# Fire Kupchak



## Truth34 (May 28, 2003)

I think your problem is Mitch Kupchak. His draft picks (Walton excluded) all suck, and signing GP and Karl were obviously not what the team needed. Now the Lakers might come back and win the championship, but that will be Shaq's doing, not anything Mitch has done. 

Fire the GM!


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## Brian34Cook (Mar 26, 2003)

Wow a Boston fan.. Didnt know they were around!


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## spiraling (Feb 16, 2003)

> I think your problem is Mitch Kupchak. His draft picks (Walton excluded) all suck, and signing GP and Karl were obviously not what the team needed.


I have to disagree with you on the drafts picks:
1. rush is comming along well, he's hitting his Js all he needs is some lock down D which i think he did pretty against Ginobili in the first game

2. Walton still have a ? on top of his head. We still don't know whether he can play the SF or PF spot and he needs to shoot when he's open.

3. Bcook barely get any mins and from what i heard of this guy can shoot the ball well of the floor. 

I agree with you that Malone is GP is not what the lakers needed, but like any manager in the league if there are 2 soon to be HOF willing to sign with your team for the min salary, who wouldn't sign them?


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## Truth34 (May 28, 2003)

*I disagree, respectfully*

Where is Mark Madsen? Why didn't you resign that guy? Brian Cook is a woman. Kareem Rush is a one-dimensional player. They need BASKETBALL players. Kupchak failed. Fire him now while you have a chance.


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## Pinball (Aug 3, 2002)

*Re: I disagree, respectfully*



> Originally posted by <b>Truth34</b>!
> Where is Mark Madsen? Why didn't you resign that guy? Brian Cook is a woman. Kareem Rush is a one-dimensional player. They need BASKETBALL players. Kupchak failed. Fire him now while you have a chance.


Screw Madsen. I want to know why we cut Pargo. He played as well as an undrafted rookie could in 2003 and we just drop kicked him this season. He could have come in handy against Francis and Parker when they were torching Payton and Fisher.


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## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

*Re: I disagree, respectfully*



> Originally posted by <b>Truth34</b>!
> Where is Mark Madsen? Why didn't you resign that guy? Brian Cook is a woman. Kareem Rush is a one-dimensional player. They need BASKETBALL players. Kupchak failed. Fire him now while you have a chance.


Mark Madesen Was Horrible, And Still is Horrible


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

:laugh: LMFAO

When Kupchak made the signings of Payton and Malone, he was considered a hero and a great GM. Now that the players are playing like punks, we should fire Kupchak?

Uh, no.:no:


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

How can you want Kupchak fired, and then have a Danny Ainge fan club?:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:


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## Locke (Jun 16, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Damian Necronamous</b>!
> :laugh: LMFAO
> 
> When Kupchak made the signings of Payton and Malone, he was considered a hero and a great GM. Now that the players are playing like punks, we should fire Kupchak?
> ...


Let's be honest, Kupchak did nothing to make that deal; it just fell in his lap. The credit really should go to Malone himself, because if Malone had never said he'd take the minimum so Gary could have the MLE this deal wouldn't have gone down. As a matter of fact, I don't think Kup has done one good thing since he's been in charge. He's got his work cut out for him this off-season though. Last off-season was nothing compared to what this one will be like.


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

Truth be told the Spurs, the Mavs and the Kings have done more with the late 1st rd picks than we have done. 

Rush is coming around at a snails pace and basically because he's being completly timid he hasn't played this series well at all. 

Walton I think should and could play a bigger role against the Spurs. He could easily match-up with Hedo. Plus be another guy other than Kobe capable of throwing Shaq and entry pass. 

Cook wasn't a good pick at all and thats not a knock on him. Because I think he'll become a solid player. We needed to gamble on an athlete with intensity instead we draft all these very cerebral athletically limited players. 

I agree that the GP and Malone deal fell in his lap.

Kup doesn't seem to have that good an eye for the type of character required to mesh with Shaq and Kobe. They need more fiery players to play with not relaxed thinking mans players. 

Not gonna lose sleep if we can Kup. Plus I think he could have kept some of the Lakers problems behind close doors instead of everything becoming too public. He should have been down in that lockeroom everyday trying to squash the turmoil.


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## Diesel (Apr 1, 2004)

> Originally posted by <b>Truth34</b>!
> I think your problem is Mitch Kupchak. His draft picks (Walton excluded) all suck, and signing GP and Karl were obviously not what the team needed. Now the Lakers might come back and win the championship, but that will be Shaq's doing, not anything Mitch has done.
> 
> Fire the GM!


