Lakers: Mitch Kupchak Assesses State of Franchise After Season

Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak held an end-of-season press conference that touched on a variety of topics

Fresh off a disappointing 17-win season, Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak talked about the state of the squad on Friday for 45 minutes in front of several cameras and journalists.

All eyes were on Kupchak, GM of the second worst team in the NBA. To his credit, Mitch kept his composure and answered questions about a variety of topics, including the growth of the team’s young players, the importance of building a championship-contending team, the status of Byron Scott, and more.

As the man in charge of a historically terrible team, Kupchak of all people understands that Lakers fans are not a patient bunch. Every year is expected to be a year in which the team competes for a championship. Unfortunately, the last few years have been a tumultuous time replete with disappointment and losing.

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Jeanie Buss, part owner of the Lakers, held her brother Jim to a three year timeline in which she expected him to turn the team into a playoff contender by next season. When asked about this immediate pressure to win, Kupchak acknowledged that decisions should not be done hastily just for the sake of speedy rebuild.

“This is not a process you can rush,” he said. “I’m going to encourage us to spend $60 million on veteran players to long-term deals that might only assure us mediocrity. That’s not how we sat down and decided to advance this team.”

Obviously, no amount of reps or time together will help the current Lakers team achieve contender status. Hence, this summer has largely been viewed as a potentially monumental one as the team attempts to rebound from a string of dreadful seasons. While it seems unlikely that marquee free agents will come to play for the Lakers anytime soon, Kupchak remained cautiously optimistic.

“In terms of players, we still don’t know the status of our pick…We had cap room last summer and we’ll have almost triple of what we had last year. Does it mean we’ll use it all? We have to recruit effectively,” Kupchak said. “We have the opportunity to use our money wisely. We may use it all, we may only use what we feel is prudent.”

Kupchak continued, talking more in-depth about the Lakers first-round pick that’s stuck in limbo.

“It would be great to get the pick. If we don’t get the pick, then we get the pick next year. So it’s not like we lose the pick. We just don’t get it this year, we get it next year,” he said. “Of course, the downside is,we don’t want to be as bad as we were this year next year.”

‘We have the opportunity to use our money wisely. We may use it all, we may only use what we feel is prudent.’

What the Lakers are guaranteed to have going forward, however, is their current stock of young players—namely D’Angelo Russell, Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, Larry Nance Jr. and Anthony Brown. Specifically, Kupchak talked extensively about last year’s No. 2 overall pick, Russell.

“Part of our challenge going forward is to find out how we’re going to best use talents,” the Lakers GM said. “He can score and he’s got a gift to pass the ball. A unique gift. not just a willing passer on an entry pass, but I’m talking about a guy that can see the court that nobody else can see the court. He can look one way and see a guy and drop a pass the other way.”

Kupchak then waxed poetic a bit about the options that they have with Russell moving forward and how they can maximize the talent of the 20-year-old guard.

“Do you convert D’Angelo into a passer and not utilize his ability to score the ball? Or do you want to encourage him to score the ball and not utilize his passing ability? I think that’s something that we have to as an organization and as a coaching staff decide how to use his talents the best way.”

The general manager also touched on the Lakers’ other young backcourt guard, Jordan Clarkson.

“Jordan, I think is more an attack player offensively,” he said. “I don’t think Jordan at this time has D’Angelo’s gifts. But I don’t think you can characterize either player as a point guard. And the way the game’s going now in the NBA, I’m not sure the best teams can characterize their players by position.”