The Good, Bad and Ugly of Mitch Kupchak's LA Lakers Tenure

[emplay]

Hey all,

Here's a look back at the Good, Bad and Ugly of Mitch Kupchak's LA Lakers Tenure @BleacherReport - 17 years as GM, 5 titles - and yes, Deng and Mozgov. Overall, he had a strong run as GM
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2767982-the-good-bad-and-ugly-of-mitch-kupchaks-la-lakers-tenure

Cheers,

Eric
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Salary Cap Strategist and Columnist at Bleacher Report and on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/EricPincus

[Baron Von Humongous]

Thanks, EP! Insightful reporting.

[Arbitrary]

Anyone still annoyed at that cancelled Paul trade?

[danzag]

Much respect for Mitch.

[venturalakersfan]

When the guy brings you 4 titles there is no bad or ugly.
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RIP mom. 11-21-1933 to 6-14-2023.

[Runway8]

I'd like to know how anyone could have handled simultaneously maxing Kobe to $48 million when he wouldn't be worth it, build a contender with old Kobe as your best player, retain cap space, develop youth, etc. Maginka regime are knocking it out of the park right now, but success in this league is all about timing and opportunity. They have taken advantage of the situation. Mitch has nothing to be ashamed of.

[cyborgspider]

[venturalakersfan]

[incontrol__]

[HumanVictoryCigar]

the Ariza trade was a highly underrated trade. Brian Cook and Maurice Evans, a lower level journeyman and a standard journeyman for a guy that blossomed into a starter and is still a solid player 10 years later. Props.

[socalsp3]

Good GM and guy and he was handicapped by the Busses infighting but the game passed him by. Not sure if he knows how to build a team in the modern NBA

[waterman40]

Mitch was a much-better than average GM for his Laker tenure. I agree with most everything Emplay listed in there, except the part about Bynum being the best draft pick Mitch ever made. But drafts are a crap shoot, even lottery picks are not a lock to become good players.

I think the undoing was the 2 consecutive years when we couldn't land a marquee free agent like Durant or Aldridge. We then overspent on long term deals, and a combination of switching over to younger players and a faster paced game, and the two veterans inability to produce anywhere near their big contracts basically fired Mitch.

Mitch was under pressure to win now, and he had the very bad luck to have neither Deng or Mozgov play 15/10 type ball. We are two years into the rebuild, and so far it is working pretty well, we've just about doubled our win total in the Magic era. Progress is going to require the young players to continue to improve, and we still need to pick up a marquee free agent.

I hope Mitch can come back someday and be appreciated, but I think it is going to have to wait at least until the Lakers make the playoffs again. But Mitch has been great for the Lakers, despite his missteps.
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LAKERS 2019-2020: NBA World Champions!

[Annihilator]

[Laker_Town]

I'm thankful for what he did for us and always felt he was stuck between idiot brothers feuding. He was old school and the Lakers needed the change eventually but the way he was blind sided by magic and Jeanie was sad to see.

I feel for him as a person and for his daughter, his dealings with the seemingly betrayal of magic and because he was the the scapegoat.

We obviously don't know who made the call for the Deng and mozgov contracts but those were the worst in franchise history. That's on him because even if it wasn't his call, he should have at minimum softened the blow with a 3rd year team option.

Not adding an extra pick for cp3? That one is tough to defend him on, but maybe that's showed his dated old school mentality of "but we're the Lakers"

[CabinCreek44]

Good read as always Eric, some comments...

1. The Deng/Mosgov fiascos are no doubt the low moment of Mitch's tenure. I have no clue who was advocating for what in that instance, and I agree with you that the GM sometimes may have to try to protect ownership from itself. But that doesn't mean ownership has to listen to the GM. And there can be no doubt that Mitch had his hands full with the Lakers' warring ownership following the sad passing of Dr. Buss. That said, he was the GM so he takes the heat, that's part of the job.

