Mitch Kupchak gives update on the state of the Lakers, D'Angelo Russell, Kobe Bryant and more

The FO isn't getting purged. Jeanie loves this; she's ranking in $$$$$. Prices have tickets have gone up for home and road games. The Lakers are doing extremely well financially. The fans who are following? Yeah, it sucks.

By the way, I hope this doesn't excuse Scott and his horrendous coaching job this year. It shouldn't, but you never know...

 

Kobe? You meant Byron.

It fires my brain that Kobe is the one that is going to get blamed for all of this. If I were him - I'd flat out retire this very moment.

"Oh, my shoulder. I can't do it anymore."

MFers. f*** them all. Ruined my favorite player. Ruined my favorite team. Ruined my early mornings.

I hope they all get hemorrhoids.

 

Yeah, I edited it.

 

Well, Tarik already has some for sure. All this sitting and talking to the pine...

 

They being FO and Basses.

 

I know man but it's Tarik that suffers and us, fans .

 

1.) Since when did honoring Kobe and playing the rookies become mutually exclusive events that can't coincide with each other?

2.) Why blame the disregard of developing the rookies on Kobe's farewell tour?

Son I am disappoint.

 

From that article: "...But I think it’s more than fair to say the most vocal negative comments which have gone viral nationally have been about Russell and/or Randle while deflecting against backlash which could be leveled against Kobe or other veteran players.
You can call this approach several things, but “under the radar development” isn’t one of them..."

He left out backlash against the coach. The FO has been misleading fans regarding their true intentions for three f'n seasons now. This b******* from Mitch (finally the truth) is a punch in the face to fans.

 

this is basically Mitch saying that he doesn't have a coach competent enough to manage a farewell tour AND develop talented youngsters

 

Wow I think Mitch has caught a bit of Byron's disease (BS), not thinking things out before speaking.

if this "line" about Kobe before youth development is true then why do Julius and D'Angelo get 16 & 22 minutes respectively, in a blow out win vs Phoenix when Kobe is out?

The truth is Kobe has little to do with the amount of play our youth are getting. Especially when he doesn't even play. He's playing SF anyways ffs which none of our important youth play. Making this season largely about Kobe's farewell is even more reason to slip in a lot of play for our youth and to learn the game from a master, even if he does iso a lot, it's great off the ball experience for all of them which they need. They should still get plenty of play when Kobe's on the bench. No, this season is about clueless "hot-potato" perimeter passing, isos and streaky shooters. He's ruined Hibbert to nothing stat-wise because he runs no plays for him even when he should control the low post. Poor guy is in a contract year.

If this season is about Kobe then he failed miserably from the start by over-playing Kobe, letting him go iso, letting him shoot 10+ 3s a game. Running plays for Kobe in the post from low-high would have been the thing to do. I don't believe any of that hogwash. Mitch is a company line man and always makes it sound like everything is going exactly to plan.

 

Where is John Black, and why isn't he protecting the Lakers from themselves?

 

Mitch couldn't be any more wrong about all this. They can still honor Kobe and develop our young guys at the same time. Other than drafting I gotta tell you this franchise has become a total dud. Too many selfish cowardly insecure people leading this team ( Byron, Jim, Jeanie and yes Mitch too)

 

i don't agree with what mitch said, i meant it with the big picture in mind

mitch didn't hire brown or d'antoni nor did he hire byron. mitch isn't the one who is ruining the foundation of our future stars with stupid mind games and not knowing how to coach a team. what mitch said about this season being all about kobe was stupid but sadly, its true. that's what the organization has most likely had in mind from the start of this season. once kobe's gone, then it'll be all about russell, randle, and clarkson but until then, its all about kobe.

unless jimmy still doesn't want to admit that he messed up a 3rd time in hiring a coach and keeps byron around. then this team is just doomed

 

So Mitch gets no blame? What about all the moronic personnel decisions? Trading a boat load of picks for a 40 year old Steve Nash. Trading Lamar for nothing. Never getting anything for Pau when he had numerous chances. We've let too many good players walk in the last 2-3 years. Jeremy Lin, Ed Davis, Bazemore all guys who could've helped us and been upgrades over the guys we currently have at their positions.

 

1. nash deal seemed good at the time to me. I thought it was bigger than the howard deal. who knew he'd break his leg immediately and that last pick would end up being super high? good gamble, bad luck, imo.

2. lamar for nothing was a win (and it was for a 1st). he never played a minute of good basketball after that.

3. the offers for pau were lowball. the only time the lakers could have gotten something was when they were winning, and why trade him then? phx wouldn't even cough up a late first for him.

I don't miss lin at all; lou Williams is a better player. I maybe miss davis a little, but I'd rather be playing nance and randle, and I'm not sure he's a more impactful player than bass, really. bazemore--maybe they should have given him a better look.

not that I think mitch is infallible, but imo, the lakers' biggest FO problems have been the coaching choices. all just spectacular failures, and all foreseeable at that. whoever did those things is who deserves my fan anger. brown. dantoni. scott. who's the next washed up, disgraced big name that the lakers will bring in to further screw things up? all of these guys were ALREADY failures BEFORE they uberfailed with the lakers.

 

My fear that Byron survives this year is growing...

 

Lamar went into a downward spiral after that in huge part to that trade. He absolutely loved being a Laker and was the reigning sixth man of the year and argurably the best player on the team after Kobe during that 2010-2011 year. Trading him for a late first rounder makes absolutely no sense considering how high his value was.

As for Gasol there was a time they could've gotten Goran Dragic for him as well as Scola I believe. That trade should've been made. You at least get something for him. The Lakers aren't exactly winning at that time at least not for our standards.

Yes Lou Williams is a better player, but Lin has done a terrific job in Charlotte as a backup point guard which would've been his role here or should've anyway. It's one of the biggest holes on this roster. The lack of a true point guard.

Yes at the time the Nash trade seemed like a good move, but he was still nearly 40 and trading that many picks for a guy when that's the case is very risky especially not being protected too well. We lucked out in getting Russell otherwise it would've been a disaster.