In my recollection, I don't believe I have seen Mitch setting screens or trying to guard Parker & Duncan the last couple of games. Maybe I missed it because I am getting senile.


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## JerryWest (Jun 24, 2002)

I still don't understand how we could skip on Barbosa when a PG w/ defensive potential was such a glaring need for the past couple of years


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>KennethTo</b>!
> I still don't understand how we could skip on Barbosa when a PG w/ defensive potential was such a glaring need for the past couple of years


Agreed. No one in their right mind thought GP was still the answer defensively he got smoked by Parker 2 years ago in Seattle. The thinking was that he'd just be more effective because of his offensive potential. 

Barbosa was a very slept on pick. I thought he was ours basically.


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## Pinball (Aug 3, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>jazzy1</b>!
> 
> 
> Agreed. No one in their right mind thought GP was still the answer defensively he got smoked by Parker 2 years ago in Seattle. The thinking was that he'd just be more effective because of his offensive potential.
> ...


I wanted Barbosa but I knew we weren't taking him. Kupchak acts like PJ's little lap dog and he never makes a pick that PJ wouldn't like. Barbosa was just too raw for Mitch to take a chance on, despite his upside. I thought that we were going to draft David West before the draft. He seemed like the kind of player we wanted. The truth is that we drafted the player that most resembled David West in Brian Cook. Forget the fact that he wasn't as good. This is what happens when you draft purely to fill immediate needs. The next best player at a position might be the tenth best player available.


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## Locke (Jun 16, 2003)

Jerry Buss needs to make it perfectly clear to Phil AS SOON AS POSSILBE that's he's not coming back so we don't have him messing up the draft for us. I believe Phil would draft a two-by-four if he thought its basketball IQ was high enough.


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## Brian34Cook (Mar 26, 2003)

Why are you all blaming Cook and calling him a bust already? Geez he's hardly even played to be critizcised (sp).. It's not his fault he got picked by the Lakers.. The way it sounds from most of you all that the only reason the Lakers are stinking the joint up this postseason is because they drafted Cook and Walton? WTF? And how would Barbosa do here? He wouldnt play much either with Phil as coach.. All you guys wanna do is run down the rookies you get but not management.. Lay off them.. Damn!  

Some of you make me sick on this board.. If you want you could trade Cook and Walton for all I care because the way it seems around here you want everyone to go..


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## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

I Know Whats With Blaming The Rookies, For The Little Amount PT They Get I find it hard to critizcise :twocents:


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## jazzy1 (Jul 16, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Brian34Cook</b>!
> Why are you all blaming Cook and calling him a bust already? Geez he's hardly even played to be critizcised (sp).. It's not his fault he got picked by the Lakers.. The way it sounds from most of you all that the only reason the Lakers are stinking the joint up this postseason is because they drafted Cook and Walton? WTF? And how would Barbosa do here? He wouldnt play much either with Phil as coach.. All you guys wanna do is run down the rookies you get but not management.. Lay off them.. Damn!
> 
> Some of you make me sick on this board.. If you want you could trade Cook and Walton for all I care because the way it seems around here you want everyone to go..


You're taking this stuff too personal. 

I like Cook and I said that in my post. I love Walton. But neither really solved the problems we had coming into this season. 

Cook is gonna be a fine pro but he's not an inside presence and doesn't fit what the Lakers are trying to do. 

Not blaming management what are you talking about the title of the thread is blaming Kup for not shoring up the team. 

Do you honestly believe if Cook was getting alot of pt the Lakers fortune would be any different this season. 

Barbosa would be getting a shot this season heck Phil gave Pargo a shot last season. With what our acknowledged weaknesses were getting Cook and Walton didn't adress them at all. 

Our weaknesses were lack of athleticism and defense at the pg and pf spots and Cook nor Walton addressed neither. 

Kup is too blame not the Rookies. 

Cook is far from a bust he got game just not the sort of game thats much help to our identified weakness's.


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## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

No Rookie is Going to Solve A Problem When you Have four Hall Of Famers on the Floor


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## mvblair (Nov 20, 2003)

All right, if you've read my posts before, you know I'm a Laker hater. That said...

...you have to look at the Lakers at the time they made their decisions. At the start of the year, man, everybody thought Kupchack had the biggest coup of pro-sports history: signing GP and Malone. Whether or not the deal fell into his lap doesn't matter, he signed them. Everybody, I mean everybody, Lakers fans, haters, and journalists, were saying that this LA team would be magnificent. People were saying "70 win season" and "best team ever assembled." You can't blame Kupchack for that.

