Reunite Kobe & West ? I've been following the Jerry West situation closely in Memphis and it appears West is leaning towards stepping down or retiring. The Lakers are in dire need of a spark, and with the past history of Mitch Kupchak, aka Mitch Cupcake, bringing Jerry West back as GM might be the answer. Since being in Memphis, Jerry West has lost some of his clout as the GM who did not make mistakes. His trades and draft picks have been questionable and he appeared to be less patient with developing players than he did with the Lakers. What he did bring to Memphis was class and Hubie Brown, and put together a deep team that thrived last season under Hubie. With the Lakers Jerry West built the Shaq & Kobe Dynasty and put together the coaching staff and role players to compliment the two Laker superstars. After his departure the nature of TEAM dissolved and West's presence was not there to help cooler heads prevail. The tension and inability to communicate led to the Lakers trading Shaq and putting them in their current state of mediocrity and poor team chemistry. Let's face it, Shaq was a better GM than Kupchak, and was the reason Malone and Payton agreed to play for the Lakers last season. There have been a lot of deals Kupchack could not pull the trigger on, one that constantly rings in my head was a deal sending Horry & Fox to the Hawks for Ratliff and Abdur Rahim. This was at a time when the Hawks were having a fire sale on their players and wanted the expiring contracts of Horry and Fox. Mitch could not pull the trigger and the Hawks eventually made a deal with the Blazers instead. Why Jerry West works? He is one of the few people who might be able to counsel Kobe into being the leader he needs to become for the Laker franchise. Kobe has been phenomenal, but still has not found a way to round up his supporting cast around him the way a Magic or Jordan did. West also knows what type of players Kobe needs to thrive in the league, and I'm sure he would love the challenge of rebuilding the Lakers around one of his greatest moves as a GM. With West at he helm you would not read headlines of players saying Kobe needs to do more. Those comments were ridiculous and gave Laker fans a true look at how dismantled the team is. There is also a strong possibility the Lakers do not even make the playoffs this season, and I'd rather see West scouting for talent than Kupchak. Of course this is a stretch and a lot of things have to fall into place, but I would enjoy seeing a change with the Laker's General Manager.
I feel exactly the same way shape and I think it would be probably the greatest move Jerry Buss could do. West would sign players, make the needed trades, and bring a new outside view of The Laker's to the organization and he really has an ideal of what you need to do to make a winning team. For example I garentee you this season we don't see anymore trades because Cupcake isn't ready to make any....we havn't heard any rumors all season of The Laker's are interested or The Laker's are talking to... nothing like that. Now if West takes the reigns again in L.A., I suspect a trade with Odom involved to bring in a high scoring, good passing, all star point guard and really get that Show Time back. Than he could probably trade away Grant/Atkins/George to a team looking for ending contracts to get cap room and than try and sign a player like Amare and hopefully roleplayers like Udonis Haslem (Love his play...would be a great pick up for The Laker's next season) Hopefully Buss realizes Kupchek is not getting the job done and we obviously need a point guard and this far into a season and we are rebuilding why arn't we hearing any trade talks to available point guards in the league? Ridiculous.
Haha, don't worry Shape...I've been keeping up with West also. I'm crossing my fingers for his return.
I've always been a fan of Jerry West. I was very upset when he left for Memphis. Hope he returns also
