Kupchack: Celebrating Kobe takes precedence over Youth Dev

[Kilroy]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14514574/los-angeles-lakers-willing-sacrifice-youth-movement-order-celebrate-outgoing-kobe-bryant

"Under normal circumstances [in a season like this], at some point, you would probably concentrate on just developing all your young players," Kupchak told ESPN on Tuesday. "But we can't do that right now.
If healthy, Kobe Bryant will continue to play big minutes for the 8-28 Lakers, even if it means slowing the development of a younger player like Jordan Clarkson, left, said general manager Mitch Kupchak.

"This [season] is really a justified farewell to perhaps the best player in franchise history. And, God-willing, he's going to want to play every game and he's going to want to play a lot of minutes in every game, because that's just the way he is.

This relates to so many threads I decided to make it it's own thread...

I was going to comment about this earlier. It appears that a lot of the weird rotations, etc, were deliberately put in place to boost Kobe's comfort/production. And I assumed to help him get into the All Star game one last time...

Kupchack seems to sort of confirm this. I frankly find it a little disappointing. I think it sends the wrong message.

As much as I love the fact Kobe's playing well enough to deserve the honor, I just think this should be more about him passing the torch than him glorifying himself or the Lakers glorifying him. That's been done for 20 years already.

[Wavy Q]

That's **** stupid

[TyCobb]

These guys are really trying to cater to Kobe hoping to seal shut any last second hopes of playing beyond this season. Him coming off the books, and turning the page for the franchise, should be appealing to big FA.

[Kilroy]

:lol: These guys are really trying to cater to Kobe hoping to seal shut any last second hopes of playing beyond this season. Him coming off the books, and turning the page for the franchise, should be appealing to big FA.

That's a good point too... Kupchack has not left the door open at all for him playing another year.

That's also a little weird to me from a legacy standpoint. It's very hard for me to picture San Antonio doing either thing for/to Duncan.

Then again, Kobe... If you believe the press clippings... Is a much more divisive character than Duncan. Still though. Both things kind of make it look like we're wearing clown shoes in LA.

[Slava]

Yeah he would rather give those 30 mins to young players but still went ahead and signed Lou Williams who plays 35 minutes at the expense of Russell and Clarkson. I'm so ready for this confederacy of dunces to be kicked out of the franchise.

[crazyeights]

Mitch is soft in his old age. There's a way to respect a legend while respecting the game and the future. This seems to disrespect all 3, IMO.

[ArC_man]

What doesn't make sense is why the young players don't get more minutes when
1) Kobe's not playing (like the last couple of games).
2) It's a blowout and Kobe's sitting.

[gts1]

What doesn't make sense is why the young players don't get more minutes when
1) Kobe's not playing (like the last couple of games).
2) It's a blowout and Kobe's sitting.

That's because Kobe really isn't taking anyones minutes away...

He's playing SF for the most part with Clarkson starting with him... Randle and Nance aren't losing minutes because of Kobe because of position, same as Russell.. If Kobe playing is cutting into anyone's minutes it's maybe two or three per game. The only person really hurting because of Kobe would be Brown but he's not ready for prime time yet, he needs to be coming off the bench in a limited role.

MWP certainly doesn't need the floor time...lol

There more than enough time available for the kids...

[Danny Darko]

that mentality pisses me off. It

[FrozenIceCubes]

Basically it confirms.. That the Lakers had no idea what direction or what goal they had before the season started and here we are seeing the.. management announce that the Youth movement is being held back because.. Kobe entertaining the fans is a lot more important.

Such a dysfunctional front-office we have on our hands... They can't even decide what there trying to accomplish.

[Wavy Q]

we knew the Lakers had no idea what they were doing when they signed Lou Williams and re-signed Swaggy L

[The Prodigy]

This is confirmation that this franchise's problems extend far beyond Byron Scott.

[Kilroy]

The apparent tone-deafness of this statement has me wondering if this is the first step of Kupchack falling on the sword?

He just seems too smart and calculating to make this kind of assertion. It lacks his characteristic far-sightedness.

This sounds like a Jeanie statement. Not a Mitch Statement.

I can't imagine public opinion not swinging toward the 'fire mitch' end of the spectrum pretty quickly from this... Maybe it's an excuse for him to leave?

[LApwnd]

I think its time to move on from Mitch too, on top of Jim. Mitch is old way of doing business is archaic, evident by the terrible way they came out looking after Aldridge Fa presentation, same thing with Howard, instead of focusing on bball they just showed the moron what his post-bball career would look like which as a player do they really care that much?

[FrozenIceCubes]

I think its time to move on from Mitch too, on top of Jim. Mitch is old way of doing business is archaic, evident by the terrible way they came out looking after Aldridge Fa presentation, same thing with Howard, instead of focusing on bball they just showed the moron what his post-bball career would look like which as a player do they really care that much?

Not giving any word... on this but one has to question how much longer all these question marks revolving around the Lakers is gonna take a toll on these guys...

Jim simply doesn't care.. But Mitch does and I think the stress factor could lead to the Lakers making changes in the Organization.

[miggs]

Do we really think Mitch is that stupid? i think this is more for public diversion just not sure for what, unless that is, as kilroy said, Mitch is plotting his exit strategy. If so, things are gonna be far uglier than we expected or even could have been haunted by.

[FrozenIceCubes]

Do we really think Mitch is that stupid? i think this is more for public diversion just not sure for what, unless that is, as kilroy said, Mitch is plotting his exit strategy. If so, things are gonna be far uglier than we expected or even could have been haunted by.

There is no public diversion.

The Lakers need reasons to make sure people keep watching the games... The Lakers need to ounce every profit from the ticket buyers...as simply put... The TWC deal they made was a great way to make mega bucks...

We are just the puppets watching there product and resources.

[miggs]

Thats much too cynical a thought for me to commit to at this point.

Ill keep waiting and keep my ears and eyes open. Odd that Mitch would go to ESPN to voice such a statement too.

All of this is very odd

[miggs]

Also if you think theyre struggling to get people watching, try buying lakers tix to ANY game and see what you pay. I think something is going on, not saying some home run trade but for better or worse, something seems to be going on behind closed doors.

[moonpie]

I don't think Mitch is dumb enough to think that this is the right way to do things. I do think there's this aura around the organization that things should be done the "Laker way", but they're completely mistaken in that old, archaic methodology is the key to success. Organizations like the Spurs and Warriors have adapted to the current NBA climate while we seem to be spinning our wheels, harping back to Showtime and "It's what our father would've done.".

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view), this is what probably leads us to aggressively pursue Luke Walton as our next HC. He's an astute basketball mind, has many years of coaching left in him, learned from two of the best in Phil and a pop disciple in Kerr, and most importantly (at least in the FO's mind) - he's a former Laker champion. Be thankful that Brian Shaw got exposed for what he was in Denver or else they'd likely be touting him as the next great Lakers coach.