On Thursday, it was reported that the Los Angeles Lakers had terminated Joey and Jesse Buss, as well as several members of their scouting department. Both members of the Buss family had held prominent front office positions and played key roles in scouting draft prospects for years, and although the Lakers have drafted well over the years, they have also had several draft blunders.
The moves came not too long after Mark Walter officially purchased a majority stake of the franchise from the Buss family. Many have felt that even bigger moves could come in the not-too-distant future, and one former NBA executive encouraged Walter to fire general manager Rob Pelinka.
Via Lakers Daily:
“The Lakers won’t win a title in the Luka [Doncic] era if they keep Rob,” the former NBA executive said. “Mark needs to hire someone with a smarter basketball mind than Rob to run the basketball operations.
“I really liked the move of getting rid of Joey and Jesse. 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.”
The Lakers first hired Pelinka in 2017, and the belief is that team governor Jeanie Buss did so because he had been the longtime agent of the late great Kobe Bryant. While Pelinka has made some strong personnel moves since, most notably in the summer of 2019 when he put together the roster that won the NBA championship the following season, he has a questionable track record.
When Walter took over ownership of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, he made big changes in their front office, which included the hiring of Andrew Friedman as their president of baseball operations following the 2014 season. At the time, the Dodgers had been perennial laughingstocks, but since Friedman came on board, they have won nine National League West titles and five National League pennants, not to mention back-to-back World Series titles and three of the last six world championships.
Many Lakers fans seem to hope that Walter will make a similar move that will result in similar levels of success for the Lakers, especially now that the Doncic era is in full swing.