LOS ANGELES — One safe way to gauge how busy Mitch Kupchak has been is to check his hair.
When he really needs to get it cut, you know the Los Angeles Lakers general manager has been absolutely swamped.
That's how Kupchak looked in Las Vegas for the NBA Summer League last week, having jetted into town to study player prospects and also serve on David Stern's hand-picked, nine-man NBA competition committee gathering to discuss possible rule changes.
While in Vegas, Kupchak finalized most of the Los Angeles Lakers roster for the 2014-15 season, staying true to his April belief that numerous players who auditioned under Mike D'Antoni last season had proved worthy of being re-signed. The Lakers also hoped to retain some chemistry from the previous team instead of completely starting from scratch. Kobe Bryant, Jordan Hill, Nick Young, Xavier Henry, Ryan Kelly, Wesley Johnson, Steve Nash and Robert Sacre are all set to return.
Enough time has passed since the Lakers and D'Antoni parted ways on April 30 without a replacement being hired. In fact, many of the fans who wanted D'Antoni fired have forgotten why they disliked him so much.
Three months is a long time to be without a coach, but it's not a shock to those who are looking to fill the role.
The Lakers' approach all along has been to wait and see how the roster shakes out before hiring a coach, wanting to re-evaluate whether it makes sense to go a different direction based on what players sign. The composition of the roster now—featuring newcomers Jeremy Lin, Julius Randle, Carlos Boozer, Ed Davis and Jordan Clarkson—has turned out quite suitable, actually, for leading coaching candidate Byron Scott.
Scott considers himself a rebuilding specialist, someone who teaches and motivates, which is why he accepted the Cleveland Cavaliers job in 2010 when everyone figured LeBron...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
