Frustrated Kupchak Keeps Evaluating Team

Mitch Kupchak, who as assistant general manager and then the lead man helped build these Lakers, said he is not yet inclined to make changes, despite one of the worst five-week periods in decades.

Kupchak spent last weekend in Maui, where he watched a college basketball tournament and occasionally pondered the horrendous start by a team that once -- and perhaps still -- believed a fourth consecutive title was its destiny.

“You feel the frustration, clearly, of a team that’s underachieving,” Kupchak said in his office Tuesday morning. “This organization has always leaned toward being patient, versus making the move prematurely. I had a discussion with Dr. [Jerry] Buss a week or so ago, and we were talking about the team and the record. I asked him how he was doing with it. He said, ‘I’ve been doing things this way too many years to be anxious at this point in time.’

“But I have a job to do. As a group -- scouts, general manager, coaches, players -- you do have to look in the mirror and you have to say, ‘Am I doing my job? Am I doing the best I can?’ Our players have to do that, our coaches have to do that, our general manager, I have to do that. ‘Did I do the best I could do today? What can I do now?’ My job is to assemble personnel. So, I have to do that. Is this the right group?”

The answer, he said, through 18 games: “We don’t feel we’re at the point we can fairly evaluate this team. We may not be the team that gets us to the Finals or the conference finals, whatever. But I know we’re better than a team that’s rebuilding. Until we get to the point where we can fairly assess this group and how good it can be, then we can’t.”

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Samaki Walker (strained lower back) said he hoped to practice Thursday and play Friday night, when the Lakers host the Dallas Mavericks.

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TONIGHT

vs. Utah Jazz, 6 PST, Channel 9

Site -- Delta Center

Radio -- KLAC (570), KWKW (1330)

Records -- Lakers 7-12, Jazz 10-8.

Record vs. Jazz (2001-02) -- 3-1.

Update -- The Jazz has won seven of eight games, including an 11-point win Monday against Indiana, which had won four in a row.... Karl Malone averages a team-high 18.5 points. John Stockton, 40, averages 26.7 minutes, 12.1 points and 7.2 assists.