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Why Mitch Kupchak remains the man for the job in L.A.

Kirby Lee / Image of Sport-US PRESSWIRE

Between Jerry Buss’ passing, the Dwight Howard situation, Kobe Bryant’s first real battles with Father Time, the uncertainty surrounding Steve Nash, Phil Jackson’s shadow and their worst season since moving to L.A., the Lakers are facing more questions about their future after the last two seasons than they have in maybe decades – combined.

But by extending Mitch Kupchak’s contract as General Manager now of all times – with the news breaking in the middle of another pathetic showing by what looked like a Lakers ‘B’ Team - Jim and Jeanie Buss are making it pretty clear that they still believe Kupchak is the right man to find the answers to those questions.

Kupchak already had “at least another year” remaining on his current contract, according to Ramona Shelburne, and with the way the last couple of seasons have gone, the team didn’t really need to do this right now. That they chose to is a testament to the faith the Buss family has in the long time Lakers' GM.

Given what Andrew Bynum has become since the Lakers dealt him to acquire Howard and what all of our expectations for the Lakers were after that trade, no one would say it was a bad deal at the time. Trading draft picks for a nearly 40-year-old Steve Nash doesn’t look good in hindsight, but Nash was in as great a condition as aging athletes get and no one could have foreseen a broken leg in his first week as a Laker, which would then cause lingering nerve problems for two years.

The fact is that it’s hard to find fault in much of what Kupchak has attempted to do recently, and his most egregious error during that time was probably signing Kobe Bryant to a grossly inflated two-year, $48.5-million extension that runs through the 2015-16 season.

Much of Kupchak’s luck in the immediate future will come down to May’s Draft Lottery. If the Lakers remain where they are in the standings, they would be in line for the No. 6 pick, with a 21.5 percent chance to land a top-three pick and a guarantee of no worse than a top-nine pick. Landing a great pick in this Draft class could potentially give the organization its next franchise player to eventually take the torch from Bryant, and with that young star, Bryant and a plethora of cap space to come (Kobe is the only player with guaranteed money on the Lakers’ books in 2015-16), few would doubt Kupchak’s ability to usher in the next great era of Lakers' dominance.

But if the Lakers end up with a pick that produces little more than a solid contributor, they could be in line for another terrible season next year without the benefit of a 2015 first round pick, as a top-five protected Lakers pick will go to Phoenix in 2015 as part of the aforementioned deal for Nash. In that scenario, the Lakers would head into 2015 free agency as a recent loser with only their L.A. lifestyle and history to recruit with – fine tools, but far from deal sealers.

In any event, Kupchak has succeeded as the team’s general manager through one of the best decade-plus runs in NBA history, first putting the finishing touches on Jerry West’s team architecture and then reloading years later with Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. The Buss family has now repaid Kupchak’s past success with a long term commitment that gives him the opportunity to prove he’s also capable of leading the team back to glory from a spot that is new territory for the Lakers – square one.

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