While much of the focus will be on roster improvement this summer for the Los Angeles Lakers, that isn’t the only area this franchise is building out. With Mark Walter officially taking over as owner of the team, there will also be an effort to build out the front office staff and departments, which includes hiring a couple of assistant general managers to work with GM Rob Pelinka.
“We don’t list and won’t start the precedent of listing all of the hires we do within data and strategy and analytics and scouting and medical scouting,” Pelinka said during he and coach JJ Redick’s end-of-season press conference. “We’ve made numerous hires already that just aren’t ones we publicly disclose. But there’s been a build-up going on.
“The two biggest positions that I mentioned is we will hire two assistant general managers, that’s the plan. One of those general managers would be sort of over player, draft and evaluation processes. That’s pro scouting, draft scouting, player development. The other assistant GM will be more on the strategy side, with the cap, analytics and data. Again, not that we’ve had holes in these places, we’ve got a great team of people that work incredibly hard. It’s just we want to add more to that for both those assistant GM positions. We have started a wide search and have begun interviews but haven’t hired out either of those.”
These hirings will be extremely important for the Lakers especially going into this offseason. It will allow for the franchise to really build out a full staff with people focused solely on scouting and development, and another on salary cap and data strategies that will ultimately help the team build the best roster possible.
The Lakers will have a lot of decisions to make as numerous important players will be free agents. Chief among them are Austin Reaves and LeBron James, should James choose to return for a 24th NBA season. But also players such as Rui Hachimura, Luke Kennard and Marcus Smart will hit the market as well and this new staff will all have to come together and figure out the best way to navigate everything to help the Lakers improve this summer.
Lakers planning full ‘rebuild and retool’ of staff and facilities
In addition to the hiring of two assistant general managers, Pelinka also spoke on the team’s plans to rebuild other areas of the franchise, as well as the practice facility.
“First, I think JJ and I are just so grateful to work under Jeanie’s leadership and Mark Walter,” Pelinka added. “Just the energy that he’s brought to us to kind of build this out, we have already started that reconstruction and have made hires in our front office and continue to develop new technologies in new areas that we’ve turned on for the Draft and free agency.
“A lot of the infrastructure is being built. I’ll be headed to the Combine, we will continue to staff out with assistant general manager positions. There’s a couple of those we are currently interviewing for and have done an extensive dive in that process. So those will be two key pillars that we’ll add this offseason. And then working with Lon Rosen, who is now our president of business, our G League team is relocating to a beautiful 10,000-seat arena in Coachella Valley. So what that does in our building is it opens up all of this space, and we have actually a space in the back, where we’re working in collaboration with some of the Dodgers folks to bring in a biomechanics lab, new movement lab, a recovery lab. Those things are super expensive to do and super thoughtful.
“We’re doing the planning with Lon and his team, 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 it and bringing it to the next level. So an ongoing process we’ll be doing throughout the offseason and hopefully culminating in and around the Summer League in Vegas.”
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