Why Mitch Kupchak’s Extension Is Good News for Los Angeles Lakers’ Future

The Los Angeles Lakers are somewhere between rebuilding and epic uncertainty, but the one sure thing going forward is that there's only one man in position to turn this thing around.

And no, that man is not Kobe Bryant. Bryant needs help, and general manager Mitch Kupchak can give him that help. According to ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, the organization has "agreed to a multiyear extension" with Kupchak, ensuring that the Lakers' future might just look a little something like its past.

Successful.

This isn't going to be easy, but it's doable—especially with a known and proven commodity at the helm.



Los Angeles is about to embark upon two offseasons with loads of cap space, rare position for a franchise that's typically confronting luxury taxes. That means there will be plenty of personnel decisions to be made, talent to be evaluated, deals to be struck. 

Kupchak will be one extremely busy GM over the next two summers.

But he's also extremely well-equipped to get the job done. 

 

Winning Culture



Mitch Kupchak is unflappable. You can rest assured he's spent all season cooly analyzing what's going wrong and how to fix it. Some things will fix themselves. Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash will start the season healthy. Younger pieces will be more experienced, thanks in large part to a season in which they were so depended upon.

Even without Kupchak's magic, the Lakers will be better. 

But he'll have a lot to do with their ceiling and how rapidly they improve. Much like the best of college coaches, Kupchak is a recruiter at heart. He understands what it takes to bring in talent and put it in position to flourish. He builds it, and they come.

In his own modest words, Kupchak sees Los Angeles as a self-sustaining mechanism of sorts. The Lakers will acquire new blood, because that's just what...

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