Mitchie Speaks...

[DubaLakers]

http://sports.yahoo.com/video/player/nb ... a/14171786

Does he sound like Christopher Walken a bit? Hmm...

[Erik Eleven]

Mitch makes a whole lot of sense. It seems like he can be expected to do a good job again this summer.

Funny how when we were doing poorly, Mitch got crap flung at him all day here from all directions. Now that he has taken our favorite team to the top of the mountain, not one fan even acknowledges his existence, let alone shares his appreciation.

Except DubaLakers, and myself, that is.

Do it, Mitch!

[Kilroy]

Somebody starts a Mitch Kupchak, Jerry Buss bandwagon, I'm in.

I think he's done the right thing at least 95% of the time and he's pulled some amazing deals lately.

I'm a fan...

[ALL HAIL]

Kupchak has always been a smart dude. I love Jerry West and respect that he was brought up as a personnel manager under the tutelage of West. He has made some great moves. The best moves being the trade for Ariza for Cookie Crumbs and the drafting of Andrew Bynum and Marc Gasol. I don't include the Pau Gasol trade because I think that was such a no brainer. I don't think pulling off that trade took great insight or forsight for that matter -- we all could have done that deal. I give him props for drafting Marc Gasol though. Without Marc Gasol we don't get his big brother. I also don't include signing Fisher because that was a no brainer as well.

Like Jerry West, he has made some really bad moves too. He has made some really bad signings beginning with Aaron McKie who was a good player but at that point of his injury plagued career was clearly done. More bad signings were Radmanovic and Luke Walton. I don't include Vujacic because he, more than McKie, Walton, or Radmanovic, proved that he deserved a modest three year deal as opposed to the long deals of Radmanovic and Walton. I don't include the Caron Butler trade as a mistake because we really needed to get big with Kwame Brown that year and we were not going to pay Butler when he became a free agent (we probably would have lost him anyway).

Also, the drafting of Turiaf was really good while the drafting of Vujacic was really bad (Fisher clone Chris Duhon was still on the board -- we could have used him over the years).

I hate to end on a bad note but his biggest mistake was not resigning Robert Horry the same year we acquired Payton and Malone. This move cost us a championship. We signed Payton and Malone for pennies that year and then got even more cheap by letting Horry go for nothing.

This move or lack of a move cost us a championship because although we were good that year, we lacked depth. When Malone got freakishly injured that year we were FORCED to play Slava Medvedenko as our starting PF through the latter part of the year and through the playoffs and Finals. We lost obviously. If we had had Robert Horry as a backup to Karl Maolne that year I believe we would have won it all even with Malone injured. I never really understood why we let Horry just walk out of town like that ... it bit us in the ass later ... bigtime!

[Tommy Trojan]

Somebody starts a Mitch Kupchak, Jerry Buss bandwagon, I'm in.

I think he's done the right thing at least 95% of the time and he's pulled some amazing deals lately.

I'm a fan...

Add my name on that list too pls

[pdub15]

Kupchak has always been a smart dude. I love Jerry West and respect that he was brought up as a personnel manager under the tutelage of West. He has made some great moves. The best moves being the trade for Ariza for Cookie Crumbs and the drafting of Andrew Bynum and Marc Gasol. I don't include the Pau Gasol trade because I think that was such a no brainer. I don't think pulling off that trade took great insight or forsight for that matter -- we all could have done that deal. I give him props for drafting Marc Gasol though. Without Marc Gasol we don't get his big brother. I also don't include signing Fisher because that was a no brainer as well.

Like Jerry West, he has made some really bad moves too. He has made some really bad signings beginning with Aaron McKie who was a good player but at that point of his injury plagued career was clearly done. More bad signings were Radmanovic and Luke Walton. I don't include Vujacic because he, more than McKie, Walton, or Radmanovic, proved that he deserved a modest three year deal as opposed to the long deals of Radmanovic and Walton. I don't include the Caron Butler trade as a mistake because we really needed to get big with Kwame Brown that year and we were not going to pay Butler when he became a free agent (we probably would have lost him anyway).

Also, the drafting of Turiaf was really good while the drafting of Vujacic was really bad (Fisher clone Chris Duhon was still on the board -- we could have used him over the years).

I hate to end on a bad note but his biggest mistake was not resigning Robert Horry the same year we acquired Payton and Malone. This move cost us a championship. We signed Payton and Malone for pennies that year and then got even more cheap by letting Horry go for nothing.

