This is Mark Walter’s first offseason as the majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and he is trying to expand the team’s operations. Starting with the front office, general manager Rob Pelinka revealed that they are interviewing candidates looking to add two assistant general managers.
So far, no decisions have been made, but it appears Walter and company are doing an expansive search. The difficulty lies in trying to lure these candidates away from their current situation, so they are expressing interest in a few names from different teams, via Michael Scotto of HoopsHype:
“The Los Angeles Lakers have expressed interest in several candidates for their front office openings, including Timberwolves assistant general manager Steve Senior, 76ers assistant general manager Prosper Karangwa, Heat vice president of player personnel Eric Amsler, Jazz vice president of player personnel Bart Taylor, and others, league sources told HoopsHype.”
With the NBA Draft a month away, there will presumably be urgency for the Lakers to fill out their front office. Teams like to have vacant positions filled ahead of the draft, so that everyone is on the same page and hit the ground running.
A noteworthy name is Steve Senior, as he was a part of Minnesota building a roster filled with two-way players. This is something Los Angeles lacks at this point, as they need to bring in more two-way talent and try to stray away from one-way players.
Additionally, this is a big offseason where L.A. could potentially have up to eight free agents with Austin Reaves and LeBron James at the top of the list. There are a lot of looming decisions for this organization, so hopefully the infrastructure is in place by the time the draft comes around.
Timberwolves assistant GM turned down Lakers front office role
As mentioned, it is hard to try to pry someone away from their current position. Fortunately for the Lakers, they have an iconic brand and Los Angeles is about as big a market for all of professional sports.
So, L.A. needs to come up with a strong pitch to try and round out its front office. Farhan Zaidi of the Dodgers was tasked with placing calls for potential candidates and Senior appeared to be a key name.
Some time in May, however, the Lakers offered Senior the job of executive vice president of basketball operations and he ultimately decided that he would rather stay in Minnesota.
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