TheKingofSting wrote:Pros:
- Always drafted BPA in the first round or traded pick for an immediate impact player.
- Has found talent all over the second round trading up, back or buying back into the draft. (Clarkson, Zubac come to mind in his most recent drafts)*
- Seems to have a good rapport with a network of other GMs around the league.
Cons:
- MJ typically loves to unload second round picks.
- Will Mitch standup to MJ and his family in the draft war room?
- Will Mitch be allowed to bring in his own coach with a modern day offense?
*I can't remember if they traded or bought back in the second round or just flat drafted Clarkson with the Lakers' pick in the second round?
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As a Laker fan, lemme help clarify a few things on your pro/cons list.
Pro- Kupchak responsible for our recent late pick draft success (Clarkson, Nance, Kuzma, Zubac, etc) is mostly false. The current story is that most of the late picks scouting were farmed out to Jerry's West son, Ryan West, and one of the younger Buss's kids. Our major hit of an early pick in the past that really made an impact was Andrew Bynum at #10, apparently that was a purely Jim Buss (previous Prez of Operations before Jeannie Buss's hostile takeover) pick, Kupchak wanted someone else, but Jim was adamant in picking Bynum thinking he'll be hte next big thing (one of the few things Jim was ever right about), that was only derailed due to Bynum's 2 major knee injuries. Regardless the Lakers got GREAT value out of Bynum winning a coupla chips and trading broken down Bynum (who basically never played good ball afterwards) for expiring Dwight Howard, whom we subsequently let goto waste by not trading him when it was obvious the team was going nowhere.
Clarkson's draft pick/rights were purchased with straight cash.
I wouldnt say that Mitch has been a good drafter. Apparently after Jerry West left and before Ryan West, Buss the Elder/Younger sons got involved, we've been picking straight garbage for YEARS. Sadly i think that might be more indicative of Kupchak's drafting skills.
Pro- Kupchak is good at trades. Overall this is true. Hasnt really lost a trade and had that epic home run of a deal lined up for CP3 AND lowering salary commitments via trading Gasol/Odom (just before they fell off the wagon, an Ainge fleecing Billy King type of deal tbh) while not trading Bynum. Sadly thta deal was "Basketball Reasoned" up the ass by Sterling. Us getting Pau Gasol in the 1st place was a 100% Jerry West doing his old club a big favor, fortunately for MEM Jerry West knew what to get in return (Marc Gasol picked in the 2nd round) that made that deal so even in the end. We 110% tried to dump Sun Yue (our other 2nd pick we made at the time) on MEM instead but they were having none of that. Only the Steve Nash deal was the biggest blemish Kupchak had. I was totally against it at the time, but understood that it was a hail mary hoping an old man "Super Team" of Kobe, DHo, Pau, and Nash would carry us to the promise land. That sure as **** went splat HARD. Thankfully for the Lakers the final 1st round pick from the Nash deal we had to convey to PHO/PHI, got delayed due to our magnificent tanking and will likely be a #10-11 pick at this draft. Yea we trade 2 or was it 3 1st rounders for Nash... LOL.
Con- Standing up to ownership in the face of pure and utter stupidity. He absolutely failed in this in the most horrendous manner possible.
See. Mozgov, T and Deng, L signings
Dunno who was the brainchild of those 2 idiotic signings, but if Kupchak was worth a damn as a GM he'd have threatened to resign on the spot if ShortBuss Jimbo was gonna force those deals through. Those 2 deals were just straight up unconciousable and the Lakers had to pay D'Angelo Russell to wipe off one mistake and who knows what the cost will be on the other. After just 1 year both of these players are just unplayable. The most epic twosome signing of pure failure in the history of the game for the MOST useless players possible.
I have a similar quibble over Kobe Bryant's last extension (many other Laker fans disagree as they said we OWED Kobe his last extension and he deserved it for past services rendered). I dunno who was the main force pushing for his extension (reports say it was Jeannie), but we extended a broken down crippled Kobe coming off of MAJOR achilles tendon rupture injury, to a max 2 year extension before we even had a clue how'd he look after coming back (he looked like pure 100% **** when he came back for 6 games). Kobe was already under contract as an expiring the following season (however him and his agent Pelinka were whining for an extension cuz they likely knew Kobe was washed), THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON TO EVER **** EXTEND HIM!!! Again if Cupcake was more than a water boy for the Buss's id have to imagine a strong seasoned GM, woulda told the kids to sit down, stfu and WAIT KOBE OUT. But nope, we gave Kobe a 2 year 70 mil extension as a retirement gift, something that we're used to as we gave Nash a 3 year 30 mil retirement deal and he only played like 20 games for us. Imagine instead of wasting 35 mil on Kobe, and we intended to tank, we whored out our cap space like Hinkie did.
Times like that where i wish we had an ice in his veins hustler like Danny Ainge as our GM (BOS-BRK trade of over the hill superstars for the greatest pick haul ever *finger kiss*) instead of a sentimental Cupcake. Either Cupcake was too weak to stand up to ShortBuss Jimbo and Backstabber Jeannie from making (Please Use More Appropriate Word) deals, OR he was responsible for the idiotic moves in the 1st place. Neither situation bodes well.
Oh yea, also him and ShortBuss, signed off on signing Byron Scott. Best tank hire EVER... if they that was what they were going for.
Yunno, if youre looking for a pure tear down and rebuild. Kupchak can def be your guy. He's not above hamstringing his coaches and forcing/letting them play the worst lineups or calling the worst plays possible to secure dat pick. Lakers literally had to tank like their lives depended on it to keep their pick. Protection was like 7/5/3/3 until no more protection this year. We drafted Randle #7, DLo #2, Ingram #2, and Lonzo #2 in that span of time. MASTERFUL tanking i tells ya.
If you guys hire Byron Scott. Well, i guess we know what direction yall are going
