Hollywood Blvd News. – Los Angeles Lakers Edition
- Updated: July 11, 2015
It is no secret that the Los Angeles Lakers struggle when free agency hits. This marks the third season of woes and Mitch Kupchak has something to say about it.
Baxter Holmes of ESPN reports the following:
“No, not at all. It wasn’t demoralizing,” Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said on a conference call Thursday. “It’s a part of doing business. There are 30 very, very competitive NBA teams. All general managers are smart. They’re armed with brilliant supporting staffs, owners that are very successful, and it’s a very, very competitive market. It’s unrealistic to think in this day and age that every time you go into the free-agent market that you’re going to get exactly who you target.”
Kupchak responded to reports that the Lakers’ presentation to Aldridge, the former Portland Trail Blazers star, went poorly and that the pitch focused too heavily on branding and not enough on basketball. The Lakers tried to sell Aldridge on the marketing opportunities available in L.A., the Los Angeles Times reported.
“I don’t think the meeting was as bad as people have heard it was, nor do I think it was as good as we hoped it would be,” Kupchak said. “I would just say, ‘Live and learn.'”
“In that particular presentation, I’ve always felt that that player was really underappreciated, and my goal was to make him feel as appreciated as possible. Granted, at the end of the session, we ran out of time and didn’t have as much time to talk basketball as we would’ve liked to have had. It wasn’t as intimate a setting as I would’ve liked.
“On top of that, there was a team waiting in the hallway for us to finish. I think we accomplished the part about how much we wanted this player in Los Angeles, but the basketball component of it I didn’t feel was covered in depth. We did get a chance to do that two days later.”
Kupchak added, “We’ll get better at it. Our team will get better. We’ll be more attractive. We continue to have financial flexibility going forward. A lot of the teams that were presenting initially got a lot of credit for great presentations, and then, at the end of the day, I saw a clip of [Spurs] coach [Gregg] Popovich having lunch and then maybe a glass of wine with a player, and that sealed the deal.”
Kupchak also admits that the Lakers have some “great talent” but “they’re very inexperienced.”
What do you think about this Lakers fans? Let us know.
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