Comparing Mitch to West

Posted on LG.net on 1/11.

I am getting sick of all of the Mitch bashing, so I thought I would do an objective comparison of Mitch with West, who IMHO is the best GM ever. West resigned as GM in August, 2000.

Drafting
This is West's greatest strength. West was able to consistently find starters with low-level drafts picks. The ten times the Lakers drafted with a first round pick in the 20's, West found a starter five times (A. C. Green, Vlade Divac, Elden Campbell, Derek Fisher and Devean George), a bench player once (Mark Madsen) and four busts (Earl Jones, Ken Barlow, David Rivers and Sam Jacobson). With four mid-level (11 to 19) picks, West landed a HOF (Kobe Bryant), an All-Star (Eddie Jones), a starter (Anthony Peeler) and one player who was a bust with the Lakers but a starter elsewhere (George Lynch). West also landed a starter with a 37th pick (Nick Van Exel) and a quality reserve (but not for the Lakers) with a 38th pick (Ruben Patterson).

It is still early to evaluate Mitch's drafts, but he doesn't appear to be nearly the drafter that West was. In 2002, Mitch traded up to draft Kareem Rush with the 20th pick. Rush has had flashes of good play, but was eventually traded for two future second round draft picks. In 2003, Mitch drafted Brian Cook with the 24th pick and Luke Walton with the 32nd pick. Cook has become a quality bench player, but Walton is yet to earn consistent minutes. In 2004, Mitch drafted Sasha Vujacic with the 27th pick. Sasha has played only a few minutes in a few games.

Signing free agents
West did a great job of signing free agent that contributed for years. Perkins was considered only the fourth best player on the Mavericks in his last season there, but he was a key contributor in the Lakers '90-'91season (where the Lakers lost to the Bulls in the finals). Rick Fox was the Lakers starting SF for years. Signing Shaq was one of the biggest GM coups in NBA history. Brian Shaw was a reliable reserve for four years. West signed Travis Knight in 1996 and he had a very promising rookie year and looked to be a key reserve for years, but Knight signed a big contract with the Boston Celtics and then went downhill fast.

Mitch's one attempt at signing a prime free agent, Samaki Walker, was a bust. Given that the Lakers already had championship talent, Mitch focused on acquiring veteran talent at the end of their careers. Unfortunately, Isaiah Rider was a bust in 2000 and Mitch Richmond was a bust in 2001. Mitch signed Gary Payton, Karl Malone and Byron Russell last year, but Gary wasn't a good fit, Karl had a (apparently) career ending knee injury and Byron Russell never contributed. He signed Vlade Divac this year, but Vlade hurt his back in training camp and may never play for the Lakers. No where close to the master.

Signing undrafted players
Given his greatness at finding talent at the end of the draft, I find it surprising that West never had any success with undrafted players. Some of that is that the NBA draft used to be for many more rounds. The only ones that I can remember contributing was Antonion Harvey and "Pig" Miller. I believe Miller was found by Mitch. I used to wonder why other teams could find players in the CBA or playing in Europe or just not drafted, but the Lakers never did.

Mitch has had a steady supply of undrafted players (Mike Penberthy, Jelani McCoy, Jannero Pargo, Tierre Brown) who were on the end of the bench for a season, but only Slava Medvedenko has stuck on the Lakers roster for more than a season. Mitch's so-so is better than West's zip, but not a clear difference.

Trades
IMHO, West was bad at trading. West "good" trades fall into two category - where he plucked someone useful off the end of somebody's bench for a low draft pick and where his drafting skill made the trade. In the first category are three big steals. In 1982, West plucked Bob McAdoo from the end of the NJ Nets bench for some cash and a second round draft pick. McAdoo was the team's sixth man for 3 and a half seasons, all of which the Lakers made the NBA Finals. In 1986, West also found Mychal Thompson on the San Antonio Spurs bench for a a couple of journey men and a the 23rd pick in the 1987 draft. Mychal Thompson was the Lakers' sixth man for four and a half seasons. In 1991, West traded three second round draft picks for Sedale Threatt. Threatt started at PG for two years and then was a quality back up for two years. In 1994, West acquired the persona non grata Cedric Ceballos off the Suns bench for a 21st pick and he became an All-Star for the Lakers for two years. The only one of these types of trades that were a bust for West was the 1990 acquisition of Terry Teagle from Golden State for a 25th pick.

In the second category, West actually made a bad trade but his drafting talent saved it. West's first trade was in 1983 and it sent the Lakers marvelous point guard, Norm Nixon, to the Clippers for the fourth draft pick (and there was a bunch of other throw-ins on both sides). Many people at the time thought the Lakers got robbed, but Byron Scott was a brilliant pick. In 1996, he traded Divac, one of the top ten centers in the league, to Charlotte for just a 13th draft pick. He should have gotten three first round draft picks for Vlade. However, no one noticed the lopsided trade because he then signed Shaq and drafted Kobe. Another lopsided trade that no one remembers was trading George Lynch and Anthony Peeler in 1996 for a Vancouver second round pick.