And the rookies that they've drafted recently have all shown good signs during the regular season: Cook, Rush, Walton. They're still rookies.

I think the real problem is that Phil Jackson is floundering. Supposedly, Jackson "makes superstars champions." Obviously he's not doing that very well. Four supposed hall-of-famers plus some good role players, and Jackson just can't help them on the court. His little psychological games aren't doing anything.

Matt

PS- Yeah, Danny Ainge is a helluva lot worse than Kupchack.


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## Locke (Jun 16, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>mvblair</b>!
> All right, if you've read my posts before, you know I'm a Laker hater. That said...
> 
> ...you have to look at the Lakers at the time they made their decisions. At the start of the year, man, everybody thought Kupchack had the biggest coup of pro-sports history: signing GP and Malone. Whether or not the deal fell into his lap doesn't matter, he signed them. Everybody, I mean everybody, Lakers fans, haters, and journalists, were saying that this LA team would be magnificent. People were saying "70 win season" and "best team ever assembled." You can't blame Kupchack for that.
> ...


But this isn't all there is to it. In addition to bringing in Payton Malone we brought in Ho Grant (great decision there :greatjob: ), but then we CUT Jannero Pargo. Not that Pargo was the answer to all of our problems but he'd probably come in handy right about now. In fairness though he wouldn't get to play in this series anyway because Payton would've been complaining about it. Kup also re-signed Devean George with our MLE two seasons ago, signed a broken-down Mitch Richmond, Samaki Walker and failed to bring any other productive players in. I will say this though: the Lakers are handcuffed to Shaq's enormous contract right now and it really hurts us when Shaq isn't on top of his game because he's essentially about 70% of our team, and in relation to how much money he makes, when he doesn't play well it's like the equivalent of 2 good players on another team stinking it up at the same time since he makes about twice as much as most good players.

At the time though, signing Payton and Malone, especially when you consider how cheap they got them for, seemed impossible to turn down. We were even thinking this whole team would be together for several years. If they'd all been able to play well together it would've looked like a genius plan, but Payton wasn't able to do what he said he could do: fit in. But more importantly the team as a whole just never jelled, and now everybody wants out. So now we're in a position even worse than being "right back to square 1" because we might not even have Kobe anymore. But assuming he does come back, I think we'll get a better sense of Kup's true GM skills, be it for better or worse, because you can even make the excuse (and that's all this is is an EXCUSE) that he wanted to "keep the championship team together" at the end to 3rd championship run, which was why he kept George. But now he won't even be able to say that, so we'll see what he can do after this season is over.


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## Pinball (Aug 3, 2002)

Great points Locke. I didn't really like the addition of Horace Grant because I thought he was done in Orlando. I didn't think there was any way that he'd be able to back up Shaq for 15-20 mins per game.

The Pargo move made no sense. If we really wanted to give some of the vets more playing time we could have just stashed him on to the IR for a couple of weeks. I just didn't understand that move. For starters, we lacked depth at PG. Payton and Fisher are the only PGs on the roster. Also, we knew that both players had trouble against quick players. Pargo did an reasonable job defending quick PGs last year. I also believed that Pargo outplayed Rush last year. The fact that an UFA outplayed a guy that was pretty much a lottery pick should earn him a roster spot, no? 

The draft has been another point of contention for me. Since he's been here, Mitch has not made one impactful draft move. I liked the Kareem Rush deal at the time we made it but the fact that he's done next to nothing so far has to be a mark against Kupchak. You have to get more than 10 mins per game out of a pick that high. Rush has shown very little progress from year one to year two. Cook was a decent pick but I think we could have done better. I'm not upset with Cook's performance this season. He hasn't really played much but he's played fairly well when he has gotten a chance to play. I just don't like his potential. I think he' more of a "what you see is what you get" and I think this team is in dire need of some young talent with potential. Cook is more of a finished product. I don't see him improving quite as much as I see a young guy like Barbosa improving. Walton wasn't a terrible pick in round 2. He's the very definition of a second round pick. These days young players go early and the upperclassmen who have had successful college careers get dropped. They don't have great potential but they'll help you out right away. I didn't mind the Walton pick that much. I'm just worried about where we're going to get our young talent. It's obvious that we're drafting role players in rounds 1 and 2 so where are we going to find the next Shaq, Kobe, or TMac? 

