Los Angeles Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said he felt the organization did everything it could "within reason" to re-sign free agent center Dwight Howard.
Perhaps, that was the Lakers' problem.
The Los Angeles Times reported that Kupchak entered the Howard sweepstakes in the offseason knowing that the Rockets had the upper hand in luring the NBA all-star away from the Lakers, for whom Howard played during an unspectacular 2012-13 season.
"It wasn't a surprise. I had a feeling that Houston was a frontrunner, and whenever a player is an unrestricted free agent, anything can happen," Kupchak told the Times. "Clearly, we wanted to keep him here in Los Angeles, and I felt we did everything we could do within reason to show we did want to keep him here.
"Until the end, I kept up hope. I think we were as persistent as we could be within reason. I wasn't shocked but I was disappointed."
The two "within reason" phrases could be a referral to reports of a Howard inquiry as to how or when the Lakers planned to transfer the power within the organization from Kobe Bryant to Howard. The Lakers have publicly stated that they have no current plans of relegating Bryant to a lesser role.
Howard's inquiry, though it raised eyebrows, wasn't all that off-base. The Lakers, after all, stacked all their chips with Bryant in his battle with center Shaquille O'Neal after the 2004 season. Howard may have thought that the franchise could've decided it was time to transition the team to a younger superstar.
Bryant also is recovering from surgery to repair a torn Achilles' heel, and his return date for the 2013-14 season has not yet been determined.
"Obviously, we're all hopeful and we all know Kobe. When you guess on Kobe, he always tries to prove you wrong," Kupchak told the newspaper. "The reality is he's doing what he should be doing. He's making progress probably weekly."
Kupchak reiterated that the Lakers have no plans to give up 2013-14 to get a lottery pick in next season's draft. The Lakers have a first-round pick in 2014 after spending the last few years trading their picks to add to their championship-contending teams.
"In terms of the cycle that other teams go through, we're probably in as good a position as we could be," Kupchak said. "But there's a lot of unknowns. It's unpredictable what exactly is going to take place a year from now."
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