The blowback from the unofficial, yet obviously done, Kevin Garnett deal is going to reach all the way across the country to Los Angeles. The Lakers, the jilted lover in this situation, have yet to do anything to make Kobe Bryant happy. Remember all of Kobe's bluster and idiocy about wanting to be traded? Well, the Lakers promised they'd bring in players to make the team a real contender, even in the loaded Western Conference. In lieu of getting a big-name player the Lakers have gone the "good PR move" route and signed yet another Kobe. Actually, his name is Coby. Coby Karl, son of George, who is the coach of the Denver Nuggets. Coby is a cancer survivor who averaged 14-4-4 as a senior at Boise State last year. He'll be in camp when it opens in the fall and would be a great story should he make the team. At this point, it's a possibility. Kobe is an Isaiah Rider survivor who didn't go to college. So we're sure they'll have tons to talk about. But only if Coby is as much of a people person as Kobe. This is already getting confusing. So where does the KG deal leave the Lakers organization? For the players, it leaves them nowhere closer to being a realistic threat in the Western Conference than they were before. Kobe has still got to be unhappy, even if he doesn't want to be traded and the rest of the roster is probably wondering if they'll have to deal with a pissed-off superstar for an entire season. However, the person now facing the most pressure, and this is by a landslide, is GM Mitch Kupchak. We'd like to say that we've been trumpeting his incompetence in this space for a while, but the Lakers have not been enough of a player in the NBA for it to matter. They have been mired in mediocrity since Shaq left. They aren't bad, but they aren't any good either. That speaks louder than anything else about the Mitch Kupchak/Post-Shaq Era. The team went from being the NBA's glamour franchise to a footnote, a seven/eight seed in the playoffs. This is all entirely Kupchak's fault. He hasn't surrounded Kobe with very much talent other than Lamar Odom. Luke Walton was already there from the Shaq days. The rest of the team is full of projects (Andrew "F--king" Bynum), rejects (Kwame Brown), random Euros (Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic), and no-talent nobodies (Smush Parker). The situation is very similar to Kevin Garnett's in Minnesota, except infinitely more frustrating because the Lakers still managed to make the playoffs because of Kobe's superduperamazingness. Even LeBron James, the king of carrying crap teams, couldn't get this team to the NBA Finals. The KG deal means that Mitch Kupchak had better get a deal done with Indiana for Jermaine O'Neal or it'll be his job and he'll go down as essentially the only GM who couldn't build a winner in Los Angeles (no, the Clippers don't count). It doesn't matter what the Lakers give up for two reasons: first, it's not like anyone on the roster, except for Kobe, is all that great to begin with and second because this is one of those rare times where a desperation deal where a team give up a little too much is totally appropriate. The Lakers are stuck in neutral with the current roster, and only something major is going to get them out of it. So get it done Mitch, you owe it to Kobe, Coby, and most definitely the fans.