Kupchak Will Be Rewarded With Executive of The Year

The day Kupchak traded away Shaq, Laker fans wondered what he was thinking. When he traded Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins for Kwame Brown, LaRon Profit, Grant and a first round pick, Laker fans were calling for his head.

He was also criticized for drafting people like Brian Cook over Josh Howard and Leandro Barbosa, people weren't happy again with his drafting when he drafted Sasha Vujacic, but these decisions have made the Lakers the team they are today.

The first round pick the Lakers gained in the Butler-Atkins deal resulted in Jordan Farmar, who has developed into one of the quickest and most confident young guards the league has. The drafting of Cook eventually resulted in Trevor Ariza who is a key role player in the Lakers rotation. Sasha Vujacic has excelled this year and is a more than capable backup for Kobe Bryant. Sasha is shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc and has often been used in the fourth quarter, and has hit crucial threes to give the Lakers edge, more recently in the four point win over Golden State.

After the Shaq trade and Kobe contract extension, the idea was to build for the future with the vision of being a title contender in around four years. At the beginning of the 07-08 season this didn't appear to be happening. The Lakers still had no one who could consistently be by Kobe's side and play basketball at a level which would win them a title.

The Lakers are currently a top team in the very competitive western conference, and are playing well above expectations largely due to Mitch Kupchak's decisions. At the beginning of the season Kobe demanded Bynum be traded for Jason Kidd, but Kupchak held onto Bynum who is now averaging 13.1 pts 10.2 rebs and a handy 2.06 blocks per game.

Kobe then demanded to be traded himself, but again Kupchak declined and held onto Kobe. Bryant is now playing some of the best basketball of his career at the moment alongside the much improved Bynum.
 
Then came the deal that clinched the executive of the year award for Kupchak, Kwame Brown and Javaris Crittenton for Pau Gasol. He traded away a center who cant catch and is soft defensively, a guard who has potential but has yet to prove it, and in return he got Pau Gasol.

From a stats point of view, Brown and Crttenton average 9.7 points and 6.7 rebounds together, put this against Pau Gasol's 18.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and three assists and it would seem the Lakers robbed the Grizzlies. But both teams are happy with the result, Memphis got Brown's nine million dollars expiring contract and the Lakers got an all star to play alongside Kobe.

Sure there was the Shaq trade, the Kidd trade and also the the three team trade between Cleavland, Chicago and Seattle this season but none come close to what Kupchak has done.

He managed to gain an All Star without giving up one of his top 10 players, this alone should mean he gets the award. After years of the public and press criticizing Kupchak, it seems that this year he will be rewarded possibly with a championship and at the very least the executive of the year award.