Kobe Bryant said today the Lakers organization was “doing phenomenally well this summer” and praised general manager Mitch Kupchak’s efforts to rebuild the team after its worst season since moving to Los Angeles in 1960.
“Mitch has been rebounding very efficiently with some of the pieces that he’s quietly adding,” Bryant said, after discussing the failure to sign free-agent forward Carmelo Anthony and re-sign forward-center Pau Gasol.
“Now it’s my job to go out there next season and lay it all out on the line and get us to that elite level.”
The Lakers were 27-55 in the 2013-14 season when Bryant was limited to six games because of injuries.
The team made the winning bid for two-time All-Star forward Carlos Boozer on Thursday, acquired guard Jeremy Lin in a trade with the Houston Rockets on Sunday and selected Kentucky forward Julius Randle with the seventh choice in last month’s NBA draft.
Bryant said it was too soon to tell how good Lakers will be in the 2014- 15 season.
“We’re still trying to figure the roster out, so I’m not even sure,” the Lakers perennial All-Star guard said during a session at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills to promote the documentary “Kobe Bryant’s Muse” that is scheduled to premiere in early November on Showtime.
“We have some pieces that we’ve added to it, but we don’t have a coach in place yet, so we don’t know what system we’re going to be operating out of. Once we have that all assembled, then that’s when I really start going to work and looking at the individuals on the team and how we can morph together.”