When it came to trading players for players, West usually did poorly. His only big success was in 1997 when he traded the head case Ceballos and Rumeal Robinson for Robert Horry and Joe Kleine. He had three big failures - in 1993, he traded Sam Perkins for the hold out (and future bust) Doug Christie and "the human boat anchor" Benoit Benjamin; in 1998, he traded his starting point guard (Nick Van Exel) for effectively Travis Knight and Tyrone Lue; and in 1999, he traded Eddie Jones and Elden Campbell for Glen Rice, J. R. Reid and B. J. Armstrong. All three of those trades, he traded away prime players for players who never fit in or contributed significantly.

On the other hand, Mitch IMHO is a great trader. On of his first acts as GM was pulling off a four team trade, clearing the cancers left over from West's bad trades (Rice, who was about to walk for nothing, and Knight) and a bottom-of-the-round draft pick for immediate help at PF/C in Horace Grant. He also got Greg Foster, which he traded in 2001 off the end of his bench for Lindsey Hunter, who started 47 games for the champions. Once Hunter had fallen out of favor with Phil, he traded him to move up in the draft and snatch a player with potential (Kareem Rush) instead of the usual end-of-the-benchers. These were good but small trades, but this year was the big trades.

First, he traded Shaq for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler and Brian Grant. Shaq may be the most dominanting center in the NBA, but he was 32 years old, had battled injuries for a number of years and the Lakers HAD to trade him. Normally, teams don't get close to full value when they have to trade a player, but Mitch did. The Lakers got for Shaq close to what Orlando got for Tracy McGrady, even though McGrady is seven years younger than Shaq and McGrady didn't force the trade. Vince Carter forced his trade from the Raptors, and all the Raptors got were a washed up Alonzo Mourning, two bench players (Eric Williams and Aaron Williams) and two first round draft picks. When New Jersey traded their yound All-Star, Kenyon Martin, all they got was three first round draft picks. Based on those trades, Mitch did a great job getting two young talented players and a proven veteran for the Lakers.

Then, Mitch traded Gary Payton and Rick Fox for Chris Mihm, Chucky Atkins and Jumaine Jones. The trade originally had Marcus Banks instead of Jumaine Jones, but because Gary Payton was slow to report, the trade was tweaked to include Jones instead of Banks. Fox immediately retired and Payton was going to be with the Lakers for only one more year, so Mitch traded close to nothing. In return, he got a young C who is probably the fourth best C in the Western conference, the Lakers' starting PG and the Lakers' sixth man. It would have been interesting to see how Marcus Banks would have done on the Lakers, as would have given them a young, defensive minded PG that they need. If Banks had become a starter, Mitch would have traded the aging Shaq and the over-the-hill Payton for four young starters to compliment Kobe.

Overall
Prior to this off-season, I would say that Mitch had done little to justify the faith put in him by the Lakers. He did no harm, but he didn't help the team either. I kept being disappointed by his lack of success with draft picks and free agent signings. After this off-season, Mitch's strengths are clearer and they are completely different than West's. Mitch's strength is trading, where as West strength was drafting and signing free agents. Mitch knew he shouldn't make any big trades when he had championship talent, but made some great trades this off-season when it came time to rebuild the team. If West had been still in charge and he had gotten the equivalent of Rice, Reid and Armstrong when he traded Shaq, it would have taken years of great draft picks and signing free agents to rebuild the Lakers. I don't think people appreciate Mitch's wisdom in doing no harm when he had championship talent because he had to have been tempted to make some moves to establish his own indentity.

To me, Mitch has put together a team of tremendous depth. The Lakers bottom 5 of Medvedenko, Walton, Vujacic, Bobbitt and George could probably contribute on any NBA squad. Rush wasn't able to get any playing time on the Lakers and he has averaged 11.6 ppg in 24 minutes for the Bobcats. Mitch's style seems to be trade for starters, sign veteran free agents for holes in the starting line up (Divac was suppose to fall in this category) and use the draft, trade throw-ins and unsigned free agents to build a deep bench. If he can make one more big steal, I would say it is a successful style.

Despite Mitch's success, I think he still needs to make at least one more major trade. He needs to trade at least one, preferably two of our small forwards (Butler, Jones, George and Walton) to get a defensive PG, a quality back up SG and/or a defensive big. Many posters seem to think that Mitch can pull off a quality trade at any time, when the reality is that such opportunities come along rarely and take time to nurture. Also, he needs to learn how to sign quality young free agents. Mitch is not as good as Jerry West, but he has done a very good job of turning the oldest team in the NBA into a young team with lots of potential.