This move or lack of a move cost us a championship because although we were good that year, we lacked depth. When Malone got freakishly injured that year we were FORCED to play Slava Medvedenko as our starting PF through the latter part of the year and through the playoffs and Finals. We lost obviously. If we had had Robert Horry as a backup to Karl Maolne that year I believe we would have won it all even with Malone injured. I never really understood why we let Horry just walk out of town like that ... it bit us in the ass later ... bigtime!

You have to count the Pau Gasol trade. Here is Why?

Jermaine O'neal, Kevin Garnett, & Jason Kidd. While everyone was screaming for Mitch to make a trade for one of those players he didn't sell the house and built built some pieces and used a $9mil EC to grab an All-Star player by using patients. That man deserves credit for not firing his gun to quickly.

Totally agree on Horry!!!

Horry definitely would have given great depth, also would have gave Phil the type of players where he could really mix up his line ups.

[ALL HAIL]

That man deserves credit for not firing his gun too quickly.

I feel you and I definitely don't want to take anything away from him but when you really think about it, who would have made that J. O'Neal trade when they were asking for Odom and Bynum ... noone.
And who would've made that J. Kidd trade when they were asking for Bynum ... noone.

With regards to Garnett, he tried really, really hard to get KG with probably Bynum and Odom on the table ... McHale just decided to take the Celtic's offer.

So was it patience or was it just having the simple basketball common sense that we all have on this board ... none of us would have made those trades ... and he was no different.

He knew he had a lot of expiring contracts and waited until close to the final hour to take the best available player ... if it wasn't Kwame and scraps for Gasol, it would have been Kwame and scraps for some other dude.

I give him credit for a lot but not for the simple stuff. Getting Ariza for Cook and Evans was great! Drafting Marc Gasol was great! Drafting Bynum was great too (I wanted Granger first and Gerald Green second -- shows what I know)!

... but the Pau Gasol trade was a given in my book (similiar to New Jersey stealing Vince Carter and Golden State stealing Baron Davis) ... a very typical midseason deal to acquire a high paid player for expirings from a team that simply wanted to cut salary, in Memphis' case they actually got their future starting center too in Marc Gasol which is where I choose to really give Kupchak is props.

[TommyTheCat]

That man deserves credit for not firing his gun too quickly.

I feel you and I definitely don't want to take anything away from him but when you really think about it, who would have made that J. O'Neal trade when they were asking for Odom and Bynum ... noone.
And who would've made that J. Kidd trade when they were asking for Bynum ... noone.

With regards to Garnett, he tried really, really hard to get KG with probably Bynum and Odom on the table ... McHale just decided to take the Celtic's offer.

So was it patience or was it just having the simple basketball common sense that we all have on this board ... none of us would have made those trades ... and he was no different.

He knew he had a lot of expiring contracts and waited until close to the final hour to take the best available player ... if it wasn't Kwame and scraps for Gasol, it would have been Kwame and scraps for some other dude.

I give him credit for a lot but not for the simple stuff. Getting Ariza for Cook and Evans was great! Drafting Marc Gasol was great! Drafting Bynum was great too (I wanted Granger first and Gerald Green second -- shows what I know)!

... but the Pau Gasol trade was a given in my book (similiar to New Jersey stealing Vince Carter and Golden State stealing Baron Davis) ... a very typical midseason deal to acquire a high paid player for expirings from a team that simply wanted to cut salary, in Memphis' case they actually got their future starting center too in Marc Gasol which is where I choose to really give Kupchak is props.

umm, lots of peeps on this board were for the o'neal & kidd trade. there was endless debate so your comment of 'none of us would have made those trades' is completely inaccurate. thankfully mitch was patient & i'm glad mchale looked to boston with kg instead of the lakers offer. i agree with EE, mitch doesn't get the credit he deserves but takes extra poop slinging when the team is down.

[ALL HAIL]

^Were you in favor of Bynum for Kidd? How about Bynum and Odom for JO? ... I damn sure wasn't and I bet you weren't either.

When I say "none" of us were in favor of those trades I really mean no reasonably intelligent basketball mind was in favor of those trades.

I don't mean to offend you if you were a fan of those trade possibilities. I remember most reasonable guys on this board saying that both New Jersey and Indiana were asking WAY too much.