It's time for Kupchak to take a chance

PHOENIX — They have one of the most exciting players in NBA history.

They have the best coach in NBA history.

They have the best owner in NBA history.

Yet on the dreary final night of another dreadful spring Wednesday, there was one thing the Lakers didn't have.

A chance.

They did not have a chance to beat the Phoenix Suns.

They had zero, zilch, no chance whatsoever to beat a team that was far superior to them from the top of Steve Nash's messy head to the bottom of Shawn Marion's soaring shoes.

The Suns clinched their first-round playoff series with a 119-110 win and a four-games-to-one decision, beginning a Lakers summer with a serious question.

How does this happen?

How does an organization possessing arguably the three greatest forces in today's game combine for zero playoff series wins in the last three years?

Which leads us to the fourth wheel in the Lakers junker.

His name is Mitch Kupchak.

As the players cool after a 17-31 finish, the heat is on him.

After a season of futile acrobatics resulting in only two wins against playoff teams in the final two months, the next move is his.

Seven years after Kupchak has replaced the legend of the Logo, has he been suffocated by it?

It is time for him to make the sort of roster adjustments that show he is alive and breathing.

Kupchak is a truly nice man, accessible and accommodating, a great ambassador for the Lakers brand.

But the three consecutive Jerry-West built championships are history, and one of the longest honeymoons in this town's sports history is over.

Remember earlier in this series when Kobe Bryant said the Lakers need to become an elite team \o7now?\f7

Kupchak is responsible for the \o7now\f7.

After all, Bryant's window is closing, Phil Jackson's patience is waning, and Jerry Buss isn't getting any younger.

"I'm aware of the perception that comes with following someone like Jerry West," Kupchak said before Wednesday's game. "Maybe you'll measure up to it, maybe you won't. But I can't get caught up in it."

The rest of the league, however, has caught up with the Lakers, both in record and imagination.

The Suns look like Showtime. The San Antonio Spurs play like the Shaq-and-Kobe Lakers.

The Golden State Warriors are building like the Lakers used to build. The Denver Nuggets are bold like the Lakers used to be bold.