The sweeping changes inside the Lakers’ front office may only be beginning.
After the franchise dismissed Joey and Jesse Buss along with large portions of its scouting staff, one former NBA executive believes that Mark Walter’s next move should be even bigger and involves removing president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.
“The Lakers won’t win a title in the Luka [Doncic] era if they keep Rob,” The anonymous former executive told Lakers Daily. “Mark needs to hire someone with a smarter basketball mind than Rob to run the basketball operations.”
The executive also made it clear that he supported Walter’s decision to part ways with the Buss brothers, pushing back on the long-standing narrative that they unearthed Austin Reaves.
“I really liked the move of getting rid of Joey and Jesse,” he added. “Everyone always gives them credit for finding Austin [Reaves], but Austin chose to work out for the Lakers and chose not to get drafted by the Pistons so he could land with the Lakers. That wasn’t some grand find by the Buss brothers. That was all Austin and his camp.
“Mark and Magic [Johnson] are super close. Don’t think for a second that Magic has forgiven Rob for all the backstabbing he did.”
Pelinka has served as GM and president of basketball operations since 2017, a tenure highlighted by the 2020 championship but marked by inconsistency around roster construction.
The executive pointed out that key offseason additions weren’t driven by Pelinka.
“Anybody could have made that trade,” the former NBA executive said. “Rob isn’t that good at his job. He won only one championship with LeBron and AD. He never traded for a center when LeBron and AD were practically begging him too. Mark knows that.
“If I was in Marks’ corner, I would tell him to part ways with Rob and hire someone who didn’t get their job because Kobe [Bryant] was his pal.”
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