BTW, Brian don't take this so seriously. The draft picks are not my object of scorn. It's the GM. I'm not upset with one move in particular. I'm upset with every move collectively over a period of 3 years. I just needed a place to vent.


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## Brian34Cook (Mar 26, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Pinball</b>!
> BTW, Brian don't take this so seriously. The draft picks are not my object of scorn. It's the GM. I'm not upset with one move in particular. I'm upset with every move collectively over a period of 3 years. I just needed a place to vent.


Nothin wrong wit that :clap:


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## Pinball (Aug 3, 2002)

Now we need to move on. At worst, Cook and Walton will be solid backups. Same with Rush. What we need now is starting quality material. I want us to take a serious look at guys who have the talent to be future starters. I really don't care if they don't contribute in year one or two. Honestly, how much did our "polished" rookies play in their first year? Not much. We can't keep thinking about tomorrow. This is an old team that is close to the end of the line. We have to start thinking about next week or next month. We have to look at the big picture.


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## mvblair (Nov 20, 2003)

> Originally posted by <b>Locke</b>!
> In addition to bringing in Payton Malone we brought in Ho Grant (great decision there :greatjob: ), but then we CUT Jannero Pargo. ... Kup also re-signed Devean George with our MLE two seasons ago, signed a broken-down Mitch Richmond, Samaki Walker and failed to bring any other productive players in. ...


OK, good points here. I agree with that. Those were all simply *bad* decisions. You're right.

Good analysis of his draft picks too. But remember that he drafted some of those guys with the intention of having them play for a while with Shaq, Kobe, GP, and Malone. LA didn't need to draft a player with star potential. 

Anyhow, you're absolutely right about those signings. 

Matt


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## Truth34 (May 28, 2003)

*I take it back, leave him in there*

If you guys are fine with him, then so am I. After the way the Lakers played in Game 3, maybe Kupchak does know his arse from a hole in the ground.

I'll keep Ainge, though.


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## Truth34 (May 28, 2003)

*I reiterate...Fire Mitch and get a GM before it's too late*

Kupchak is horrible. Fire him before the draft...give Phil whatever he wants, and do a sign-and-trade w/Kobe before the Clippers are the best team in LA!

Brian Cook a first rounder? Please. Trading Lindsay Hunter so you can overpay Devean George? Huh? And signing Malone and GP was a joke, too.

You almost have to try to not win a championship when you have the two best players in the world. Nice going, Mitch.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

I still don't see how we can blame Kupchak for this.

Signing Payton and Malone was a GREAT move. 

We end up not winning the title, and it's suddenly all his fault? I mean, hey...we wouldn't have gotten this far without Payton and Malone.

Should we look at other possible GMs to take his spot? Yes. 

Is the fact that we didn't win the title this season Kupchak's fault? No.


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## RollOutPnoy (Jan 22, 2003)

*Kupchak*

The only other team in the NBA that can give the money Kobe desires is the LA Clippers. Kobe doesn't want to move his family out of L.A. and he has accomplished so much in L.A. winning three titles. The Knicks don't have the money to give Kobe, the only way he goes to the Knicks is in a sign and trade. Chances are that Kobe will be a Laker next season but if he becomes a Clipper, I'll be a Clipper fan along with Rachel Bilson. As for Kupchak, we don't need to fire him but I do believe he has to sign better free agents this off season and draft a good player in the draft.


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## Lynx (Mar 6, 2004)

> Originally posted by <b>Damian Necronamous</b>!
> Signing Payton and Malone was a GREAT move.


Yeah, and who brought Payton & Malone to La La Land? It was Diesel who convinced both of them.

I gotta be sincere. I never like the guy, specially with his stupid draft picks, for example, Tracy Murray and Jamal Sampson.


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## Damian Necronamous (Jun 10, 2002)

> Originally posted by <b>Lynx</b>!
> 
> 
> Yeah, and who brought Payton & Malone to La La Land? It was Diesel who convinced both of them.
> ...


Uhh, poor example. lol

Jamal Sampson wasn't a draft pick by the Lakers, we signed him last summer. The Bucks drafted him in the second round of the 2002 draft.

Tracy Murray was a 10+ year veteran who we had to take from the Raptors in the deal where we got Kareem Rush (Hunter and Jefferies for Rush and Murray).

You can't give Shaq all the credit for bringing those two to LA, because we don't know how much Mitch did.


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## Cris (Jun 18, 2003)

Magic Had A Big Role Into It Aswell


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