L.A. Lakers: Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf Must Go!

The rumor mills are churning their names over and over every day. The restricted free agents: Elton Brand, Corey Maggette, James Posey, Josh Smith. And the trade names: Kirk Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Ron Artest.

Every day, a new team arises that seems to have an interest in one or more of them. Whether it’s a press release from an agent or a call from an unidentified source close to the organization, those names keep popping up.

But there are two names that have not popped up. Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf.

Both are restricted free agents and both are Lakers, at least for the moment. But no one seems to have an interest in either one of them, aside from Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak.

So, if Kupchak is smart (or, at the very least, shrewd), he will take it that no interest means no other team really cares about either one.

Why? Probably because no other team thinks they are that good. At least not good enough to waste a mid-level exception.

Kupchak should look at that as a red flag before trying to sign either one or both of them.

You know the saying: "Silence is golden."

What the silence is telling Kupchak and the Lakers is "think again."

Yes, Vujacic had a decent year. He increased his points-per-game average from 5.2 to 8.8, and 8.1 in the playoffs. His three-point percentage increased from .381 to a very nice .437. But one year does not a career make.

This was his best year to date, but the problem is it may just have been the best year of his entire career, no matter how many years he plays in the NBA. What the rest of the teams are telling Kupchak by their silence is that they are not going to take a chance on Vujacic being a one-year wonder.

The same is true of Turiaf, only to a lesser extent, since he did not have that great of a year. In limited minutes, his points per game went from 5.5 to 6.6 and his rebounds from 3.5 to 3.9.

Even the both together are not worth the mid-level exception. But Corey Maggette is.

While it is true that Maggette has not committed to any of the teams that are offering him the MLE because he is hoping for a bigger payday, it is also true that he is looking to join a title contender.

Well, he need not look any further than the locker room across the way at Staples Center. He need not look any further than his very good friend, Kobe Bryant.

If Maggette were to join Bryant on the Lakers, that would give Kupchak the option of dealing away Lamar Odom. Since it would be difficult to trade away the long-term contracts of Luke Walton and Vlad Radmanovic, the Lakers will have a glut at the small forward position.

They could also do a sign-and-trade deal with Vujacic and Turiaf and package one or both with Odom to bring in another guard and a power forward to back up Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.

Maggette is the perfect compliment to Bryant, Gasol and Bynum. And he is not a one-year wonder, having proven himself over a number of years with the Clippers. This year he led the Clips with 22.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game while shooting .458 from the field and a decent .384 from beyond the arc.

Of course, Kupchak has had two great successes as GM: the Gasol trade and the Bynum draft. But he has also had a series of blunders. First off, there was the Shaquille O’Neal trade, which would have turned out okay. But then Kupchak turned around and traded Caron Butler for Kwame Brown, which was his biggest blunder of all.

So, what he does over the next 24-to-48 hours with regard to free agency will show just how good a GM he truly is.

I know Kobe Bryant said he would leave things up to Kupchak this summer. But maybe he could just twist Kupchak’s arm a little and point him in the direction of his good friend, Corey Maggette.

Then again, maybe the best Lakers fans can hope for is that Kupchak doesn’t bring back the aforementioned Kwame Brown. Fingers crossed, Lakers fans!