Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak: 'No regrets' in acquiring Steve Nash
Steve Nash is averaging 7.6 points and 4.7 assists in 10 games this season. (Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images)
The Lakers lost their franchise-record seventh straight home game Thursday night, 107-103 to the Thunder.
Steve Nash wasn't in the lineup, which Los Angeles has gotten used to in the point guard's two seasons with the team. Nash has missed 75 of the Lakers' 135 games in that stretch.
Still, general manager Mitch Kupchak said before Thursday's game he has "no regrets" about acquiring the two-time MVP.
"Looking back on it, which nobody can do, that's a different story. But at the time, we knew exactly what we were doing," Kupchak told Dave McMenamin of ESPNLosAngeles.com. "You have to recognize where you are as a franchise, and we felt we had a two-year window, maybe three, to go for a championship and that's what we did."
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Nash irritated a nerve in his back on Sunday in a loss to the Bulls. He played 17 minutes in a loss to the Jazz on Tuesday but couldn't go Thursday night.
"I feel terrible for him, I really do," Kupchak said of the 40-year-old Nash, who has played only 10 games this season. "Nobody expected him to break his leg in the second game and it's been one thing after another since then."
Nash is averaging 7.6 points per game, his lowest mark since his rookie year, and is shooting a career-low 36 percent from the field. The Lakers (18-35) have lost three in a row and 10 of their last 12.
"Some players would sulk and kind of get depressed and say, 'Well, I'm 38 years old — or whatever it is — and maybe it wasn't meant to be,'" Kupchak said. "But this guy has worked harder than anybody to get back and I just feel terrible for him, I really do.
"Someone who's had that kind of career, that's worked that hard, that came here to win a championship, something that's eluded him for years. But those things are out of his control and they're out of our control."