2. Unloading Mozgov and losing Russell in the process was comme ci comme ca in my opinion. They got rid of Mosgov, which had to happen. Russell is a talented but mercurial sort, and he misses lots of time. He missed 19 games last season, and is already guaranteed to miss 30+ this season. Not to mention Magic/Pelinka had to make room for their guy Lonzo Ball. Once they decided on Ball, Russell had to go. Time will tell whether that was the right move or not. To date, Russell is certainly the better ballplayer, but his durability and mental approach to the game are at least debatable. If Ball can be healthy and fix his shot, the sky is the limit.

3. The price to offload Deng will indeed be steep. At least one first round pick...if we can land either James, George or both as FAs, a pick or two for the right to draft glorified high school players doesn't seem like much of a price in exchange.

4. The Gasol deal was absolutely a steal, and was the high-water mark of Mitch's career. For starters, and most vitally, it made Kobe happy to be a Laker again. And then of course we went to 3 straight finals and won 2 in a row.

The Artest signing was also huge, which was evident in the 2010 Boston series when he set the tone by putting Paul Pierce straight on his backside on the opening possession of Game 1, and then hit the title-clinching three in Game 7. He also saved the Lakers with the put-back at the buzzer in Game 5 of that year's Phoenix series. Nobody in the NBA liked playing against the ultra-physical, and very crafty, Artest.

5. Kupchak did indeed make some good draft picks as you rightly point out. In 2015, I agree Porzingis would have been preferable to Russell, but like Russell, Porzingis seems to have durability issues. 72 games played his first season, 66 in his second, and he only appeared in 48 games this season before his awful knee injury. That of course could happen to anyone, but his body type may not be suited for the long haul in the NBA. His talent is of course unquestionable, so if he can stay healthy going forward, he could be a great one.

6. Howard/Nash seemed like a coup at the time, but Nash was on his last legs and Howard was (and is) a clown act who never really wanted to be a Laker. He didn't want the pressure of the "win or failure" mentality of the Lakers org, and he certainly was intimidated by Kobe's win at all cost and suffer no fools approach. It's too bad Howard is who he is, but it was a solid move by Kupchak which should have produced better dividends, Kobe's Achilles injury notwithstanding.

7. Would Jerry West have bridged the gap between Shaq and Kobe? Maybe, maybe not, but the Buss family allowed West to get away, the biggest mistake of Dr. Buss' career. It seems almost a certainty that West saw the Jim Buss train wreck coming from a million miles away, and he and Phil Jackson famously didn't mix. Maybe there was nothing Dr. Buss could have done to stop it, but the franchise has never really recovered from losing its heart and soul. Once Kobe's Achilles blew, the foundation West had so brilliantly crafted was finally gone after damn near 20 years, and all the king's horses and all the king's men...

8. The Chris Paul fiasco was in no way Kupchak's fault. There's no "blame". He had a correctly done deal in place, and David Stern decided he didn't like it, mainly because (I believe) he was hearing it from some of the more whiny owners in the league. Undoubtedly the worst decision Stern ever made imo, especially when one considers that Stern, whether directly or indirectly, learned how to sell the NBA to the public based largely on Dr. Buss' blueprints for the Showtime era. Despicable.

Additionally, just as a GM can't always save ownership from itself, he certainly can't be expected to move mountains on the most powerful commissioner in the modern history of pro sports.

9. The coaching/front office dramas...first, Kupchak was saddled with the hapless Jim, who by most accounts didn't really like coming into the office, a tough act to pull off when you're supposedly in charge. Then he had to navigate the very powerful tandem of Phil/Jeanie while still trying to hang onto his job. Then, after Phil wasn't rehired later, he had to contend with the downright poisonous dynamic between Jeanie and Jim, a situation that went on far too long and in which neither sibling covered themselves in glory, to the extreme detriment of the organization. That situation ultimately led to Mitch's demise, which was handled disgracefully by the organization. Mitch Kupchak earned far better over all those years and championships than very publicly getting the bum's rush by Jeanie/Magic/Pelinka.

10. The organization has floundered badly since the demise of the good doctor. Jim is now gone and Jeanie's choices are running the team. Here's hoping she has chosen well. Needless to say, the jury remains out, just as it has for the past several years. This season feels a little better, but we're still only going to win approx. 35 ballgames, have been hopelessly out of playoff contention yet again, and we have many huge decisions to make this summer. Opportunity for better days ahead is there if good decisions are made.

