Let?s take an in depth look at one possible smokescreen that you might not have heard about yet. To say that this season didn?t go as planned for the Los Angeles Lakers would be a major understatement. This is the time of the year that their season is usually just about to begin, but not this year. Instead of a finals appearance they have now found themselves in the lottery for the first time since the 93-94 season. The sub par season has led to a declining attendance. An attempt to ease the concerns of the season ticket holders; management decided to hold a ?town hall? meeting on Thursday, April 14 for their season ticket holders. This was basically a question and answer period where the Lakers General Manager (Mitch Kupchak) was made available to answer any questions that were on the minds of the season ticket holders. As can be imagined, most of the questions centered on the loss of Shaq. It got pretty redundant. Once the focus got off of Shaq, Kupchak talked about the offseason. He said that obviously this is a very important offseason for the Lakers and that it will start and end with the upcoming draft. Someone asked about getting a better point guard through the draft and Kupchak responded by talking about how they are currently trying to decide between drafting a player that can come in and help out right away, but not have as much potential or drafting an unnamed high school prospect that has the potential to become a great player. He said that when they picture three years from now they don?t want to see this particular high school player in another uniform. One season ticket holder said that he got the impression that Kupchak has major interest in a particular high schooler and he thought that it was very odd how Kupchak responded to the question about drafting a point guard by talking about the risks/rewards of drafting a high school player. This should set off alarms for draft junkies everywhere. Either Kupchak has fallen in love with an unnamed high school prospect or he is trying to make everyone think that he is to use it as a smokescreen. Let?s examine this a little bit closer. Looking at where the Lakers will pick is likely the tenth spot unless they luck into a top three pick or lightning strikes and someone below them does. There is probably only one high school player that is worth of lottery consideration this year and that player is Gerald Green, but he will likely be gone by the time the Lakers are on the board. Add that to the fact that the Lakers already have Kobe Bryant at the shooting guard position along with five small forwards (most notably Lamar Odom and Caron Butler) and you can see where this high school talk starts to sound suspicious. Purple and gold in Green's future? Why would Green even be realistic? Kupchak was interviewed on Friday and was asked whether the Lakers would draft based on need or based on talent (the interviewer even joked that they won?t have to worry about looking at anymore small forwards). From an objective standpoint, any casual observer would look at the Lakers? roster and assume that they would select one of the many PG?s in this draft. Kupchak?s response was that the Lakers would draft on talent and not to count out them taking another small forward. He even made reference to the infamous 1984 draft where the Portland Trailblazers selected Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan because they already had Clyde Drexler. What about Green likely being gone? There has been talk circulating that the Lakers plan on trying to acquire one or two more first round picks, possibly by trading with Indiana for Jonathan Bender and their 1st round pick. That is good ammunition to trade up in the draft. Moving up and selecting Green would also fit into the Lakers (unlikely) plan on freeing up salary cap space for the summer of 2007 where they hope to lure Yao Ming or Amare Stoudemire to LA. This would be right around the time when Green should start to have an impact on the league, but would have a cheap rookie contract. Another reason why it works is because the two season ticket holders that I talked to both had varying opinions on this situation. One thought that it was likely a smokescreen, but the other thought that Kupchak was telling the truth in talking about their interest in high school prospects. Sounds like the creating confusion part may have worked, at least on the fans. Why is Green unlikely to be their target? I don?t think Kupchak will take a project in this year?s draft. He needs to get immediate impact from this player. Not necessarily for the Lakers sake, but for himself. His job security isn?t exactly at its all time highest right now. After what happened around the trade deadline (Jack Haley jumping the gun on a trade for Carlos Boozer) it is very likely that Kupchak will play his cards close to his vest. Also if the Lakers draft history is looked at since Kupchak took over the GM duties, there is a history of him using smokescreens in past drafts. In 2002 there was a lot of talk about the Lakers trading up to select Qyntel Woods. This story was made popular by ESPN Insider Chad Ford because he found out that the Lakers ?secretly? worked out Woods even though he was expected to go in the lottery. Draft day came, Woods started dropping like a rock and the Lakers had a chance to select him with the Toronto pick they acquired in a draft day trade, but instead used that pick to grab Kareem Rush. Rush wasn?t even their target. Tayshaun Prince was supposedly their actual target that year, but Rush fell on draft day and the Lakers thought his talents were too great to pass up. In 2003 the talk that surrounded the Lakers was that they were going to draft Zaza Pachulia. Mark Heisler and Chad Ford is how word spread this time about the Lakers being interested in Pachulia. The Lakers had two chances to select Pachulia, but passed on both. It makes sense not to leak a smokescreen every year because if that happens none of the other teams will take the leaked information seriously. So last year there was a lot of talk about the Lakers selecting Sasha Vujacic, and lo and behold, that ultimately became the pick. Chad Ford correctly called it last year, citing inside information and pointing back to the previous year where the Lakers showed a lot of interest in Vujacic at the Chicago pre-draft camp. Vujacic ended up pulling out of the draft that year. This year there might be a lot of talk of Lakers moving up to grab Green, or maybe even reaching to take Monta Ellis, but they likely have another player in mind. If moving up doesn?t work out, don?t be surprised to hear about the Lakers being interested in someone else (that?s not expected to go before their pick at 10) in hopes a team ahead of them taking that player so their target gets bumped down to their pick. That?s the beauty of positioning yourself in the NBA draft, and what makes it so hard to project considering that you need to get into the head of 30 different organizations and one unlikely turn of events throws off everything.
Man I don't know if I want a high school kid, lets draft him and trade him for a great big man. Hey we shold draft him and trade him plus our draft pics in the future for ben wallace and tashaun prince. if that happened we would be an aesome team.
