The Gasol trade..

[21_Blessings]

minus Robinson

Holding him out longer than he should have been - all class.

Tanking got ya 4 rings (*2 though). The Spurs should get back to what they're good at. Building a championship squad through clever front office manuevers isn't their strong suit as we saw with Scola.

[Giuseppe]

It's your sandwich, Lefty.

Chow!

[Giuseppe]

Building a championship squad through clever front office manuevers isn't their strong suit as we saw with Scola.

Ouch!

[z0sa]

Tanking got ya 4 rings (*2 though). The Spurs should get back to what they're good at. Building a championship squad through clever front office manuevers isn't their strong suit as we saw with Scola.

Yeah dude.. we tanked for Parker and Manu. Drafting them was not a clever FO "maneuver" whatsoever. Or the Malik trade for Nazr.. that wasn't worth a damn and didn't have immediate ramifications like a won le or anything..

[HarlemHeat37]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ankings/3.html

Mitch Kupchak is ranked as the 23rd best GM in the NBA at that time, 2007..

This is from the article:

Despite two rings as the standalone boss in L.A., Kupchak hasn't made many solid moves. He's shown a lack of understanding for how his coach's triangle offense works by adding misfits like Isaiah Rider, Mitch Richmond, Slava Medvedenko and Kwame Brown. Save for 2003, he couldn't cash in on all the semi-stars who would have loved to play alongside Shaq and Kobe Bryant and for Jackson. The O'Neal trade, while needed, set the Lakers back mainly because they actually took on more salary than O'Neal would have cost them -- O'Neal's Lakers contract would have come off the books in 2006, while Brian Grant's deal (acquired for Shaq) won't come off the ledger until this summer. Trading Caron Butler for Brown seems almost comical at this point, and Kupchak's moves have so frustrated Bryant that his pleas for a trade have actually fallen on sympathetic ears.

Any addition of a star will cost them at least Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, making any move a lateral one at best. The Lakers don't appear willing to make the right move -- trading Bryant for a series of talented, low-cost parts -- and it's hard to see just how this team is going to improve should it hold serve.

So Kupchak found a way to defy logic and get a star player without having to give up either guy?!..this guy is amazing, TBH..

http://forums.lakersground.net/viewt...er=asc&start=0

This is the reaction to the article on LG, most of them actually think he's ranked too high on the list..

Those are just 2 quick links..

So again, I'm curious..how does a guy that Laker fans and the media considered to be one of the worst GMs in the NBA pull of a trade that completely changed NBA history?..one of the top 5 most important trades in NBA history..

I'm just wondering if anybody knows what he did during that off-season or whatever..did he read a lot of books about being a GM or something?..

Why isn't he talked about more?..amazing..

[lefty]

Holding him out longer than he should have been - all class.

Tanking got ya 4 rings (*2 though). The Spurs should get back to what they're good at. Building a championship squad through clever front office manuevers isn't their strong suit as we saw with Scola.

Spurs = class

[Jelloisjigglin]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ankings/3.html

Mitch Kupchak is ranked as the 23rd best GM in the NBA at that time, 2007..

This is from the article:





So Kupchak found a way to defy logic and get a star player without having to give up either guy?!..this guy is amazing, TBH..

http://forums.lakersground.net/viewt...er=asc&start=0

This is the reaction to the article on LG, most of them actually think he's ranked too high on the list..

Those are just 2 quick links..

So again, I'm curious..how does a guy that Laker fans and the media considered to be one of the worst GMs in the NBA pull of a trade that completely changed NBA history?..one of the top 5 most important trades in NBA history..

I'm just wondering if anybody knows what he did during that off-season or whatever..did he read a lot of books about being a GM or something?..

Why isn't he talked about more?..amazing..

Doesn't matter. This happened almost 3 years ago. Get over it.

[HarlemHeat37]

I'm over it, it's just a phenomenon that interests me..I'm a big fan of Kupchak's work, I'm just looking for some more information about him..

[Jelloisjigglin]

I'm over it, it's just a phenomenon that interests me..I'm a big fan of Kupchak's work, I'm just looking for some more information about him..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Kupchak

Glad i could help.

[21_Blessings]

2007 trade to obtain Trevor Ariza for Brian Cook and Maurice Evans

[SomeCallMeTim]

BTW, serious question..how did Mitch Kupchak become such an amazing GM in that year?..he was making some ty moves before the Gasol trade, how exactly did he find the ability to pull off a trade like that?..

No trolling, just curious, since Laker fans obviously know more about it than I do..

That's a good question, actually.

Not that I have a great answer other than Kupchak was somewhat underrated -- maybe a little overrated now.

I think the larger truth illustrated by this and the opposite trajectory to the results of Joe Dumars over that time is that being a GM is really hard and they are judged on things that have a great deal of uncertainty.

Philip Roth once wrote something to the effect of "History is the writing down as inevitable that which was completely in doubt at the time." I think that's a succinctly as one can put the notion that so much of what we accept as inevitable (that Darko would suck while LeBron would be great) is anything but. GMs make decisions all the time that will have consequences 10+ years down the road. Who can possibly predict outcomes like that?

