Since Mark Walter took over as majority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, the organization has expanded in different areas.
One thing Rob Pelinka made clear after the team was eliminated from the playoffs was that the Lakers would continue to add to their front office, particularly adding two assistant general managers to work under him. And it appears they have found their first one as they are hiring Rohan Ramadas away from the New Orleans Pelicans organization, per Shams Charania of ESPN:
The Los Angeles Lakers are hiring former New Orleans Pelicans vice president of strategy and operations Rohan Ramadas as an assistant general manager under president Rob Pelinka, sources tell me and @mcten. The Lakers have interviewed candidates to bolster their front office.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 25, 2026
Ramadas began working full-time with the Pelicans in 2024, first under the title of senior director of analytics and innovation before switching to vice president of basketball operations and strategy in 2025. Before working with the Pelicans, Ramadas spent 12 years working for the Aerospace Corporation in the engineering space.
While he didn’t start full-time with New Orleans until 2024, he was with them for seven years prior as an analytics consultant and also was a draft analyst with the Miami Heat in 2016-17.
With the Aerospace Corporation, Ramadas worked with U.S. Space Force and NASA as a rocket guidance, navigation, control, and mission design engineer. He is a native of Cupertino, CA and holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in astronautical engineering from the University of Southern California.
Rob Pelinka explains what he wants in Lakers assistant GMs
Prior to making this hire, Pelinka explained exactly what he was looking for in the Lakers’ two assistant general managers and how they will differ from each other.
“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,” Pelinka said.
“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.”
Considering Ramadas is on the strategy and analytics side, the other assistant general manager will be more involved with player and draft evaluations.
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