Lakers ‘Never Felt It Was Realistic’ To Land Carmelo Or Lebron, Kobe’s Minutes To Be Managed
The Los Angeles Lakers might have made a push for this summer’s big free agents, but Laker management apparently never thought their chances were too high at pulling in either LeBron James or Carmelo Anthony. Instead of a home run free agent signing, Laker GM Mitch Kupchak says the team is focused on ensuring the team’s health, which means managing Kobe Bryant’s minutes.
Kupchak’s revelation came in the course of the Lakers’ media day, where the Los Angeles Times’ Mike Bresnahan says that, even without any big free agent signings, the Laker GM still set a lofty goal for the squad.
“Our expectations are to win a championship,” Kupchak said. “Expectations outside of this room might not be the same.”
Calling Kupchak’s expectations “optimistic” is something beyond an understatement. The Lakers play in the NBA’s Western Conference, which remains the toughest conference in the league, and is home to the defending champion San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers didn’t even sniff the playoffs last year, and the West has only gotten tougher, even as the Lakers have only gotten older.
Laker fans and management were hoping that the team would be able to pull in some new talent. With big names like Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James testing the market, the hope was that the Lakers could land a big talent to take some of the load off of Kobe Bryant’s aging legs.
Those hopes were dashed when Carmelo re-signed with the Knicks and Lebron took his talents back up to Cleveland. Kupchak, though, says that the Lakers never really thought it too likely that they would be ale to sign Carmelo or LeBron, even though they made a run at both players.
“Our expectations with either player just based on what we perceived the environment to be,” the Laker GM said, “we never felt it was realistic that we could get one or [both]. But if you try you don’t know.”
Kupchak left room for some hope for the Lakers’ near-term acquisitions, adding that the team “[will] get someone. At some point we will.”
Kupchak says there will be “management” of Kobe’s minutes, maybe even games played. Says Byron Scott will have the final call.
— Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) September 26, 2014
In the near term, though, the Lakers will have to make do with what they already have. What the Lakers have is an aging roster, with a Kobe Bryant that missed all but six games last season due to injury. Laker point guard Steve Nash has also been hobbled by injury problems, and both Kobe and Nash have only gotten older in the past year. Los Angeles also lost star power forward Pau Gasol to the Bulls, and there are seemingly few bright spots for a Laker team facing what is, again, an incredibly tough conference.
The key to the Lakers navigating that conference, according to Kupchak, is to manage Kobe’s minutes, and perhaps even the number of games he plays. This would put the Lakers in the same boat as the San Antonio Spurs, whose coach Greg Popovich is notorious for sitting his star players, sometimes to the chagrin of the league’s head office. Popovich has an aging roster to manage, and it appears that Laker coach Byron Scott will be taking cues from Pop and resting Kobe and Nash for long periods.
If Laker fans want to take any solace from that, they can at least look to the fact that the ceiling for such an aging team is quite high. The Spurs managed to pull in a championship last year, after all.
[Lead image via TopBuzz]
