Lakers News: Mitch Kupchak Deserves Executive of the Year

Crown Mitch Kupchak the Executive of the Year right now.

Yes, the same guy who has faced much criticism since the departure of his mentor, Jerry West. 

He has been criticized for trading Shaquille O'Neal for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a first round pick. 

After evaluating the O'Neal blockbuster three and a half years later, Odom stands in Los Angeles, Butler was traded to the Wizards with Chucky Atkins for Kwame Brown and LaRon Profit, Grant retired and that first round pick has turned out to be Jordan Farmar.

It was said that Kupchak could have gotten much more value for The Diesel.  

However, Kupchak backed himself by saying its best to look at this deal four years from now. Now Odom has turned out to be a talented and versatile player who puts on close to triple-double figures each night. The Butler-Brown deal was not the greatest, as Brown has not been able to do anything for the Lakers.

However, yesterday Brown was dealt to Memphis in a deal that brought forward-center Pau Gasol to the Lakers. Finally, Jordan Farmar has evolved into one of the most confident and quickest guards in the league.

Kupchak has also been criticized for drafting people like Brian Cook over Josh Howard and Leandro Barbosa. His drafting of Sasha Vujacic was also scrutinized. Cook, though, like Brown produced Trevor Ariza, who is an integral part of what the Lakers are today, while Vujacic has blossomed into an excellent backup for Kobe Bryant.

This past summer, Kupchak was blasted by his own superstar guard for letting opportunities go by and demanded a trade. Bryant also suggested the trade of Andrew Bynum.

Kupchak talked to Denver about Marcus Camby, then had a deal set for Jermaine O'Neal and finally talked to Minnesota about Kevin Garnett. Neither worked out.

As a result, the Laker roster wasn't much different from last year as they headed into training camp with the exception of the re-acquisition of Derek Fisher.  

The season started and within two weeks, down went starting center, Brown, and Bynum came to the big stage. A day later, Cook and Maurice Evans were traded to Orlando for Ariza.

Bynum began to blossom and establish himself as the NBA's second-best center behind Dwight Howard. A week after Ariza had settled into Los Angeles, he started to become a key role player alongside Fisher, Luke Walton, Ronny Turiaf and company.  

The Lakers had climbed to the top of the Western Conference Standings.  Unfortunately, a few days later, Bynum went down with a knee injury and is out until the second week of March. A couple days after that, Ariza broke his foot in practice and also is expected to be out till mid-March. 

As a result the Lakers fell and last year began to roll on people's minds.  

Entering yesterday's contest against Toronto, the Lakers had lost five of eight and the pressure was back on Kupchak.

Brown was doing a mediocre job in filling in for Bynum and the Lakers needed West's successor to step up. And he did.

Pau Gasol was acquired by Kupchak to fill the void for Bynum and will likely slide to power forward when the 20-year-old center returns. 

Gasol will open the floor for Bryant as he will sit in the role he was playing earlier in the season and Odom, who is not a natural scorer, can go back to his comfort zone which is the third option on offense. 

Kupchak also has just single-handedly rescued the Lakers from free fall.

What I am waiting to see is how good this team will be. I feel it can finish in the top four along with the Spurs, Hornets and Suns.

The Lakers' expected starting lineup will be Bynum, Gasol, Odom, Bryant, and Fisher, with Farmar, Vujacic, Walton, Ariza and Turiaf backing them up.

Odom, Gasol, Walton and Ariza are very versatile and each player can be brought off the bench or be put into the starting lineup, so I look for Phil Jackson to be playing around with lineups and he is qualified to do the best job because he is an outstanding coach.

Nevertheless, Kupchak has done a solid job assembling the current roster and he has now put the Lakers onto solid ground after acquiring Gasol for virtually a point guard that never played due to the Fisher-Farmar duo and the ever-disappointing Brown. 

At the end of the day, Kupchak, along with Danny Ainge and Kevin Pritchard has emerged as a leading candidate for executive of the year. 

In my opinion, Kupchak has earned the right for the title because he has provided a major breakthrough.