Mitch Kupchak critiqued Lakers’ first meeting with LaMarcus Aldridge

The Los Angeles Lakers had the number 2 pick in the NBA draft and selected D'Angelo Russell from Ohio State Thursday, June 25, 2015, El Segundo, CA. Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak discusses the selection of Russell with the media from the Toyota Sports Center practice facility. Photo by Steve McCrank/Staff Photographer

The Los Angeles Lakers had the number 2 pick in the NBA draft and selected D’Angelo Russell from Ohio State Thursday, June 25, 2015, El Segundo, CA. Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak discusses the selection of Russell with the media from the Toyota Sports Center practice facility. Photo by Steve McCrank/Staff Photographer

It turns out another prominent person besides LaMarcus Aldridge walked away unimpressed with the Lakers’ first meeting with him to open free agency.

That person was Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak, who echoed Aldridge’s concerns that the Lakers’ first presentation at 9:01 p.m. on June 30 in Los Angeles focused too much on branding and not enough on X’s and O’s.

“We accomplished the part about how much we wanted this player in Los Angeles,” Kupchak said in a conference call on Thursday, which coincided with the NBA lifting its moratorium. “But I don’t feel the basketball component of it was covered in depth.”

Kupchak also added, “I don’t think the meeting was as bad as people heard it was, nor do I think it was as good as we hoped it would be. I would say live and learn.”

The Lakers landed a second meeting with Aldridge two days later that focused strictly on basketball. But Aldridge still left the Portland Trail Blazers for the San Antonio Spurs. The Lakers also whiffed on their other targets in free agency. Greg Monroe chose Milwaukee over the Lakers. DeAndre Jordan initially selected Dallas before making a Texas two-step and returning back to Los Angeles to stay with the Lakers’ crosstown rival, the Clippers.

Yet, Kupchak insisted “it wasn’t demoralizing” that the Lakers missed out on their top free agent choices. Kupchak chalked it up to “part of doing business” in what he called “a very very competitive market.” It did not help the Lakers ended last season with the worst record in franchise history and elicited uncertainty surrounding Kobe Bryant’s health as well as a youthful albeit unproven roster.

“It’s unrealistic to think in this day and age every time you go into the free agent market, you’re going to get exactly who you target,” Kupchak said. “Your roster has a lot to do with your ability to recruit free agents that are established and maybe looking for a team that can win right away.”

Still, all of this marked the third consecutive year in which the Lakers failed to retain or attract marquee free agents, including Dwight Howard in 2013 as well as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Pau Gasol in 2014.

“Each summer is its own thing. For the veteran free agents, they’re looking clearly for a situation where they feel it’s best, and most of the time that’s to win right away,” Kupchak said. “In the last two summers, we were not a team, I think they felt and I would agree that we could contend for a championship.”

Still, Kupchak conceded having regrets on the Lakers’ initial meeting with Aldridge that last two hours just before he met with the Houston Rockets.

“I’ve always felt that player was really underappreciated and my goal was to make him feel as appreciated as possible,” Kupchak said, alluding to Aldridge’s under-the-radar status despite making four consecutive All-Star appearances. “At the end of the session, we ran out of time and didn’t have as much time to talk basketball as we would have liked to have. It wasn’t as intimate a setting as I would have liked.”

The Lakers presented a wide range of officials in the first meeting, notably Kupchak, Kobe Bryant, Lakers coach Byron Scott, president Jeanie Buss, executive Jim Buss and former Showtime Laker James Worthy. The Lakers’ meeting also included assistant general manager Glenn Carraro, senior vice president of business operations Tim Harris, team publicist John Black as well as representatives with Time Warner Cable SportsNet and AEG.

Kupchak also questioned the interior design on where the meeting took place.

“It was an awkward setting around a big table,” Kupchak said. “You’d prefer to have a small table and sit close to each other and look at each other and have a lot less number of people in the room. It was not intimate. But like I said, live and learn and we’ll do things differently next year.”

Still, Kupchak sounded skeptical any presentation largely factored in free agency. He expressed amusement that any notion of Spurs coach Gregg Popovich dining with Aldridge at a Beverly Hills restaurant “sealed the deal.” In reality, Aldridge joined a team that has enjoyed decades of continuity under Popovich and Tim Duncan and has featured an emerging Kawhi Leonard.

“We’ll get better at it,” Kupchak said. “Our team will get better. We’ll be more attractive.”

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Follow L.A. Daily News Lakers beat writer Mark Medina on Twitter and on Facebook. E-mail him at mark.medina@langnews.com