When the Lakers traded for Steve Nash and as they continue to pursue Dwight Howard, much has been made of their salary cap situation and their lack of depth.
Once the the Thunder eliminated the Lakers in the second round of the playoffs, rumors started flying immediately that the Lakers were going to trade Pau Gasol. Slowly the tide on those rumors turned a little bit when people realized how awesome a Nash-Gasol pick and roll would be.
Now, according to the Associated Press’ Brian Mahoney, the Lakers general manager and shooting guard Kobe Bryant are giving Pau their vote of confidence.
Twitter / briancmahoney: Kobe, answering a question … via kwout
First off, it is great Pau is getting a vote confidence from so many in the Lakers organization. He is consistently the guy that gets dumped on when things go wrong for the Lakers. He is the only Laker who matters that is actually going to get out and run with Nash and, of the current Lakers roster, he is the best fit playing with Nash.
Second, at what point is Kobe going to realize outside of some general respect for Mitch Kupchak, he has zero leverage in Laker personel decisions? He is locked up for two more years, may or may not retire after that and his contract is a big reason why Kupchak has to get really creative in acquiring new talent. Publically declaring Pau is not going anywhere is heavy handed and I am sure did not do anything more than make Mike Brown and Kupchak roll their eyes.
Between how outspoken he is in Laker personel decisions and his general desire to mimic Michael Jordan, is there any doubt Kobe is going to be a general manager of some team when he retires? He is an incredibly bright guy and seems to always have a vision of what he wants. Does that mean he would be a good at running a team? I have no idea, but I would bet the house I do not own that he is going to be a general manager one day.