I'm not saying it's all random, but luck sure has a lot to do with it. It's like hearing about a guy who invested a million dollars in buying homes in the 2000s and selling them 3 years later. People judge on results so if he bought in 2002 and sold in 2005 he was a genius... if he bought in 2006 and sold in 2009, he was an idiot.

[SomeCallMeTim]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...ankings/3.html

Mitch Kupchak is ranked as the 23rd best GM in the NBA at that time, 2007..

at being 4 slots behind Elgin Baylor. Ouch.

(For the record, I think it's almost impossible to judge Baylor's track record as a GM with that interfering, penny-pinching jerk of an owner Sterling he had to work with. He deserved sainthood for putting up with him.)

Yeah, perception changes rather quickly. Dumars #3 back in the good ol days before all his chickens came home to roost and he began signing the likes of Gordon and Villanueva to insane deals.

[SomeCallMeTim]

There isn't a single GM in the league who hasn't made some moves that make them look like a total idiot, BTW. Buford is accepted as one of the best in the business and he has Scola and Jefferson on his resume now. Kupchak's blunders are well-do ented. Daryl "Moneyball" Morley seems to have exhausted his genius label with Rocketfan here at ST in just 3 games already.

[HarlemHeat37]

Fair answer..I agree that luck obviously has a lot to do with it, too..

[lefty]

I'm over it, it's just a phenomenon that interests me..I'm a big fan of Kupchak's work, I'm just looking for some more information about him..

Olajuwon slapped him in 1986

[La Mont]

its never a bad trade for you when you get a franchise player of another team without losing any actual value.

[Jose Canseco]

A lot of luck. Danny Ainge was widely considered a failure of a GM before the summer of 2007. For that matter, you can include coaching with that too. Doc Rivers, despite his COY in Orlando, seemed like a bumbling idiot of a coach a lot of times before KG and Ray Allen as well. All it takes is one great move. If a GM/team is lucky, maybe they'll make a couple great moves or a great move and a couple pretty good moves. And it doesn't matter if that great move (or moves) is a product of shrewdness, ingenuity, luck, or foul play. You make that great move, and it can turn the tides of fortune for a franchise and the perception of a GM and/or coach.

It is, was, and always will be a players' league. Great players win in this league. Great coaches don't always win. Look at a guy like Larry Brown, who coached for over 3 decades before winning an NBA championship, but was for the longest time regarded as one of the best coaches in the league. It takes the right players, the right team, the right situation to win. Kupchak wasn't an idiot in 2007 and he's not a genius now. One move changes the perception, but the truth is that he's probably somewhere in the middle.

[LkrFan]

HarlemHo links a 2007 topic from LG to prove a point? Of course Laker fans were frustrated. We were wasting Kobe's prime with the starting lineup of Smush, Kobe, LO, Cook and Kwamay Brown.

Then MK waived his magic wand and netted the big Spaniard. And all is well in La La land.

[MiamiHeat]

It's simple

It was collusion. Mitch Kupchack got the credit for the trades and moves, but let's be frank.

Jerry Buss, Jerry West, and probably more Laker family members, began to work behind the scenes to get done :

1) Bryant wanted out of LA.

2) The Celtics just got KG and Ray Allen

So basically, LA was going to end up in the NBA lottery for the next few seasons while the Celtics dominated the NBA Finals.

This was easy motivation. Buss didn't want to lose Bryant and have the Celtics succeed at the same time.

I'm even positive David Stern had a hand in it. Reviving the Lakers-Celtics? Good for the league.

Mitch got all the credit, but it was ing obvious there was cheating involved behind the scenes.

[dastrey]

You guys don't get it. Memphis had to unload Gasol's contract for better one's in Zach Randolph, Rudy Gay and Mike Conley.

[DeadlyDynasty]

It's simple

It was collusion. Mitch Kupchack got the credit for the trades and moves, but let's be frank.

Jerry Buss, Jerry West, and probably more Laker family members, began to work behind the scenes to get done :

1) Bryant wanted out of LA.

2) The Celtics just got KG and Ray Allen

So basically, LA was going to end up in the NBA lottery for the next few seasons while the Celtics dominated the NBA Finals.

This was easy motivation. Buss didn't want to lose Bryant and have the Celtics succeed at the same time.

I'm even positive David Stern had a hand in it. Reviving the Lakers-Celtics? Good for the league.

Mitch got all the credit, but it was ing obvious there was cheating involved behind the scenes.

[MiamiHeat]

[Darrin]

Trade of the decade in my humble opinion.

Rasheed Wallace to Detroit.

[DeadlyDynasty]

[BanditHiro]

It's simple

It was collusion. Mitch Kupchack got the credit for the trades and moves, but let's be frank.

Jerry Buss, Jerry West, and probably more Laker family members, began to work behind the scenes to get done :

1) Bryant wanted out of LA.

2) The Celtics just got KG and Ray Allen

So basically, LA was going to end up in the NBA lottery for the next few seasons while the Celtics dominated the NBA Finals.

This was easy motivation. Buss didn't want to lose Bryant and have the Celtics succeed at the same time.

I'm even positive David Stern had a hand in it. Reviving the Lakers-Celtics? Good for the league.

Mitch got all the credit, but it was ing obvious there was cheating involved behind the scenes.

.