Kupchak an Ocean Away From Making a Big Deal

Mitch called. He was in Europe, and apparently not in hiding.

“I’m in the back of a cab in Milan,” he said, and obviously Laker owner Dr. Jerry Buss is a big believer in perks, giving his coach his daughter, Kwame Brown millions to do nothing, his general manager, Mitch Kupchak, a vacation in the middle of the season ...

“You’re not serious,” Mitch said, and I guess he does read Page 2.

“When are you going to do something to fix the season?” I asked.

“It sounds like you’re saying the season is broke,” Mitch said, making a point of saying he had just come from a basketball game. “I would say we didn’t have a good East Coast trip, and we were hoping for better.”

I would say Mitch sounds as if he’s running for office, doesn’t get the Laker box scores in Europe and is ignoring the real possibility the Clippers will be the team replacing the storied Laker franchise in the playoffs this season.

“For what it’s worth,” Mitch said, “we’re the second youngest team in the NBA, and I know that doesn’t go very far because we want to win now as well as three to four years from now, but when you’re that young, you’re going to lose some close games ... you have to be patient.”

I’ve never met a patient Laker fan. Maybe they are all in Italy.

“Our goal is to get in the playoffs, and I think that’s a realistic goal,” Mitch said. “Take a look at our schedule.”

Seven of the Lakers’ next eight games are at home, the lone road contest coming against the Clippers. The Lakers have 33 games remaining -- 21 at home.

“But don’t you have to make a trade [by the Feb. 23 deadline] to improve this team?”

“I don’t think it’s essential to make a deal to make the playoffs,” Mitch said. “If the season ended today, we are in the playoffs. And looking ahead, I don’t know why we wouldn’t make the playoffs.”

Brian Cook better remain on target.

“We would like to do something,” Mitch said, and reading between the inane quotes and shots at Mark Cuban the last few weeks, it seems pretty obvious that Phil Jackson also would like Mitch to do something.

Jackson has been calling for a third scorer for much of the season, apparently still considering Lamar Odom a scorer to go along with Kobe Bryant.

“If we want the team to get to the playoffs and want to get to another level in the playoffs, it might be essential [to make a trade],” Mitch conceded.

And what could the Lakers hope to get in a deal?

“Due to our age, probably a veteran player, who could help us in terms of taking some of the scoring load, making defensive plays -- big defensive plays,” Mitch said. “I would think a backcourt player.”

“That sounds like a big-time acquisition, and how do you swing something like that?”

“It’s tough to get a dominant player in this league,” he said, “without giving up a dominant player.”

And as for the salary cap, and its impact on a deal, “it’s difficult [trading] a young player for an old player,” Mitch said, and OK, so if that means Devean George has to go, I’ll get over it.

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IT HAS BEEN easy, of course, to criticize Mitch. He’s not Jerry West, for a start, doesn’t have the number of trophies that Buss and Jackson have, and for frustrated Laker fans, that leaves Mitch. On occasion Kobe takes the heat, and most every day it could be Brown, but then who brought Brown to L.A.?

It’s a no-brainer now to trash the deal, but I liked it when it was made, the Lakers adding youth and size at the same time, a huge gamble given the Slacker’s history, but just what you’d expect from the gambler who owns the team.

“It’s too early to evaluate [Brown],” Mitch said. “The one thing we needed was a big player and we didn’t need another small forward, and as much as we liked Caron Butler, we still think it was a good gamble.”

Funny thing, I’ve grown to like Mitch after initially considering him the Kwame Brown of GMs. He did his duty once Buss decided to split with Shaq, handled the Rudy T. fiasco with both candor and sensitivity -- through it all, his reputation taking a hit as the Lakers fell in the standings -- and I find it ridiculous now that some blame him for the Lakers’ plight.

That doesn’t mean that won’t change by tomorrow. The Lakers are a work in progress, and while I wonder if Jackson’s heart is in this for the long haul, the future really does hang on Mitch’s ability to make the right moves.

“You have to see the future, but can’t go so far out that the fans can’t see what you want to do,” Mitch said. “We want to do something, but you don’t want to take unnecessary risks just to get to the second or third rounds of the playoffs -- like giving away two or three young players.”

“Does that make Andrew Bynum untouchable in a trade?”

“I don’t want to get into specific names, but we think Andrew is a little bit ahead of the curve and we’re very pleased with where he is in his development.”

Tell that to Jackson ...

“I don’t think he’s a project that’s going to take four or five years down the road,” Mitch said. “We’re going to get something out of him earlier than that. You don’t find centers very often in this game, and he’s a true center.”

Sounds to me as if he’s untouchable, but then it was time to let Mitch go, “not much time here for fun,” he said. Oh yeah, try sitting through a Laker game these days.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.