The Lakers look to have made their first of two assistant general manager hires.
On Monday morning, Shams Charania of ESPN reported that the Lakers had hired Rohan Ramadas. Previously, Ramadas served as the Pelicans’ vice president of strategy and operations.
Dave McMenamin of ESPN provided a bit more insight into Ramadas’ past prior to even joining the Pelicans in an article on Monday as well.
After graduating from the University of Southern California, Ramadas spent more than a decade with the Aerospace Corporation before his first opportunity in the NBA with New Orleans.
“He’s a literal rocket scientist,” a Pelicans source told ESPN.
While working for the Pelicans, Ramadas implemented AI and coded models to aid the front office, the source told ESPN.
Pelinka gave some insight into the roles of two general managers during his exit interview. One position was going to be focused on “pro scouting, draft scouting, player development,” while the other was going to be “cap, analytics and data.” Given the little we know about Ramadas from McMenamin’s article and his previous job title, this definitely looks to be the latter of the two roles.
While it shouldn’t be surprising given his roles, there isn’t a lot out there about Ramadas during his time with the Pelicans. All that’s really been reported or released is that he was elevated to the role of Senior Director of Analytics and Innovation with New Orleans in 2024.
Here’s what they had to say about Ramadas in that press release:
Ramadas enters his eighth season with New Orleans, his first full-time season after spending seven years as an analytics consultant. Prior to working with the Pelicans, Ramadas was a draft analyst with the Miami Heat in 2016-17. Ramadas has spent the past twelve years supporting the Aerospace Corporation, U.S. Space Force, and NASA as a rocket guidance, navigation, control, and mission design engineer. A native of Cupertino, CA, Ramadas holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in astronautical engineering from the University of Southern California.
However much or little is known about Ramadas, his hiring is another sign of the makeover the front office is going to undergo this summer. Importantly, it’s an outside voice coming in, which is a rarity in this front office.
It’s a sign of what is to come with the Lakers and should lead to excitement about the future.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
