미치 컵첵과의 인터뷰

다음 글은 레이커스 공식홈피에 있는 미치 컵첵과의 인터뷰입니다. 시즌의 약 1/3 정도 소화한 시점에서의 인터뷰인데요. 인터뷰 날짜는 1월 3일(현지시각)로 되어 있습니다. Talk about the process of eval‎uating and then acquiring Trevor Ariza. We’ve known Trevor since his days at UCLA, although he only played there one year. He had a great first year in New York as a second round draft choice. He kind of established some credibility as a player that wasn’t drafted in the first round, but belonged in the NBA as a young player. He was traded to Orlando, where we watched him play a year ago, so we were familiar with him as a player. Although he’s young and developing, you don’t know if they’re going to continue to develop or if they’re going to level out, but we know Trevor very well. This year I think the addition of Rashard Lewis affected how much playing time he might get and his development there—which made him expendable to the Orlando Magic. From our point of view we thought we had some duplication in our roster with Brian Cook and Vladimir Radmanovic both being big players that primarily are shooters. One of the other would probably get in the game, but not both. We felt that with 13 players, excluding Coby Karl & Javaris Crittenton who are rookies, we probably had at least one player too many who would want to play. The rookies want to play, but they understand if they don’t. Veterans really don’t understand why they’re not playing. So another reason for doing the deal was to cut our roster from 15 to 14 and make it easier and more manageable for our coaches when determining playing time. A lot of times an unhappy player can affect a locker room, although I can’t imagine that happening with Brian Cook or Mo Evans—they’re both professionals and were very liked on this team. We miss Mo Evans’ athleticism, but we feel that Trevor Ariza is just as athletic. He can score like Mo can score, but we felt that Trevor defensively can give us a little bit more and maybe had more upside because of his age than Mo Evans did. There was a byproduct of some financial flexibility down the road and we do have several free agents on our team this year that we may decide to sign next summer. Our free agents are Kwame (Brown), Sasha (Vujacic), and Ronny (Turiaf). That’s never a primary reason for doing a deal, but that was a nice side benefit knowing that we might have some more flexibility this summer. That in a nutshell is how we looked at the Ariza deal. How do you feel about Ariza's play with the team thus far? He’s started a couple games, which we certainly didn’t expect, and quite frankly I didn’t expect him to really get a feel for the offense for at least a month. So he’s already made a bigger contribution than I anticipated. Luke Walton being injured has been a factor. I would guess that Trevor wouldn’t start if Luke were healthy, so he benefited from some misfortune to Luke, but it is what it is. He did start a couple games and he’s given us a bigger boost than we anticipated. Ronny Turiaf was a force early, but lately has been used sparingly. Why? That’s just how it goes in this league. To start the season Lamar was on the injured list and we needed a player at that position. Ronny had an excellent training camp and he started the season and did a great job. About the time Lamar came back, Ronny twisted his ankle and went down with an injury. The time he ended up missing kind of set him back, but he’s in the process of getting back to where he was. We also have Lamar right now and Lamar was going to start anyway. We still look at the depth chart and see Ronny as a very integral part of this team, not only this year, but going forward. The bench was a force that carried us early in the season; recently they haven't been as effective. One thing I would point out is that Andrew (Bynum) was a part of the bench for the first 7-10 games of the season and I think he was a big boost coming off the bench and playing against second tier centers. When Kwame went down Andrew became a starter and we didn’t have Kwame’s services, so we no longer had Andrew coming off the bench with the rest of our bench players. We now have Kwame, I don’t know how that is going to play out in terms of who’s going to start the rest of the year and whose not going to start the rest of the year, but assuming nothing changes, we’re hopeful that Kwame gets to be a part of the bench and makes the same contribution that Andrew did at the start of the year. The NBA season is ebbs & flows and NBA teams will take note of a bench that is effective and make adjustments as the season goes on. Just like a player that starts out great going to his right, the second time around they’re going to take away his right and make him go to his left. Our bench is going to have to make adjustments because they’ve made some notoriety for themselves and there will be more pressure for them to perform. Now it’s up to them to make an adjustment and continue to provide us with a boost off the bench. How does that translate into the post-season, when the rotations get tighter? There’s no doubt that the game slows down and each possession is that much more valuable. Coaches normally take more control of the game, there are more timeouts, and the timeouts are longer because of TV. Players are not as winded and don’t need as much rest. You’re also going to play your best players, but you do want those players going into the post-season rested and healthy. That’s why it’s important to have a bench of 9 to 10 players during the year. If somebody does get injured they can step in and keep this thing rolling smoothly. That they can rest the Kobe’s and the Fisher’s , some of our older players, and when the playoffs start they are healthy and rested. I do expect in the playoffs a tightening of the rotation. You’re not going to see 10-12 guys playing in a playoff game, unless it’s a game that was decided in the 3rd quarter. That’s just the nature of a playoff game. But it is January and we’re not in the playoffs yet. Hopefully we will be in the playoffs and that’s something that falls under our coaches’ domain of responsibility. There will be a tightening of the reigns in the playoffs. 미치 컵첵은 아리자 트레이드에 관해 좋은 평가를 내리고 있네요. 비슷한 스타일인 쿡과 라드마노비치를 같이 데려갈 수는 없었고, 모리스 에반스를 잃은 것은 아쉽지만 아리자는 에반스에 비해 절대 못하지 않다는 말을 했네요. 아리자는 운동 능력도 있을 뿐 아니라 에반스 못지 않게 득점을 할 수 있다고. 그리고 우리는 아리자의 수비력을 높이 산다고 밝혔습니다. 아마 저뿐만 아니라 레이커스 팸분들도 미치 컵첵의 말에 동감일 겁니다. 그리고 이번 트레이드는 샐러리 유동성 확보에 도움이 되었다면서, 올 시즌 후 FA가 될 선수들(콰미, 부야치치, 튜리아프)에 대해 신중히 검토하겠다는 뜻을 밝혔습니다. 그리고 포스트시즌에서 좋은 성적을 내기 위해서는 선수들이 건강해야 한다는 이야기도 했고, 플레이오프 선수 로테이션의 타이트함에 관한 이야기도 했네요. 아무래도 플옵에서는 선수 기용폭이 정규 시즌때보다는 좁아지기 마련이죠.