Lifestyle > Sports & Entertainment
The Official Los Angeles Lakers thread
wcsoldier:
Kupchak, Lakers haven't done much this summer
BY STEVE DILBECK
Article Last Updated: 08/11/2007 10:37:52 PM PDT
So Mitch Kupchak, how's your summer going?
Ah, nothing like a little offseason hullabaloo to really make you really appreciate a nice Caribbean cruise.
Kobe Bryant, most talented player on the planet, has called out Kupchak like he was ready to go one-on-one at the local playground.
Wants the team revamped and overhauled, or at least seriously upgraded. Either that or he wants out, or he doesn't, but that's another confusing story.
The bad news for Kobe, I think, is that Kupchak seems pretty happy with the modest moves made thus far in the offseason.
"If this was the team that we started the season off with, I would be fine with it," Kupchak said. "I feel that we're an improved team over last year."
This falls under the "eyes of the beholder" category, the most significant pair of peepers belonging possibly not to GM Kupchak nor owner Jerry Buss, but Lakers superstar Kobe...
hus far Kupchak and the Lakers have responded by signing veteran point guard Derek Fisher, re-signing Chris Mihm and Luke Walton, and selecting point guard Javaris Crittenton with the 19th pick.
Kupchak figures you throw in a dose of health that escaped the team last season and the natural progression of young players like Ronny Turiaf, Jordan Farmar and Bynum, and you have an improved team.
"I look at our team and look at a very balanced team with veteran and young players," Kupchak said.
Alas, the NBA has not been left shaking at this mini-makeover. It hardly seems of championship caliber and it's unlikely our man Kobe has been throwing any celebratory parties down at Newport Beach.
The opportunity to improve a team dwindles during the course of the offseason. The draft concludes. Free agents are signed. Trades are consummated. The pool of available players naturally shrinks.
And here are your new Lakers. Pretty much like your old Lakers. Which is not what most fans hoped for after Kupchak's postseason comments and the additional pressure brought on the front office by Kobe.
"I do feel there is more pressure or more expectations to dramatically change this team," Kupchak said. "My season-ending comments were that we were going to be more aggressive than we normally are. That's a byproduct of the season ending the way it did.
"But having said that, we're not going to do deals or sign players just to do it. We're going to do things we feel are going to improve the team. We feel that our team as it is structured right now, is improved over last year." ...
"I think you could say 29 teams in the NBA today are looking at Boston and saying, `Wow, is that something they could have done and how much better are they going to be?' " Kupchak said.
"Cleary that's the deal of the offseason. Without talking about a particular player in this league, I know how much time we spent on being aggressive this summer. I know as an organization we did everything we could do to do a deal that would improve the team.
"You can't will a deal to take place. It takes two teams, sometimes more. Nobody really knows besides the owner and general manager, but the question you ask is: Did you do everything you could do to procure a certain player?
"If you're comfortable with the answer, you move on. And I am."
That doesn't, of course, mean Kobe has been left happy this summer.
"I'm not going to get into those types of questions," Kupchak said...
"Just because there hasn't been a dramatic trade in July, doesn't mean there won't be one down the road," Kupchak said. "We're only going to look to do something that is going to improve the team. We don't want to go sideways. And certainly we don't want to go backwards just because there are `expectations and pressure.' "
http://www.dailynews.com/sports/ci_6603820
Now_Im_Not_Banned:
Signed:
Derek Fisher
Coby Karl
Re-signed:
Luke Walton
Chris Mihm (very cheap)
Drafted:
Javaris Crittenton
Sun Yue
Marc Gasol
(all possible steals)
Dropped:
Smush Parker
Shammond Williams
Aaron McKie
Negotiations:
Lamar + Bynum + fillers for KG (dead)
Kwame + fillers for Artest
Bynum + fillers for JO
...I wouldn't call that nothing.
wcsoldier:
At least we aren't overpaying just to make a trade and that's a good thing .. then I don't know what's the status of the negotations about JO ... some say there even haven't been talks since the JO "I want to be a Laker" thing , some say Bynum was never offered for a JO deal ... I guess we have to wait and see ... hope something gonna happen though
Now_Im_Not_Banned:
^Bynum was offered...Odom AND Bynum is the package Lakers weren't willing to part with.
wcsoldier:
^^^^ WAY too much ... Bird is a clown coz he acts like " we aren't gonna trade JO for cheap" but when he opts out next year , the Pacers will be screwed ..
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version