Mitch Kupchak in Review

[Slava]

I wanted to post this once the heat has cooled down but I thought I'd put my thoughts in when I can recall most things I wanted to post about.

First of all Mitch has been excellent for us over a long duration of time, put together some amazing trades notably to bring Pau Gasol, which guaranteed support for Kobe's 2 rings without Shaq and then Dwight Howard, which did not quite work well. He is well respected in the league and developed a reputation as a hard bargainer with a nice touch to pick up solid yet unknown players in trades.

Since the 2010 championship run he has been somewhat of a mixed bag by admittedly going for home-run trades and bad coaching hires.

I guess its safe to say that both coaching hires since Phil's departure have been failures and the guy we let go, Brian Shaw might just turn out to be good with Denver.

He had one very unfortunate outcome with the Chris Paul trade, which might have changed the landscape of the NBA if not for Stern's veto.

Other than that he has shown no interest in picking in the draft in the first round or developing young role players and rather preferring to either sell the draft picks or move them on in salary dumps.

He acquired Sessions at the expense of draft picks and let him go after quarter season of good promise and a miserable playoff performance in Mike Brown's half baked offensive system.

He has swung good trades by acquiring pieces like Hill and Clark and now has let Clark leave knowing fully well that he's been one of the few bright spots over last season and Hill can rarely manage to stay healthy himself.

The Steve Nash trade might yet turn out to be the biggest disaster in the end by overpaying for a 39-year old at 9 mil per over 3 seasons and giving away 2 first round picks in the process.

He has taken his sweet time in the free agency by putting all his eggs in the Dwight basket and now we are left with a near empty free agent pool to choose from. I think the upcoming season will strongly test Mitch and what he can do to limit damage.

[moonpie]

Mitch has done what he can in light of the new CBA and restrictions aimed at limiting big market success while still expecting them to fork over ludicrous amounts through revenue sharing to teams that have no interest in being viable contenders (I'm looking at you Milwaukee). Honestly that CP3 veto crippled us but we didn't know it at the time. Instead of rolling with a possible core of Paul/Bryant/Howard+a 4th option like David West, we're now stuck in the mud. I have no doubts in my mind that the FO had a vision when they swung for Paul and it wasn't this.

With that being said, I'm curious to see how Mitch and Jim (and Phil the consultant) will navigate us through these murky waters.

[MAMBAEMD]

I think Mitch has been outstanding.
He did go for home runs with Paul and Dwight. He was able to acquire Dwight and almost had Paul. Very few GMs could have pulled those two moves out.
I was shocked at the price we paid for Nash but we were looking at a 2 year window and we desperately needed a PG.
The coaching hires have been bad but I really think were driven by Jim Buss.
I think Mitch is a top 3 GM in the league

[Slava]

Mitch has done what he can in light of the new CBA and restrictions aimed at limiting big market success while still expecting them to fork over ludicrous amounts through revenue sharing to teams that have no interest in being viable contenders (I'm looking at you Milwaukee). Honestly that CP3 veto crippled us but we didn't know it at the time. Instead of rolling with a possible core of Paul/Bryant/Howard+a 4th option like David West, we're now stuck in the mud. I have no doubts in my mind that the FO had a vision when they swung for Paul and it wasn't this.

With that being said, I'm curious to see how Mitch and Jim (and Phil the consultant) will navigate us through these murky waters.

Highly doubt Phil would show further interest in this team after today. HIs end game seemed to always be coaching a super team with Dwight & Kobe on it.

[KB24TBOTB]

He's good and all but he's awful at getting role players for cheap. Seems like every off season teams are able to get role players at a price that we could offer but just never did -_-

[TyCobb]

I cant think of a GM who has had more obstacles thrown at him for whatever reason the last few seasons.

[Mirjalovic]

We never get good & cheap role players with trade or FA, yeah sometimes Lakers get them but often its from thrown in.

in result, our fanbase mind already clouded with not stars = scrubs.. everytime we get news about Lakers interested in good role players, some of our fellow fans will say that players are trash.

[Gek]

I cant think of a GM who has had more obstacles thrown at him for whatever reason the last few seasons.

I think some of that depends on who had the most say in the coaching hires (mitch vs jimmy)... injuries have blown, the chris paul trade as pointed out was pretty landscape changing and obviously dwight's mentality hurt, but Brown and D'Antoni haven't exactly helped to say the least.

[Sofa King]

Take it easy on Kupcake. He was able to do wonders with that magic wand. Mitch will get the Lakers back in contention again. DO IT MITCH!

[leeprettyp]

We never get good & cheap role players with trade or FA, yeah sometimes Lakers get them but often its from thrown in.

in result, our fanbase mind already clouded with not stars = scrubs.. everytime we get news about Lakers interested in good role players, some of our fellow fans will say that players are trash.

Thisss.... Why i wasnt a fan of allowing Earl Clark to go... Man a guy like that is worth 4-5mill. I was never a fan of just focusing on the cap space. Role players like Earl Clark and Jordan Hill are needed on contending teams smh

[TyCobb]

I cant think of a GM who has had more obstacles thrown at him for whatever reason the last few seasons.

I think some of that depends on who had the most say in the coaching hires (mitch vs jimmy)... injuries have blown, the chris paul trade as pointed out was pretty landscape changing and obviously dwight's mentality hurt, but Brown and D'Antoni haven't exactly helped to say the least.

