Considering how Mark Walter transformed the Dodgers when he took over, a similar evolution has been expected for the Lakers now that he is the majority owner.
This assumption was confirmed when Lakers President of Basketball Operations Rob Pelinka said the franchise would spare no expense building out the front office.
While Walter has had only a few months to work on this, progress has already begun. The Lakers hired Lon Rosen as the new President of Business Operations and during his exit interview
on Tuesday morning, Pelinka said they will also be hiring two assistant general managers.
“The two biggest positions is we will hire two assistant general managers,” Pelinka said. “That’s the plan. One of those general managers would oversee sort of player of player, draft and evaluation processes. That’s pro scouting, draft scouting, player development. The other [assistant general manager] would be more on the strategy side which is cap, analytics and data.
“Again, it’s not that we’ve had holes in those places. We have a great team of people that works incredible hard. It’s just we want to add more to that. For both those [assistant general manager] positions, we have started a wide search and have begun interviews but haven’t hired out either of those.”
Hearing that the Lakers will be adding two assistant general managers should be music to fans’ ears.
While Pelinka won’t say that the team has been lacking in the front office, it’d be hard to find many fans or people around the league who thought Los Angeles had a jam-packed department.
These additions will be a huge step in the right direction. By bringing in two different assistants and having one focusing on player development and scouting, and the other on the salary cap, analytics, and data, it means the Lakers should be able to dot the i’s and cross the t’s.
Pelinka won’t be asked to do it all, and others won’t be stretching themselves thin trying to cover all the bases. He also mentioned during his exit interview that plenty of other roles around the team have been filled that the franchise never discloses.
“We don’t list and won’t start the precedent of listing of all the hires we do within data and strategy and analytics and scouting and medical scouting,” Pelinka said. “We’ve made numerous hires already that just aren’t one that we publicly disclose but there’s been a build-out going on.”
It’s safe to say change is already underway and will continue this summer.
Once we find out who the Lakers hire as assistants, we will have a better understanding of their vision and principles. For now, the good news is the front office will be growing, and there will be more brainpower at the table shaping the roster and the franchise moving forward.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
