The Los Angeles Lakers have underwent some major changes over the last year with Jeanie and the Buss family selling their majority ownership stake to Mark Walter, who also owns the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Walter has had a lot of success with the Dodgers, winning three of the last six World Series’, and now will look to do the same with the Lakers.
In order for that to be possible though, some changes are needed. When Walter took over the Dodgers, he invested heavily in the infrastructure of the organization, building an exceptional front office with the brightest minds in the sport, led by Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi, as well as other departments like scouting and analytics.
The Lakers, on the other hand, have had one of the smallest front office and scouting departments in recent years, which is part of why they have often been losing on the margins.
It appears that is set to change though as according to Dan Woike of The Athletic, the Lakers are planning to add to their front office this offseason to model the organization after the Dodgers:
The summer presents an opportunity, armed with significant cap flexibility, to start building the necessary components of a modern front office and reap early benefits. League sources say that includes significant hires to a wide range of front-office positions this summer, with the Lakers expected to model their front office after the World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers.
“It’s going to be scary,” one rival executive said when asked about the potential of the built-out front office the Lakers are expected to assemble.
It is worth noting that Walter has also invested a lot into the Dodgers’ roster over the years, signing numerous big-name free agents. MLB does not have a salary cap so that type of spending can’t be replicated for the Lakers, although they will be going into the offseason with a ton of assets and cap space to improve the roster.
How they use those assets and cap space will be vital though, which is why Walter wants to bring in more smart people to help Rob Pelinka run the front office. Who they target will be interesting to see, but it appears some big changes are on the horizon for the Lakers to get them back to a point where they are consistently competing for championships.
Dodgers executive Andrew Friedman outlines involvement with Lakers
Friedman has done an incredible job building the Dodgers into a juggernaut, and now he is trying to help do the same with the Lakers. Both Friedman and Zaidi have been consulting for Pelinka and the Lakers, and the former recently detailed what that entails.
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