The Toronto Raptors came from being one of the worst teams in the league last season, to one of the hottest, and best teams in the East. Why? Because of their General Manager. Remember back when Rob Babacock was their GM? They were horrible. The owners saw to that and fired him, while bringing in basketball genious Bryan Colangelo as a replacement. So now look at where they are. It's time for us to look around the league and learn a thing or two from these successful squads. Hopefully Jimmy Buss figures this out in time to fire Mitch Kupchak and snatch up a better replacement, before Mitch wastes even more years of Kobe's prime. A good General Manager goes a long ways in sports.
<div class="quote_poster">Brian Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The Toronto Raptors came from being one of the worst teams in the league last season, to one of the hottest, and best teams in the East. Why? Because of their General Manager. Remember back when Rob Babacock was their GM? They were horrible. The owners saw to that and fired him, while bringing in basketball genious Bryan Colangelo as a replacement. So now look at where they are. It's time for us to look around the league and learn a thing or two from these successful squads. Hopefully Jimmy Buss figures this out in time to fire Mitch Kupchak and snatch up a better replacement, before Mitch wastes even more years of Kobe's prime. A good General Manager goes a long ways in sports.</div> This is a beat around the bush way to dump on Mitch. These two franchises have completely different circumstances and expectations. Brian Colangelo has done an amazing job with Toronto, but let's not compare him to Kupchak without looking at all the variables involved. Brian Colangelo has complete control over personnel moves, and has been given the green light to operate within his blueprint for this team. Kupchak doesn't have the same power Colangelo yields, he has to report to the Buss family and also PJax input. The Lakers have also been one of the worst at spending money on overseas recruiting. They've only now started to invest in building relationships to find overseas talent. Brian Colangelo and his father have a huge advantage in that area because they had the resources to scout talent and build strong relationships with the right International channels. You also have to understand, must owners in the league do not want to help the Lakers win a title. They always pose a threat because of their built in advantages being in LA, and having the reputation for being the best franchise in all of basketball. Everyone wants to knock you off the top, when you're the king of the hill. It's a lot easier for Toronto to make a trade, because more GMs are willing to work with them. The Lakers opportunities to improve have to be done via free agency, which we don't have cap space, and the draft which is a crap shoot because of our regular season success. The Lakers have to really gamble or give up a lot more to get a deal done than most clubs. Prime example is Kwame Brown. The Lakers took a huge risk to acquire him, trading away an All-Star, Caron Butler, and taking on a player with a lot of baggage at the same time. These are the only type of deals the Lakers have available to them.
Wasn' there a thread that talked aboutPhil Jackson taking on some type of GM responsibilities next year?
Never thought of it that way Shape. What if Mitch isn't really that bad of a GM? What if he's just doing what Buss family demands him to do? From what you say, it seems like the Buss family are actually the General Manager(s) of the team, but Mitch Kupchak just carriers out their action. All in all, this management must look at themselves and re-evalute this team in the offseason. There is no way we go past this offseason without making any changes
It's well known down here in SoCal that Mitch doesn't get final say. Jim Buss is the one that denied trading Lamar for Artest. Jim is the one who didn't want to acquire Boozer. Mitch pretty much gets the draft say, every other move is basically up to Jim and Jerry Buss.
<div class="quote_poster">Mamba Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">It's well known down here in SoCal that Mitch doesn't get final say. Jim Buss is the one that denied trading Lamar for Artest. Jim is the one who didn't want to acquire Boozer. Mitch pretty much gets the draft say, every other move is basically up to Jim and Jerry Buss.</div> From what I can gather, Mitch is the number cruncher for the organization. He's responsible for the salary cap rule intricacies and does some scouting and talent evaluations. I'm not sure how much say he has in the draft, Jim Buss is the one who wanted Bynum, Mitch wanted Sean May. It could be Mitch decides on the 2nd rounders for this team.
The Lakers have the necessary core to get better (Bryant, Odom, Bynum, Walton), it is the rest of the team that needs to play up to par. You cannot compete in the West with a point guard like Smush Parker (how is he our starter?) and a big that is prone to turnovers and silly fouls like Kwame is. Injuries could have played a big part in altering the way this team's season shaped out, but either way you look at it, the roster is extremely weak on paper and now apperently in practicality as well. I cannot see the Lakers going "euro" all of a sudden like Bahir suggested, but there needs to be some sort of change implemented. At this rate, Kobe's prime is going to be more or less spent fighting for playoff spots or being knocked off in the first round.
You can't just generalize the whole Raptors situation by saying that Bryan Colangelo came to Toronto and turned the entire place upside down. He's did an incredible job this offseason, but really, its been a long process that led to this point and it was initiated by Babcock. As shaky a GM he was at times, you have to realize that the situation he inherited was terrible (a capped out team with a franchise player who wanted out). Despite the terrible moves he made (the Hoffa pick, the Rafer signing , the VC trade), he at least deserves credit for realizing that the team was mediocre at best and needed to be rebuilt. And a lot of our current roster can directly linked to the previous regime (Garbajosa, Parker, and Fred Jones/Juan Dixon were signed because Embry traded away Jalen Rose; TJ Ford was acquired by trading Babock's pick of Villanueva; Jose Calderon was signed by Babcock; Joey Graham was drafted by Babcock). If anything, I think our amazing turnaround is more applicable to the 76ers, Pacers, Timberwolves, and Nets. Those teams aren't (in Philly's case, weren't) getting anywhere with the current roster and core and need to be blown up or at least retooled a little.
<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">This is a beat around the bush way to dump on Mitch. These two franchises have completely different circumstances and expectations. Brian Colangelo has done an amazing job with Toronto, but let's not compare him to Kupchak without looking at all the variables involved. Brian Colangelo has complete control over personnel moves, and has been given the green light to operate within his blueprint for this team. Kupchak doesn't have the same power Colangelo yields, he has to report to the Buss family and also PJax input. The Lakers have also been one of the worst at spending money on overseas recruiting. They've only now started to invest in building relationships to find overseas talent. Brian Colangelo and his father have a huge advantage in that area because they had the resources to scout talent and build strong relationships with the right International channels. You also have to understand, must owners in the league do not want to help the Lakers win a title. They always pose a threat because of their built in advantages being in LA, and having the reputation for being the best franchise in all of basketball. Everyone wants to knock you off the top, when you're the king of the hill. It's a lot easier for Toronto to make a trade, because more GMs are willing to work with them. The Lakers opportunities to improve have to be done via free agency, which we don't have cap space, and the draft which is a crap shoot because of our regular season success. The Lakers have to really gamble or give up a lot more to get a deal done than most clubs. Prime example is Kwame Brown. The Lakers took a huge risk to acquire him, trading away an All-Star, Caron Butler, and taking on a player with a lot of baggage at the same time. These are the only type of deals the Lakers have available to them.</div> Shape City = The Voice of Reason
