FanPost

In Mitch We Trust......Might not be such a good idea

Ive been hearing the above quote quite a bit recently so i decided to take a look at Mr. Kupchak's illustrious career as the Lakers GM. Im not an expert and may miss a few things but here we go anyway.

His 1st major move was to bring in Karl Malone and Gary Payton. Generally regarded as great moves at the time. He got both to take less money for the chance to team with Shaq and Kobeand possibly win a chip. The fact that GP was trash that year and Malone who never got hurt was injured arent his fault. They made it to the finals and lost to the Pistons. It was a bittersweet win/loss. Verdict B+

His next Big Move....Trading Shaq. No Trading an at the time dominant Shaq for...wait for it....Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant? Really? That's all we landed for an all world center? Laughable and Miami eventually Laughed all the way to a chip. Remember this trade as it was a disgruntled Shaq who wanted out and we gave him up for peanuts. That trade left the Lakers preparing to usher in the darkest era in Lakerland. Verdict F

The above trade paved the way for the Lakers make another deal. Trading Caron Butler for Kwame Brown and bringing in Smush Parker to team with Kobe. We all know how that ended and it also created Kobe's public trade request. Verdict F

Next Big Move....Bringing in Pau. By all accounts this was a great move capitalizing on The grizzlies wanting to get rid of salary and Gasol by giving them scraps and cap room. We won a few titles AND he didnt do as Kobe wanted by trading Drew for Kidd.. This deal came at aperfect time because Drew had gotten injured. What some dont remember is Drew was dominating at the time of his injury and the Lakers were rolling. The deal would have still been made minus the injurybut the end result is an A++

Now we're at the end or at least to the present day Kupchak. He just traded the reigning 6th man of the year to The Dallas Mavericks for all intents and purposes a bag of skittles and a couple of snicker bars. Remember the Shaq trade i mentioned above? Disgruntled player seeks trade and gets wish granted for scraps? History has repeated itself here in Lakerland to an extnt. Lucky for us the team as a whole is light years better than the one that lost Shaq so a descent of that nature isnt likely. The question needs to be asked where do we go from here?. There are still moves to be made and once everything is done we will all see how this plays out. He could ultimately get an A+ or he could wipeout and hit F status once again.The verdict at this time is an Incomplete.

In Kupchak we trust? I dont know about that. The future is partly cloudy for the Lakers with an aging roster, Big contracts and no cap space as we move closer and closer towards life without Kobe. We havent developed any young players or made any moves to get any on the roster. He could channel his inner genius and make another Pauesque trade and all will be well. Or he could pull a Kwame Brown out of his hat and well we all know how that ended.