Again, they had the best record in the conference and Bynum was putting up big numbers for a month straight before he went down. Those two did not work that well when they were on the court together. One's game always seemed to suffer. They probably would have made a move before the deadline if Bynum stayed healthy, just not for Pau.
So people thought Ariza was a scrub, yet Mitch deals for him and he thrives with LA, but Mitch gets no credit?
Vujacic was integral to their Finals runs. Udrith? Varejao (who's always hurt)? Duhan (dude has always been
)? You can't be serious with this.
Ariza/Artest was a mistake in the long run, but Artest helped them win a title and Ariza made a poor choice by leaving because he hasn't been the same. He'll probably be back in the offseason when Mitch re-signs him.
Lets take a look at some of the moves Mitch made over the years
He let the team around Shaq and Kobe get old. The Lakers lacked youth and athleticism, but he thought Kobe and Shaq were good enough to win rings on their own. He then made the same mistake years later with the Kobe and Pau teams. Even the years we won championships we always had one of the worst benches in the entire league.
Signed Devean George to a 4 year contract. What made this deal worse was he used the MLE to sign him instead of using his Bird rights.
Traded Shaq to Miami for Odom, Caron and Brian Grant. - Awful trade. We could have gotten a lot more for Shaq at the time.
Traded Gary Payton, Rick Fox and a first round draft pick for Chucky Atkins, Jumaine Jones and Mihm. (
That draft pick turned into Rajon Rondo.)
Traded Caron Butler for Kwame Brown. Then extended him to a 25mil/3yrs.
Signed Vladimir Radmanvic to a 30 mil/5 yr deal
Re-signed Luke Walton to a 30 mil/6 yr deal
Signed old washed up players like Mckie, Divac, Rider etc etc etc to contracts instead of signing younger players.
Traded our 2009 first round pick to the Knicks for a second round pick.
Signed a 30 year old Ron Artest to a 36 mil/ 5yr deal
Traded Sasha Vujacic and a first round pick for Joe Smith and 2 second round picks
Traded Lamar Odom and a second round pick for a top 20 protected first round pick. (Lamar was coming off the best year of his career. They could have gotten a lot more for him)
Refused to trade Pau after the Chris Paul deal was nixed. Turned down Scola, Kevin Martin, first round picks and Dragic for Pau.
Traded 4 draft picks for a 38 year old Steve Nash then signed him to a 28mil/ 3yr deal
Hired Mike Dantoni, Rudy T and Mike Brown.
How can we forget how he fukked up the 2003 draft? The Laker scouts had Barbosa and Josh Howard ranked higher than Luke Walton and Brian Cook, but Mitch went against what they said and still drafted Cook and Walton, because he thought they would fit the triangle better.
This fool wanted to draft a fat undersized power forward in Sean May 10th when Monta Ellis, Brandon Bass, Bynum, Granger and David Lee were still on the board.
He still passed on Monta in the second round and drafted Von Wafer instead.
calm down johnny Bravo....
