by Mark Stein
ESPN.com
Getting a Read on the Lakers
We've all seen this story before: 'Lakers swing for the fences and make blockbuster trade', but this has a different feeling to it. Two weeks ago, the Lakers make a deal to get Jason Kidd to run the offense to replace the maligned championship winning point guard Jason Williams. then last night, the Lakers pull off a 5 person deal that sends they're near guarantee'd top 10 pick for Defensive stalwarts Jermaine O'Neal and Shane Battier. With these recent trades, a lot of fans are confused with the direction of the Lakers, and i'm here to hopefully clear some of it up. In my recent interview with GM: Mitch Kupcheck I asked a few questions to kind of get in line with his thinking.
Why the Jason Kidd deal?
"We felt at the beginning of the season we were in line to be contenders again. We saw a lot of the teams in the West, and felt we could compete with any of them. As the season prgressed and as injuries mounted we realized we need a little more firepower to get us through the final push without our other big star. On a larger scale, we brought Jason in to shore up our perimeter defense which had been terrible up until that point. Jason's a leader in the locker room and we felt like it was a good move."
What was the thinking with adding O'Neal, Battier and House?
"Believe it or not, at the beginning of the season we had a vision of this team being more in the mold of the 76ers than the Dallas Mavericks. No disrespect to the Mavs who've put a very good product on the court, and if I were to be honest, a better product than us. Our vision was to have a defense for the ages and let our two stars, T Mac and Duncan do the heavy lifting on offense, something we didn't believe the 6ers had. With those two (Duncan and McGrady) you never have to worry about taking too many shots because they're so unselfish. "
"As the season moved on we realized not only did we miss the bullseye on our target, but we missed the whole target with our vision. There's a lot of people who wouldn't admit they were wrong and would see how it played out, but we have a directive by ownership to always be in the contender's conversation, so we pulled the trigger. We also promised tim Duncan during sign and trade talks that we'd always keep the team relevant and never fade into obsurity. We intended to keep our promise and we now think we have the foundation to realize our vision on the court."
Did the state of the Western Conference play into these moves?
"Absolutely. there are some teams that are rebuilding right now and there are a few teams on the cusp of being good enough to make it to the finals, but no sure thing. We felt if we stacked the deck, no matter the seed we'd have a chance to make it back to the finals. We also made the move so we could match-up a little better with the best in the West. when you look at the top 4 seeds right now, what do you see? Stacked at the 3 position. Seattle: Al Harrington Memphis: Joe Johnson Houston: Carmello Anthony Dallas: Jamison. you have to be able to defend the 3 well to make it in the playoffs. "
Where does Josh childress fit in?
"We were really excited to add Josh. Josh is a multitalented guy who can really do everything well. We can plug him in at the 2 or 3 and in some situations the 4. He's an excellent passer and rebounder for his position. We think with Childress, House, and Sheldon who's really coming into his own, we have one of the best benches in the league."
Was the First half of the season a failure?
"By our standards, yes. Even with the injury to Tracy it's a failure. We went something like 8 games under .500 during the month's he was out. Unacceptable. "
If you have any question for the Lakers GM, please ask away.