Meanwhile, it seems Mitch is set for Charlotte. This Lakers fan wishes Mitch nothing but the best, with the caveat as long as we don't wind up playing Charlotte in the finals one of these years.

[ReaListik]

[cthroatgtr]

Missed a key issue I think led to the Lakers failure to beat the Pistons. Letting Horry go when they could have kept him. They signed Malone & Payton to exceptions so they could have kept Horry. Horry would have made a difference in that finals, where Malone was hurt and the Lakers had no one else.

Losing Ariza was a big loss, though Artest was the hero in the finals, Ariza was a better player at that point.

Lakers also paid too much for Nash - he was in decline at that point so that was a steep price to pay.

D'Antoni as coach for that team was a bad choice. Forget PJ, he was the wrong coach to inherit that big/post up team.

[PayasoLoco]

[venturalakersfan]

[PayasoLoco]

[audioaxes]

I hated the Deng and Moz signings as soon as they happened but they were not really game changers honestly. Even if we didnt do those its not like we could have signed a legit franchise player. At that time even the very best teams had plenty of cap space so nobody was coming to us regardless. And even if it was possible to sign some good but not great players what we needed to do most at that time was tank and rebuild through the draft a couple of years until the Warrior's dominance subsides. Trying to avoid a rebuild would have put us mediocrity with no top 3 draft talents in the fold.

I think some other bad moves that dont get enough mention anymore is the Luke contract extension... we paid him WAY too much just because he had a hot 3 point shooting streak for like a month early in the season of his contract year. That contract kept us from signing much better players while we were trying to contend.

Another one was the Shaq to Miami trade... we gave up freaking Shaq for a bunch of garbage plus took on pretty much the most toxic contract in the league at the time. The equivalent trade today would be like the Cavs trading us Lebron for Deng, Julius, Zubac, and a 1st.
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(bleep) Kawhi

[venturalakersfan]

[kobe_4_mvp]

mitch kupchak was very fortunate things worked out the way they did after the 04-07 period. trading away caron butler for brown/proft was a big (bleep) up. he got so lucky he was able to turn kwame and the gang member into gasol and two rings.

[non-player zealot]

Vlade Divac and Vladimir Radmanovic are in the fugly category. Mitch had a hell of a lot of dreck among the good moves.

I will cut him wide slack for the Shaq trade (the return wasn't nearly as bad as what Philly got for Chuck, e.g.) and any moves that had Phil Jackson written all over them. Phil liked guys like The Artist Formerly Known As Puke, nothing you could do about that. Team was grossly threadbare after the first two titles. Pundits gripe about Shaq/Kobe only winning 3. !!! ONLY?! Miracle they did and beat SA in 04. Bringing back Horace a 2nd time as if he wasn't ancient enough in 01.

Maybe the Doc and/or the FO didn't wanna pay as much to keep Fisher as GS did to get him, but I don't think having Chucky and Smushy as replacements was worth the savings, and that's considering how badly many fans hated Fish. Smushy was not an NBA caliber player. Kwame was hard enough and was already the 2nd hack at PF that they believed had some potential (Samaki the other), as if their prior teams were wrong all along. How he got Pau, I'm still not sure. I remember everyone else crying about not getting to put their bids in. He closes that in miraculous fashion and fails to ABC in more believable endeavors.
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GOAT MAGIC REEL
SEDALE TRIBUTE
EDDIE DONX!

[AshesToAshes]

Shaq, blame shaq. even after calling out Buss, he could have offered to take less year1 and if he gets into playoff shape all season and doesn't miss games due to toes and fingers then gets maxed for next year. i mean something besides all or nothing. leaving LA was the motivation for his 5th ring let's not all forget.

Phil vs D'antoni? Mozdeng? all under duress to support his boss at the time Jim. and Phil's fault for trying to bite into ownership (because he wouldn't travel with the team as coach).

Mitch was amazing, wish he was still here, will do great in future. always missed!
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KOBE!!!