Bryant gives Kupchak surpassing grades now

The Lakers aren’t even in the Rocky Mountains yet, but they’re already on a high, having comfortably won the opener of their first-round playoff series with the Denver Nuggets.

They stood up to the Nuggets’ strong-armed approach in Game 1, displayed a passing attack with a whiff of Showtime, and were presented a day later with some positive big-picture thoughts by Kobe Bryant.

Bryant continued on Monday to compliment Mitch Kupchak, saying the Lakers’ general manager had gone from an “F to an A-plus,” and also added some colorful texture to his thoughts on the franchise.

“I love our team here,” Bryant said. “I love what we’re doing here. We have a great relationship, we have great chemistry. We have all the pieces in here to make a run for a long time.”

Bryant said that he was “absolutely” open to finishing his career with the Lakers and that he had not thought about terminating his contract, although he declined to speculate when asked if he would indeed opt out after next season.

Bryant, 29, could terminate his current deal, a move that would leave two years and a hefty $47.8 million on the table.

Unlike last spring, though, when Bryant said he wanted to leave the Lakers, the 10-time All-Star could rip up his current deal after next season simply to re-sign with the team for more money. If he then signed a new five-year contract with the Lakers after next season, his first-year salary would be about $22.3 million in 2009-10, with annual raises of up to $2.34 million.

Bryant said he was content with the present-day Lakers.

“I’ve always wanted to be here, but I just felt like I was in a position where I didn’t really have a choice,” Bryant said of the tumult last year. “They wanted to go in an opposite direction. My legs aren’t as young as they used to be. But I love the weather, I love my ’63 drop-top Impala. I love the 405 and I love my guys.”

Bryant openly questioned the direction of the Lakers franchise during the off-season, but Monday he added another set of Kupchak kudos to a string of them tracing back to the team’s acquisition of Pau Gasol in February.

“He believed in the draft picks that he made, and he had the patience to sit on the Kwame [Brown] piece and pull off the coup de grace and shift a couple of players out of here that got along extremely well with the group,” Bryant said.

Bryant then elaborated on why he gave Kupchak a low grade in recent seasons.

“It was just rough because being here for three years and not having anything done, it got to the point that it was extremely frustrating,” Bryant said. “The talks that we had positively about trying to do things and be more aggressive and still nothing gets done, and then my best friend [Caron Butler] gets shipped out of here without me knowing, so it was just beyond frustration. Then [Butler] is an NBA All-Star and that really didn’t sit well. . . . It takes pressure sometimes to make a diamond.”

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The Nuggets threw somewhat of a curveball at the Lakers by putting 6-foot-9 power forward Kenyon Martin on Bryant in Game 1.

It’s not the first time, however -- Martin guarded Bryant when Martin was a rookie with the New Jersey Nets in the 2002 NBA Finals against the Lakers.

“He’s a freak of nature,” Bryant said. “He’s 6-8, 6-9. He’s quick, he’s long, he’s a great defensive player. It’s fun for me.”

Despite scoring 32 points, Bryant didn’t play particularly well in Game 1, making nine of 26 shots with one assist and three rebounds in 37 minutes. He had one assist only once in 82 regular-season games.

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Jordan Farmar tied for 11th in the NBA sixth man award balloting, picking up one second-place vote and two third-place votes. San Antonio guard Manu Ginobili won the award. . . . DJ Mbenga suffered bruised ribs after being kneed by Ira Newble during a scrimmage Monday. He will be listed as day to day. . . . Ronny Turiaf was sent home from practice because of a sore throat.

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