saying to upshaq where to get his coke and hookers. he would give him good, solid advice on how to have his head straight.

and then there's kobe. he'll kick his punk ass if he acts funny.

Wait a minute, the lakers had the 27th and 34th pick, if they're going to go through the trouble of paying off NBA combine doctors in order to get him to drop past two complete rounds of the draft....why not just draft him with those picks and call it a day? haha

Leor_77 wrote:In before lock.

LOL. +1

They knew about his heart problem in college. He got clearance from the college doctors but of course professional teams wanted to see him get cleared by a trusted pro medical staff first. I doubt the Lakers somehow knew 29 other teams would pass on him. No matter how well he plays he'll always be a ticking time bomb. Only a matter of time before he falls off the wagon again.

That being said he was the best shot blocker in college basketball with 84 in 19 games. It came out to 7blocks per 40mpg. He looks like he still has that timing, but if you have high expectations for him I think he'll let you down. Personally I never, ever trust an addict. I've been burned too many times.

Dominater wrote:For a guy with a coke problem, $ and living in L.A is a disaster waiting to happen

If a guy has a coke problem and money to burn, living in just about any city in America is a potential disaster waiting to happen.

Glad the OP is a doctor, though. Where were you to keep Ronny Turiaf, Jeff Green, Channing Frye, and Chuck Hayes from playing summer league?

The Lakers are responsible for him getting kicked out of college twice for drugs, and for the medical report on his heart. It all makes sense now.