Lakers Rumors: Mitch Kupchak's Judgment of Gilbert Arenas Must Be Trusted

If you ask Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant if his team should sign Gilbert Arenas, he'll give you an honest answer.

"It surely wouldn't hurt," said Kobe on Monday, according to the Los Angeles Times.

If you ask any Lakers fan you come across the same question, most of them will tell you the same thing. For that matter, even those who hate and/or don't care about the Lakers will tell you that signing Arenas couldn't hurt.

But ultimately, it's general manager Mitch Kupchak's call, and he needs to be considerably more methodical with the transactions he makes. He needs to make sure the players he acquires can actually play.

That's where things get a little iffy as far as Arenas is concerned. The Times notes that Kupchak went and saw Arenas work out over the weekend, but a source claims the team "did not have serious interest in signing the three-time All-Star."

Since the Lakers apparently aren't interested in signing Arenas, it's easy to conclude that Kupchak was not impressed with what he saw from Arenas at the workout.

If that's the case, Arenas must have looked pretty bad. Like, you know, as bad as he looked when we last saw him in uniform.

Arenas was decent when he was with the Washington Wizards last season, but he proceeded to be downright awful after he was traded to the Orlando Magic. His field-goal percentage fell from .394 to .344, and he went from scoring 17 points per game to scoring just 8.0 points per game. Not surprisingly, his minutes also took a dive.

It was self-evident during Arenas' stint with the Magic that he's a long way away from being the player he once was. He's a shell of his former self, and there was very little reason for anyone to complain when the Magic decided to amnesty Arenas before the start of the season. He just wasn't good enough to be worth the money.

For now, it's apparent that Kupchak has drawn the same conclusion. As long as Arenas goes unsigned by the Lakers, it will only become more and more obvious that Kupchak doesn't think signing Arenas would actually improve his team.

No doubt some fans will cry foul, but Kupchak's judgment must be trusted here. It's easy for Kobe to say that signing Arenas couldn't hurt, and it's even easier for fans and the basketball punditry to say the same thing, but none of them saw what Kupchak saw over the weekend.

It seems that he saw a player who just can't cut it as an NBA player anymore. Kupchak could take a chance by offering Arenas a contract, but it's not as if there aren't other options. The Lakers have been linked to assorted other guards in recent weeks. Kupchak does not have to settle for Arenas as long as he has options.

As for Arenas, it may not be long now before it becomes obvious that he's out of options.