With the Lakers having a new majority owner in Mark Walter, change has been happening quickly in Los Angeles.
We’ve seen this in personnel moves, such as the franchise hiring Lon Rosen as President of Business Operations. There will also be other front-office additions, including the hiring of two assistant general managers.
Beyond these hirings, changes are also coming in the form of relocation and renovations. The South Bay Lakers are moving to the Coachella Valley so they can have their own stadium
and no longer play G League games at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo.
This not only gives the G League team more resources but also opens up the Lakers’ practice facility to accommodate some much-needed upgrades.
During his exit interview, Lakers President of Basketball Operations, Rob Pelinka, outlined what these changes will be and when they’ll be taking place.
“As you guys saw, our G League team is relocating to a brand new, beautiful, 10,000-seat arena in Coachella Valley,” Pelinka said. “What that does in our building is it opens up all of this space and we actually have a space in the back where, working in collaboration with some of the Dodgers folks, we’re bringing in a biomechanics lab, new movements labs, a recovery lab.
“Those things are super expensive to do and super thoughtful but we’re doing the planning with Lon [Rosen] and his team around that and that construction is going to happen this offseason. They’re going to be redoing aspects of the court as well. It’s a full rebuild and retool and it’s adding to the great things that are already here which have led to success but elevating and bringing it to the next level. So, ongoing process that we’ll be doing throughout the offseason, probably hopefully culminating in and around the Summer League in Vegas.”
It seems that Walter is copying his Dodgers playbook and making sure the Lakers have everything they could possibly need to play their best.
The Dodgers are considered one of the best-run franchises in baseball, and part of the reason is that they spend heavily to win in the margins. The Lakers can’t fully emulate the Dodgers because the NBA has a salary cap, but it’s good to see the organization investing in its practice facility this way.
These kinds of upgrades were unlikely under the previous regime, but now that Walter is in charge, he’s spending the way every fan hopes their owner would.
The downside of the G League affiliate moving to Coachella Valley is that they’ll no longer be working in the same building as the Lakers. That means that the synergy they had with the main team will be weakened.
Overall, though, this is a win-win for the organization. Both the main team and the G League affiliate will have larger facilities and state-of-the-art equipment to be the best versions of themselves.
These changes aren’t the splashiest ones that fans care about, but everything matters, and winning in the margins is how good organizations become great and remain dominant.
You can follow Edwin on Twitter at @ECreates88 or on Bluesky at @ecreates88.bsky.social.
