Mitch Kupchak in Review

[The Skyhook]

Through all of this I think Mitch has done an excellent job. He had us positioned to have a core of
CP3/Kobe/Dwight going into the future but obviously his plans were side tracked. He gave up these older and injuried pieces that are or once were part of our core to land those 2 guys. I can't think of any other GM that has been able to pull that off through trade.

He doesn't have much to show in terms of how the Lakers have drafted because we always traded our picks away to land these big free agent names. With our cap situation we haven't been able to sign many quality free agents since the new CBA. I can't blame Mitch for the position the Lakers are currently in.

The new CBA is going to take GM's around the league time to adjust. The Lakers are about to go from the team with the highest payroll to nearly 0 money tied under the cap. When is the last time the Lakers had so much cap space? I think once next off season comes around the Lakers organization as a whole will have a better view of where they want to take this team.

[Slava]

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?

Well at this rate I'm just trying to figure out who's going to be our starting PF. Unless we use the Mle on a sf and move Metta to PF

[PandGneverfold]

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.

Though Paul and Howard would have given us a few years of contending I agree with you about Howard. Back issues never go away. Once he hits 30 it'll show more. Neither has been that impressive to me anyway.

[supaflash]

I think Mitch has done well despite losing Dwight. That still falls mostly on Jim to me and Dwight himself, his personality never fit here and it lent itself to him being wooed away to the flavor of the day.

Even though they weren't uber great moves, Nash was a great move at the time, at the time Blake was a decent pickup, Jamison passed money to come Hill, Clark, Barnes... Considering what was out there and available with the money and handicaps we had... We haven't had much draft picks so that is hard to grade on, though we did miss on some potential steals. The only front office that I feel has done better is San Antonio with their ability to find character guys, they had a more solid and long lasting core to do it around though. Tim expiring and restructuring earlier helped them a lot. We will hit that phase next year when Kobe and maybe Pau resign for smaller deals. I HOPE that both Kobe and Pau have had enough money and repect to take paycuts to make it happen.

We are still in a good position with cap space next year and have a chance to compete this year with a few additions. It's not much to go on, but it's honestly the best we really could have done following The Veto. We're not locked into Bynum or some weak scrubs for long term and we are the Lakers, we will return.

[supaflash]

Also Dwight still has the Labrum issue, with the way his playstyle is, I find it hard to believe he wont have more issues with it and the back. As well as CP3 and his knee. It would have given us a great 2 year window or so, but I've never been a fan of either.

We've had an amazing run with Kobe and Shaq and the others, I'm not too disappointed we aren't right back as a number 1 contender, sometimes the climb is more fun then the pressure at the top.

Who knows, maybe a miracle happens and we get Wiggins or Parker, maybe Bron or KD comes here, or maybe we just keep rebuilding with good solid players. I'll still be a fan.