Is Kupchak planning a trade?

[DJ]

Howard Beck ‏@HowardBeck 8m8 minutes ago
Mitch Kupchak tells us on NBA Sunday Tip, "We don’t have …. the time to methodically and slowly build through the draft." @br_radio

 

[chappee11]

Howard Beck ‏@HowardBeck 8m8 minutes ago
Mitch Kupchak tells us on NBA Sunday Tip, "We don’t have …. the time to methodically and slowly build through the draft." @br_radio

Hardly a Lakers' fan, but I live here and get plenty of local perspective. Fact is, the Clippers surpassed the Lakers years ago. The Lakers have been poorly run for at least the last several years. And acting like Kobe is some sort of savior at this point in his career is a big part of it. Kobe should have been amnestied while they could. The Lakers will be fine because good free agents will always want to play here. But they have botched basically everything for the last few years.

 

[DJ]

Surpassed? They have had the better season's as of late but Los Angeles will always be a Lakers city. Even if the Clippers won a few titles, which they just can't seem to do.

Anybody that thinks otherwise is lying to themselves.

 

[DJ]

It's like saying the Bruins own Los Angeles because they have had a few good seasons. Los Angeles is still owned by the Trojans when it comes to college football.

 

[DJ]

And I'm not sure what the Clippers has to do with Kupchak planning a trade.

Back on topic.

 

[Shaqdaddy11]

Swaggy and/or Hill along with pick #27 for a decent SF or SG please!

 

[Black Adam]

Swaggy and/or Hill along with pick #27 for a decent SF or SG please!

I wouldn't have a problem with that. we've been needing to upgrade the 3 position big time for years now...

 

[trojanfan12]

Hardly a Lakers' fan, but I live here and get plenty of local perspective. Fact is, the Clippers surpassed the Lakers years ago. The Lakers have been poorly run for at least the last several years. And acting like Kobe is some sort of savior at this point in his career is a big part of it. Kobe should have been amnestied while they could. The Lakers will be fine because good free agents will always want to play here. But they have botched basically everything for the last few years.

Stopped reading at the bold because I couldn't stop laughing.

 

[shopson67]

Swaggy and/or Hill along with pick #27 for a decent SF or SG please!

Batum, or moving up in the draft to get a 3&D SF type. Depending on how far they can trade up (I don't think they can get high enough for Dekker or Oubre, and Johnson/Winslow/Herzonja are unreachable), they might be able to get someone like Justin Anderson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson or maybe Kevon Looney (although not a strong defender at this point).

 

[trojanfan12]

Batum, or moving up in the draft to get a 3&D SF type. Depending on how far they can trade up (I don't think they can get high enough for Dekker or Oubre, and Johnson/Winslow/Herzonja are unreachable), they might be able to get someone like Justin Anderson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson or maybe Kevon Looney (although not a strong defender at this point).

I would love to see them take a shot with Looney if he's around and they keep the 27th and/or 34th pick. If I'm not mistaken, he's projected to go in the 2nd round. I think he projects to potentially be the Clarkson of this draft, although I don't think he'll develop as quickly. With his athleticism, he could end up being a very good defender.

I could see Byron teaching him to play NBA level defense first (maybe even bring in Michael Cooper to work with him a little) and then developing his offense along the way.

Like the Batum idea too.

 

[trojanfan12]

I'm sure Mitch and the Lakers have scenarios covered that include everything from trading the #2 pick to packaging picks and players to keeping all 3 picks, plus all kinds of FA scenarios based on all of the above on draft picks and trades.

Gonna be fun to sift through all of the rumors, 99% of which will be nonsense.

 

[Retroram52]

 

[lakersrule]

Mitch is going to be busy these next several weeks going over all the different ways they can go with these picks and such. The #2 in this year's draft is a very valuable piece.

lol at the Clippers sentiment. Have you seen what Doc GM has done to that team?

 

[trojanfan12]

lol at the Clippers sentiment. Have you seen what Doc GM has done to that team?

Yeah, had to laugh. Dude says he lives here and gets "plenty of local perspective," yet somehow hasn't caught that the majority of sports talk has been about how to fix the Lakers, not how well the Clippers are doing.

Even with their best teams ever over the past couple of seasons, they pretty much remain an afterthought.

He must have also missed the cheers at the Dodgers Stadium when it was announced that the Clippers had been eliminated from the playoffs.

Clearly, the Clippers have surpassed the Lakers.

 

[lakersrule]

And I think the front office has recovered from the failures of the recent past. They are going in the right direction now with some nice young players and the draft picks. Not long people were knocking the Lakers for their lack of assets. Can't really do that anymore. Oh, and they'll be in the likely position of having ample cap space to sign a max player each of these next three summers.

 

[trojanfan12]

And I think the front office has recovered from the failures of the recent past. They are going in the right direction now with some nice young players and the draft picks. Not long people were knocking the Lakers for their lack of assets. Can't really do that anymore. Oh, and they'll be in the likely position of having ample cap space to sign a max player each of these next three summers.

I always thought that the "failures" of the front office were way over blown. People forget that this team won back to back titles just 5 years ago.

They went "all in" to try and get Kobe another ring or 2 before he retires with the Dwight/Nash trade and it blew up on them. But at the time, it was a trade that any other GM would have made and it was said that it put the Lakers were right back in the title hunt. I think everyone, including the Lakers, knew that if it didn't work, they were going to be looking at a couple of very tough seasons.

The only real "gaffes" as far as personnel moves were the Mike Brown and D'Antoni hirings. Mike Brown was understandable because the Lakers issues when he was hired were on defense and he was considered an excellent defensive coach.

Hiring D'Antoni over Phil was pretty dumb, but even with that, it had as much to do with Phil and dealing with all of the arrogance, ego, and etc. that comes with him.

Since then, they've done a good job of picking up a couple of nice young players, developing a couple of guys (like Hill), creating some good assets (almost out of thin air) and maintaining financial flexibility for FA signings over the next 2-3 off seasons. All while putting out a team that, while it hasn't been very good, has played hard and mostly been fun to watch.

 

[lakersrule]

I should have put quotations around failures. How about hindsight failures? I was fine with the player moves. Unfortunately injuries and Dwight leaving happened which helped kill the quick reload.

The hiring of D'Antoni over PJ was the real failure though. It was a sibling power play that really hurt the team. They are climbing out of the valley now.

 

[Retroram52]

I agree on the prevailing sentiment here. We are definitely on the way up and it'll be fun to watch the moves take place around the new young core of Clarkson, Randle, and Black who are all attending summer ball together this year. I saw a recent "fantasy" report at SBNation that the Lakers are actively attempting to move Hill and Sacre. Whether this is another reporter's wet dream or a reality-based activity remains to be witnessed.

 

[trojanfan12]

I agree on the prevailing sentiment here. We are definitely on the way up and it'll be fun to watch the moves take place around the new young core of Clarkson, Randle, and Black who are all attending summer ball together this year. I saw a recent "fantasy" report at SBNation that the Lakers are actively attempting to move Hill and Sacre. Whether this is another reporter's wet dream or a reality-based activity remains to be witnessed.

I'd say that virtually everyone on the roster except Kobe, Randle and Clarkson are potential trade bait. The only question would be what the Lakers could get.

I think that even the #2 pick (either the pick itself or the player they get with it) is even trade bait for the right combo of player(s)/picks.

 

[Retroram52]

I agree TJF12. As has been stated, Mitch has quite a few scenarios already planned. We will all have to wait to see what really does indeed transpire.