It started with the hiring of Brown, who I think was 100% Jim Buss. Jerry didnt want the triangle anymore, so thats why no Shaw. Werent that many great coaching candidates that year.

[DEEP3CL]

I'm not mad at Mitch at all, the man has had the toughest deck of cards since 2004. He swung hard for what was the right move in CP3. The trade for Howard was smart only because he finally thought we could pass the torch the right way for a change. But knowing the mental fortitude of Howard he was NEVER meant to be a franchise player here in LA.

I was always told you can't change small minded thinking in some people, Dwight is one of those dudes. From the Atl, played in small town Orlando and now going to a city that ain't small minded but he knows he can hide.

Back to Mitch, he's gotta start work on his selling point to get maybe a Kevin Love here. He has to sell the fact Kobe will move on and that come hell or high water maybe the next guy ccoming in will assume the team right then and there.

So yeah it feels empty but this is the one card JB , Mitch and Jeanie played. We gotta deal with it and face this head on.

[Slava]

I can't see a stacked deck against Mitch. He's always had deep pockets to spend with and went well into the tax since the Pau trade.

My issue has been how he sat on Pau/Bynum since 2010 knowing fully well that they weren't good together and there was always value to be had if we traded them for multiple pieces to add athleticism and speed to the roster. Now all of Pau's value is decimated and everything we obtained from the Bynum trade is well gone.

The one good thing to come out of it is that we did not end up having to max up Bynum and his knees.

[minifang]

If the CP3 trade wasn't vetoed, we'd have CP3 and Howard right now. Can't blame Mitch for the way things turned out.

(should have gotten Phil back though)

[NBAWestFan]

It is all about the Ownership

Busses need to run over Buss

[PandGneverfold]

I think our recent problems are more jimmy than Mitch. It seems like jimmy wants to make his own bones. I'll always beleive hiring dantoni was a mistake. I know we are on the outside looking in but from the outside it looks like we chose an old point guard over a young center in hiring dantoni. I know Howard didnt (and rightfully so) have the juice to ask for Phil but I believe Kobe and pau were up for Phil also. Plus hearing someone's me pau who has been here long enough complain about dantoni should have been a wake up call IMO. We all know this upcoming season will not look pretty,but I still beleive Mitch can do something's.

[PandGneverfold]

Mitch has done what he can in light of the new CBA and restrictions aimed at limiting big market success while still expecting them to fork over ludicrous amounts through revenue sharing to teams that have no interest in being viable contenders (I'm looking at you Milwaukee). Honestly that CP3 veto crippled us but we didn't know it at the time. Instead of rolling with a possible core of Paul/Bryant/Howard+a 4th option like David West, we're now stuck in the mud. I have no doubts in my mind that the FO had a vision when they swung for Paul and it wasn't this.

With that being said, I'm curious to see how Mitch and Jim (and Phil the consultant) will navigate us through these murky waters.

This is often overlooked but you are absolutely right. I honestly beleive stern overstepped to appease the other idiot owners who were mad because they had just seen us come off of a run of three straight finals, and was bitching about us retooling so fast. That veto set up back tremendously.

[dockingsched]

He has taken his sweet time in the free agency by putting all his eggs in the Dwight basket and now we are left with a near empty free agent pool to choose from. I think the upcoming season will strongly test Mitch and what he can do to limit damage.

sorry slav, will have more time to discuss most of your other post, but this struck me as a bit unfair. which free agents that the lakers could afford have been taken off the market already?

[ak7]

Not to mention, free agents who were interested in us got tired of waiting to see what Dwight was going to do (COPELAND).

[Kilroy]

Don't blame Mitch for any of this. If all had gone as planned, we'd have Dwight/CP3/Kobe right now...

That said, I'm not sure Dwight and CP3 have that many runs left in them either. CP3 has battled injuries and has some ups and downs recently... Last season was a contract season so who knows if he comes down to earth a bit...
Dwight says he's healthy, but I personally don't think I ever saw Dwight healthy last season and he's a couple years from 30 and has played as an athletic-first player in the NBA since High School. That's a lot of mileage on that back.

My point is, outside of those guys, Durant (not possible), LeBron (not possible), Westbrook (not available), and Harden (not possible), there really aren't a whole lot of guys in the league worth going after as our future core players... Our next real chance is this coming post season... Let's see what happens.
The next Kobe, LeBron, Shaq, Durant, just hasn't come around yet... Curry? Evans? Maybe but I doubt it.
The true Greats only seem to come around about once a decade.... We're primed for the next one.

The CBA changes a lot of things. These teams like OKC, Houston, GSW, Brooklyn, Miami, etc, all talk about having deep pockets and being willing to pay what it takes to contend for years, but ask LAL and NYK about what that's really like... They don't have the fan base either... It's going to be hard as OKC has found out to pay year after year to contend.
And the flip side is the salary floor. Teams that used to be able to clear the roster when they knew they had no shot at a title, can't any more. So not only is there likely to be less cap money coming in, there more money going out from the smaller teams too... It's going to be tough.

I think Mitch has done an amazing job. We've made big gambles that haven't panned out lately. I'd rather have that than settling for the first Free Agent that's available and hoping he works out.

Honestly, Gilbert, Sterling, Cuban, and Stern getting in our CP3 business is what brought our org to a screeching halt... We'll be back though.